Daily
Move issues that have stalled
Issues left in one status too long are moved back automatically, with a comment, and you get the list.
- Runs
- Daily
- Apps
- Linear
- AI
- Not needed
- Access
- read+write
Send this to your assistant
Create a ClickRuntime automation: every night, move any Linear issue that has been In Review with no updates for 10 days back to Todo, add a comment explaining why, and email me the list.
First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.
Why use it
Why teams use this automation
Linear boards fill up with issues that nobody is actually working on. A ticket moved to In Review three weeks ago still sits there, a Todo item from last quarter keeps crowding the cycle view, and the engineers read the board and cannot tell what is live. Cleaning it up is a chore that gets postponed until a planning meeting, when the team spends twenty minutes arguing over tickets no one remembers.
Each day, ClickRuntime queries Linear for issues in the status you name whose last update is older than your cutoff, say 21 days, and moves them to another status such as Backlog. It then emails you the list of issues that were moved, so nothing disappears without a record and anyone can pull a ticket back.
Engineering managers who care about an honest board will find the routine especially helpful.
What you get out of it
The board reflects real work
When stale items drop out of active columns, the team sees what is in progress at a glance. That reduces status questions in standups and makes the cycle view something people trust.
Planning meetings stop being cleanup sessions
The backlog is already tidy when planning starts. Time that used to go to arguing over forgotten tickets goes to deciding what the team will actually build next. Everyone can see what is truly ahead of them.
Nothing is deleted or lost
Issues are moved, not removed, and the email lists each one. If somebody still cares about a ticket, they can find it in Backlog with its full history intact. That makes the cleanup safe enough to run automatically.
Owners are reminded gently
Seeing a ticket get moved is a prompt for its owner to say whether it matters. It surfaces abandoned work without anyone having to send a stern message. Quiet work becomes visible without anyone being blamed.
Metrics become more accurate
Cycle time and work in progress counts are distorted by tickets that sit forever. Moving them out keeps your reporting closer to the truth about how fast the team delivers.
How it works
What happens, step by step
Every day, ClickRuntime looks for Linear issues that have sat in a chosen status, such as In Review, without any update for too long.
It moves each of those issues back to the status you picked, such as Todo.
You get an email listing the issues it moved, so nothing changes without you knowing.
Before it runs live
- Connect Linear
What you get
Build your own
Need it to work differently?
Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.
Changes you can ask for
- Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
- Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
- Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
- Combine it with other Linear steps into one automation
Under the hood
The code that runs this automation
from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
from clickruntime import on_trigger, http, credentials, notify
def linear(query, variables=None):
r = http.post(
"https://api.linear.app/graphql",
headers={"Authorization": credentials.secret("LINEAR_API_KEY")},
json={"query": query, "variables": variables or {}},
)
r.raise_for_status()
return r.json()["data"]
@on_trigger
def run(event):
cutoff = (datetime.now(timezone.utc) - timedelta(days=10)).isoformat()
issues = linear("""query($cutoff: DateTimeOrDuration!) {
issues(first: 100, filter: {updatedAt: {lt: $cutoff}, state: {name: {eq: "In Review"}}}) {
nodes { id identifier title team { states(filter: {name: {eq: "Todo"}}) { nodes { id } } } } } }""",
{"cutoff": cutoff})["issues"]["nodes"]
moved = []
for i in issues:
todo = i["team"]["states"]["nodes"][0]["id"]
linear("mutation($id: String!, $s: String!) { issueUpdate(id: $id, input: {stateId: $s}) { success } }",
{"id": i["id"], "s": todo})
linear("mutation($id: String!) { commentCreate(input: {issueId: $id, body: \"Moved back to Todo: no review activity for 10 days.\"}) { success } }",
{"id": i["id"]})
moved.append(f"{i['identifier']} {i['title']}")
if moved:
notify.email_me(f"Moved {len(moved)} stale reviews back to Todo", "\n".join(moved))
return {"moved": len(moved)}FAQ
Common questions
Which status and age should I choose?
Does a comment count as an update?
Can I review the moves before they are made?
What permissions does it need?
Does it need AI?
How many runs does it use?
Can I change how it works?
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