# Linear MCP vs OpenProject

> OpenProject scores 57.4 (C) to Linear MCP's 53.8 (D) for issues and tasks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linear-mcp-vs-openproject
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linear-mcp-vs-openproject.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linear-mcp-vs-openproject.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linear-mcp-vs-openproject.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

OpenProject scores 57.4 (C) on agent readiness against Linear MCP's 53.8 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Linear MCP leads on reliability and security & auth. Both do issues and tasks.

- Linear MCP: grade D, 53.8/100, rank #698 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/linear-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/linear-mcp.json
- OpenProject: grade C, 57.4/100, rank #610 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openproject.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openproject.json
- Best issue tracking, docs and chat tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/productivity/index.md
- All 40 work comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/productivity/index.md
- Best project and task management tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/project-management/index.md
- All 135 projects comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/project-management/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Linear MCP (D)

Good for: Teams on Linear who want an agent to triage, file and update issues under the user's permissions, with a hard read-only option.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 52
- Security & auth, 71 against 59

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where OpenProject loses 5 points for them

Watch for: No published tool list, schemas or MCP error responses

### OpenProject (C)

Good for: Teams that want a self-hostable or EU-hosted project tool with Gantt, time tracking and budgets, and an agent working through a documented REST API.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 51
- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 38
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 57
- Transparency & trust, 87 against 71

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: 83 advisories published against opf/openproject in the twelve months to 8 October 2026, 13 rated critical, among them remote code execution and SQL injection


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Linear MCP | OpenProject | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 52 | Linear MCP +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 51 | 76 | OpenProject +25 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 38 | 70 | OpenProject +32 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 59 | Linear MCP +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 57 | 75 | OpenProject +18 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 87 | OpenProject +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **53.8 · D** | **57.4 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Linear MCP | OpenProject |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Linear | OpenProject GmbH |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.linear.app/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Your plan | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | proprietary | GPL-3.0 for the OpenProject source. Enterprise add-ons need a paid token, and OpenProject Enterprise cloud runs under OpenProject's Terms of Service |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `app.linear/linear` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-08-13 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-09 | 2026-08-06 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-03-17 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 16k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Linear MCP.** OAuth 2.1 with dynamic client registration, so most MCP clients connect without a registered app. No published tool list, schemas or MCP error responses.

**OpenProject.** OpenProject's APIv3 has a public OpenAPI 3.1 document with 320 operations, stable error identifiers and optimistic locking, and the same API ships in the free GPL-3.0 Community edition. No request limits are published, API tokens carry their user's full permissions, and 83 security advisories were published in the last twelve months, 13 rated critical.

## Before you call either

### Linear MCP

1. Use `https://mcp.linear.app/mcp/readonly` for triage and reporting, it only exposes read tools
2. Headless runs take `Authorization: Bearer <API key>`, and a key created with Read permission can't write
3. Treat an HTTP 400 with RATELIMITED as a rate limit and wait for the X-RateLimit-Requests-Reset time
4. Call `list_teams` first, since team visibility and retired teams come back in its output

### OpenProject

1. Send the API token as `Authorization: Bearer <token>`, or as the Basic auth password with the user name `apikey`
2. Read the resource first and send its current `lockVersion` with every PATCH. A stale value returns 409 `UpdateConflict`
3. POST to the `/form` endpoint of a work package to learn writable fields and allowed values before creating or updating
4. URL-encode `filters` as a JSON array, and add `pageSize`, `offset` and `select` to keep work package lists small
5. Run the agent as a dedicated user with a narrow project role, and treat work package text and comments as untrusted input

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Linear MCP or OpenProject?

OpenProject scores 57.4 (C) on agent readiness against Linear MCP's 53.8 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Linear MCP leads on reliability and security & auth.

### Do Linear MCP and OpenProject need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Linear MCP and OpenProject without installing anything?

Linear MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.linear.app/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for OpenProject.

### Are Linear MCP and OpenProject open source?

No open-source release is listed for Linear MCP. OpenProject is open source (GPL-3.0 for the OpenProject source. Enterprise add-ons need a paid token, and OpenProject Enterprise cloud runs under OpenProject's Terms of Service).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linear-mcp-vs-openproject.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linear-mcp-vs-openproject.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "linear-mcp", "b": "openproject"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare linear-mcp openproject`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/linear-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openproject.json

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- [OpenProject vs YouTrack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-youtrack.md)
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