Usage

The best place to start is the Quickstart.

Available Commands

delineate provides several commands:

  • delineate auth - Authenticate with Linear

  • delineate whoami - Show the authenticated user

  • delineate export - Export data from Linear

  • delineate version - Show the version

For help with any command:

delineate {COMMAND} --help

Export File Structure

When you export data, delineate creates this folder structure:

export-folder/
├── latest.json              # Export tracking for incremental updates
├── issues/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── comments/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── projects/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── teams/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── users/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── initiatives/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── cycles/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── documents/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── workflow_states/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── issue_labels/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── attachments/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
├── project_milestones/
│   └── {prefix}/{uuid}.json
└── files/
    ├── manifest.jsonl       # URL to filename mapping
    └── {prefix}/{uuid}/
        └── {original_filename}

Entity files are organized into prefix directories using the first 4 characters of the UUID to avoid filesystem issues with large numbers of files.

Basic Usage Examples

Export all data:

delineate export --path ~/linear-backup

Export specific entity types:

delineate export --path ~/linear-backup issues comments

Incremental update:

After an initial export, use --update to only fetch entities that have changed since the last export:

delineate export --path ~/linear-backup --update

This uses timestamps stored in latest.json to filter the API queries, making subsequent exports much faster.

File Downloads

Delineate automatically downloads files referenced in issue descriptions, comments, and other markdown content. These are stored in the files/ directory with their original filenames, organized by UUID prefix.

The manifest.jsonl file maps original Linear URLs to local filenames, enabling resumable downloads across export runs.