Your customers’ bugs already live in Linear. Now they arrive with the fix.
The short answer
If your team logs customer problems as Linear issues, you do not need a help desk to use Watari. Delegate an issue to Watari from the assignee menu, mention it, or let a rule pick up new issues. When you delegate or mention it, Watari answers on the issue within seconds. It reads the issue like a support ticket, works out whether it is a real bug, writes a report an engineer can act on, points to the file and function behind it and, when it is confident, opens a draft pull request and attaches it to the issue. It does not use a paid Linear seat.
How to hand an issue to Watari
- Delegate
- Pick Watari from the assignee menu. The issue stays with its owner, and Watari is added as the agent working on it.
- Mention
- Mention Watari in a comment, choosing it from Linear’s mention list.
- A rule
- Pick up issues once they reach a status, carry a label or sit in a project you choose.
- Every new issue
- Watari picks up each issue created in the teams you choose. Your existing backlog is never pulled in.
Set it up
Install Watari in Linear
In Watari, open Settings, then Connected tools, then Linear, and press Install Watari in Linear. A Linear workspace admin approves the install once and chooses the teams Watari may see.
Connect your code
Connect the GitHub or Azure DevOps repository the product lives in. Watari reads it so it can find where a reported bug lives, and never keeps a copy of your source code.
Turn on issue pickup
Open the Linear settings in Watari, switch on Pick up issues from Linear, and choose the teams to read issues from.
Delegate a test issue
Delegate one issue to Watari. It answers on the issue within a few seconds, and the issue appears in Watari within a minute or two.
Step by step, with every setting explained: the Linear setup guide.
What comes back on the issue
- An answer on the issue as soon as it is delegated or mentioned: that Watari picked it up, or why not and who can change that.
- A comment when Watari picks the issue up, and another when it drafts a fix, opened as a draft pull request, posted under Watari’s own name. If it does not draft a fix, the comment says why and what a developer can do next.
- The draft pull request, attached to the issue, whether your code is on GitHub or Azure Repos.
- The full report in Watari: the steps to reproduce, severity, and the files and functions most likely behind the bug, ranked.
The update for your customer
When the fix ships and your team approves the customer-facing summary in Watari, it is posted on the issue for your team to pass on, but only on an issue that stays private to your Linear workspace. On an issue synced with GitHub or Slack, or sent in by someone outside your workspace, it stays in Watari.
It waits for the deploy that carries the fix, so nobody on your team passes on a fix that is not live yet.
What it does not do
- A Linear workspace admin has to install Watari as an app once. The ordinary Linear connection only files issues.
- Mention Watari by choosing it from Linear’s mention list. Typing its name as plain text does nothing.
- Issues that arrive through Asks, a form or an email to a team address wait for someone on your team to hand them over.
- On an issue synced with another tool, or sent in from outside your workspace, Watari’s comments carry the status and a link to Watari only.
- It is off until an owner or admin of your Watari workspace turns it on, and it reads only the places you choose.
- Watari needs your code on GitHub or Azure DevOps (cloud). GitLab and Bitbucket are not supported yet.
Frequently asked questions
Does Watari use a paid Linear seat?
No. Watari is installed as an app and appears in the assignee menu without taking a seat.
Can we use Watari alongside Linear Agent?
Yes. One way to run both: let Linear Agent file the issue, then have someone on your team delegate it to Watari, which finds the code and drafts the fix.
Will Watari pull in our whole Linear backlog?
No. The rule for every new issue picks up issues created after you switch it on, and issues already in your backlog are never pulled in by it. An older issue is picked up only when someone hands it over.
Is a Linear issue billed differently from a support ticket?
No. An issue Watari picks up is billed exactly like a support ticket, only when it becomes a Mapped Issue. Progress comments on the issue, draft pull requests and the customer update are included.
What happens to an issue that is not a bug?
A question, a setting or a how-to gets a suggested answer for your team and no pull request. An issue that is not about your code is never billed.
When a support ticket reports a bug, your engineers get a drafted fix.
Connect your help desk or your issue tracker, then GitHub or Azure DevOps. Watari maps each bug to the exact file and function in your code and drafts the fix as a pull request your CI checks.
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