Public Linear Board vs Private Issue Tracker: When to Use Each

Linear is a private issue tracker by default. A public Linear board adds a customer-facing layer on top. But not every issue should be public, and not every team needs full transparency. Here's how to decide what goes where.

When to Keep Issues Private

Some work belongs in your private Linear workspace only:

• Security vulnerabilities — Public disclosure before a fix creates risk
• Internal tooling — Users don't need to see infrastructure work
• Personnel and process — Team changes, hiring plans, internal workflows
• Unvalidated experiments — Early-stage ideas that may never ship
• Competitive strategy — Pricing changes, positioning work, partnership negotiations

Private issues stay in Linear where only your team sees them. No exposure, no confusion.

When to Use a Public Linear Board

Other work benefits from visibility:

• Feature requests — Users see what's planned and add their voice
• Bug reports — Showing active fixes builds confidence
• Roadmap items — Planned improvements reduce churn
• Community ideas — Requests that align with your direction
• Shipped features — Completed work shows momentum

A public Linear board lets users browse, vote, and submit issues—all synced to your Linear workspace in real time.

The Best Approach: Use Both

Most teams don't choose one or the other. They use Linear privately for all work and expose a curated subset on a public Linear board. The board shows what's relevant to users while keeping internal work hidden.

Filter by project, label, or status. Show your "Feature Requests" project publicly while keeping "Infrastructure" private. Use labels to control which issues appear on the board without changing your Linear workflow.

How the Two Stay in Sync

Changes flow automatically. Move an issue to "Done" in Linear, and it updates on the public board. A user submits a request on the board, and it creates a Linear issue. Reply to a user from Linear, and they get notified. The private tracker and public board are two views of the same data.

Deciding What to Expose

Start conservative. Make a small set of user-facing issues public. As you get comfortable, expand. You can always add more visibility later—pulling back is harder.