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Support parent/child issue filtering in issues list #3
Description
Summary
Please add a first-class way to list child issues for a parent issue from the CLI.
This came up while cleaning up Linear sub-issues where issue titles are used to create branch names. The parent issue was easy to fetch directly, but listing only its children required falling back to other tooling because linear issues list does not currently expose parent/child filtering.
Repro
Using @wiseiodev/linear-cli 1.4.0 on Node 24.15.0:
linear issues list --helpThe command-specific help only shows:
Usage: linear issues list [options]
List issues
Options:
-h, --help display help for command
Global help exposes --team, --limit, and --cursor, but no parent/child filters.
I also tried the obvious candidates:
linear issues list --parent BB-418 --json
linear issues list --parentId b37232f9-d6c8-4502-8da0-867aa39bc9a0 --json
linear issues list --children BB-418 --jsonEach returns an unknown option error.
Expected behavior
One of these shapes would make the workflow straightforward:
linear issues list --parent BB-418 --json
linear issues list --parent-id BB-418 --json
linear issues children BB-418 --jsonIdeally the flag would accept both a Linear identifier like BB-418 and the internal UUID, matching how linear issues get <id> works.
Actual behavior
issues list appears to support pagination only. Looking at the installed dist/index.js, the issues.list handler passes only:
{
limit: globals.limit,
cursor: globals.cursor,
}to listIssues(...), and toListVariables(...) only maps those to first / after for client.issues(...).
Why this matters
Sub-issues often need batch maintenance: retitling, reprioritizing, checking status, or creating branches. Since this CLI already has linear issues branch <id> and JSON output, parent/child filtering would make it much easier for agents and scripts to operate on the exact child set without broad workspace scans or direct GraphQL fallbacks.
Nice-to-have follow-ups
- Include
parentIdor parent identifier in issue list/get JSON output. - Consider
--no-parentfor top-level issues only. - If command-specific help intentionally omits global flags, consider showing inherited flags in
linear issues list --help, since that was the first place I checked.
Activity
dubscode commentedon May 9, 2026
Agent Brief
Category: enhancement
Summary: Add first-class parent/child issue filtering for
linear issues list.Current behavior:
Users can list issues, but cannot directly narrow the list to children of a parent issue or to top-level issues only. Attempts such as
--parent,--parent-id, or--childrenare not accepted.Desired behavior:
linear issues listshould support filtering by parent issue, accepting both Linear identifiers likeBB-418and internal UUIDs where practical. It should also support listing top-level issues only.Key interfaces:
Acceptance criteria:
linear issues list --parent <identifier-or-id> --jsonreturns only children of the referenced parent issue.linear issues list --parent-id <identifier-or-id> --jsonis either supported as an alias or intentionally rejected with documented help that points to the supported flag.linear issues list --no-parent --jsonreturns only top-level issues.Out of scope:
issues getbehavior except where needed to resolve parent references.fix(cli): pre-resolve --parent UUID before paging, plumb to my-work a…
feat(cli): add --parent filter to issues list (#18)
dubscode commentedon May 9, 2026
Closed as completed by merged PR #18: #18
chore(release): 1.5.0-alpha.3 [skip ci]
chore(release): 1.5.0 [skip ci]