Why track time in Linear at all?
Linear is great at planning: issues, estimates, cycles and projects. Its Time in Status view even shows how long an issue sat in "In Progress". What it doesn't record is how many hours anyone actually worked on it. There is no timer and no hours log, so the moment someone asks "how long did that feature take?" or "what do I bill this client for October?", you're guessing.
Tracking time against Linear issues answers three questions estimates can't:
- Billing. Freelancers and agencies get an hours-per-issue record they can turn straight into an invoice.
- Estimation. Compare your points with real hours and your next cycle plan gets more honest.
- Focus. See where the day actually went: deep work on issues, or meetings and review.
How Linear time tracking works in Tiiiime
1. Connect your workspace once
Sign in to Linear from Tiiiime's settings. The connection is read-only OAuth and the token is stored in your macOS Keychain. Link the workspace to a Tiiiime project, and optionally map each Linear project to an activity (Development, Design, Meetings…) so sessions get tagged automatically.
2. Start a timer on any issue with one keystroke
Press ⌃⌥⌘Space anywhere on your Mac and QuickStart opens with your Linear issues: the ones you've tracked recently first, then your assigned queue. Type to fuzzy-search by title or ID (TIM-42), press return, and the clock is running. No browser tab, no extension.
3. See the issue without opening Linear
Every issue shows its status, priority, labels, Linear project, cycle, milestone and point estimate. Press ⌘O to jump to it in Linear when you need the full thread.
4. Watch hours add up per issue
The live timer sits in your menu bar, and the popover shows the time tracked on each issue. Set an hour estimate on an issue and Tiiiime nudges you at 80%, 100% and 150%, with one-click "+1 hour", snooze or stop. If you walk away, idle detection asks what to do with the gap.
5. Export hours by issue
Export any date range to CSV with the Linear issue ID on every row, together with project, activity, rate and amount. Mark sessions as invoiced so nothing gets billed twice.
Read-only by design. Tiiiime never posts comments, changes statuses or edits your issues. Your time data stays on your Mac and in your own iCloud, not in a shared workspace.
Track Linear issues from Claude or the terminal
Tiiiime ships a CLI and an MCP server. Start tracking an issue from the terminal withtiiiime start --project Client --issue TIM-42, or ask Claude "start tracking TIM-42" and "how many hours did I spend on the onboarding project this week?"
Tiiiime vs. other Linear time trackers
Most Linear time tracking tools are team web apps that inject timer buttons into Linear through a browser extension. Tiiiime is built around the people doing the work, solo or as a team: a native Mac app that's always one keystroke away, even when Linear isn't open.
| Tiiiime | Typical web tracker + extension | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the timer lives | Mac menu bar + global hotkey | Buttons inside Linear's web UI |
| Starting a timer | One hotkey from any app | Open the issue in Linear, click the button |
| Linear access | Read-only | Varies |
| Your data | On your Mac + your iCloud | Vendor's cloud |
| Built for | Individuals and teams on Mac | Teams, managers |
| AI assistant access | CLI + MCP server | Varies |
Comparing specific tools? See Tiiiime vs. Everhour,Tiiiime vs. Timing, or our guide onhow to track time in Linear.
