Glue vs Linear for Product Teams

Linear is an issue tracking tool. Glue is a codebase intelligence platform. They address different needs.

What Linear Does

Linear tracks work items:

• Create, assign, and close issues
• Plan sprints and track velocity
• Link issues to PRs and deployments
• See who's working on what
• Report on team productivity

Best for: Teams that need clear project management and work visibility.

What Glue Does

Glue understands your codebase:

• Answers questions about code structure
• Estimates impact of changes
• Identifies technical risks
• Maps dependencies
• Generates documentation

Best for: Teams that need to understand the code behind the work.

The Relationship

Linear tracks what you're building. Glue explains how you're building it.

When You Need Both

Most product teams use both:

Linear: "Feature X is in sprint, assigned to Sarah, depends on Feature Y" Glue: "Feature X requires changes to 12 files, 3 modules, database schema update. Estimate 10 days."

Without Linear, you don't track work. Without Glue, you can't estimate accurately or understand risk.

The Integration

Ideally, Glue insights feed into Linear:

1. Linear issue created: "Add two-factor auth"
2. Glue analyzes: "Requires 2 weeks, impacts authentication module"
3. Glue adds estimate to Linear issue
4. Linear tracks execution