Linear writeback: can't reorganize existing issues (assign project, add labels, set state); projects/labels not writable or resolvable

[khaliqgant]

Summary

Reorganizing existing Linear issues via file-native writeback isn't possible today. You can create and delete issues, but you can't assign an existing issue to a project, add/change its labels, or move its state through the mount writeback surface — and projects/labels aren't synced as resolvable/writable resources at all. This blocks programmatic Linear cleanup/organization.

Surfaced while bulk-organizing the AR team (162 issues → delete ~74 test/canary, label + group the ~88 real ones).

What works today

• create_issue — incl. projectId (UUID) and labels: [{name}] (label auto-created/resolved by name). Verified live.
• delete_issue / file_delete on an issue path.
• Read/ingest side already fully models linear.project_*, linear.labels, milestones, teams (packages/linear/src/linear-adapter.ts).

The hole

1. Projects are not a writable resource. The Linear writeback contract (discovery/linear/.adapter.md) exposes only issues and comments. There is no way to:
   • create a Linear project via writeback (no projectCreate), or
   • assign an existing issue to a project (the only project path is projectId at issue-create time; AR-275 added create-with-project, but not assign-on-update).
2. update_issue can't reorganize. No file-native path to, on an existing issue: add/replace labels (add_issue_labels), set project, or change state (e.g. move Backlog → Canceled in bulk). update_issue/issueUpdate exists in the cloud provider but these fields aren't plumbed through the adapter writeback surface.
3. Projects & labels aren't synced as resolvable resources. The mount mirrors only /linear/issues and /linear/teams — no /linear/projects or /linear/labels. So existing project/label IDs can't be discovered for assignment, and there's no by-name resolution catalog. (Create-with-label works only because label-by-name auto-creates server-side.)

Net: file-native writeback supports create + delete issues, but not reorganize them — which is exactly what bulk cleanup needs.

Proposed

• Add projects (and ideally labels) as first-class Linear writeback resources: create + assign, resolvable by name or id.
• Extend update_issue to set project (by name/id), labels (add/replace, by name), and state (by name/id) on existing issues.
• Sync /linear/projects and /linear/labels into the mount so ids are discoverable and assignments can be validated (round-trip-safe paths, like teams).
• Bulk-friendly: allow these via update_issue writebacks so an agent can reorganize N issues without the Linear API.

Impact

Without this, any "organize the Linear backlog" task must fall back to the Linear GraphQL API (personal API key) — the file-native/relayfile path can't do it. Concretely it blocked the AR-team reorg described above (could delete the test issues, but not project/label/group the real ones).

Refs

• Cloud writeback provider (executes mutations): cloud/packages/relayfile/src/writeback/providers/linear.ts (issueCreate/issueUpdate/issueDelete/commentCreate/agentActivityCreate).
• Adapter (ingest + path-mapper, models projects/labels on read): packages/linear/src/linear-adapter.ts.
• Prior: AR-275 "relayfile-adapters: add Linear project writeback (create…)" added create-with-project; this issue is the assign/update/resolve follow-on.

Found 2026-06-16 during Linear backlog cleanup via writebacks.