Start with the job the client needs to do. Native Linear features may already cover it. A portal is useful when you want a separate client-facing experience connected to your delivery work.
Guests: for collaboration inside Linear
Linear’s guest role gives access to specified teams and allows member-like actions there. Guests are available on Business and Enterprise plans and are billed as regular members. Consider this when someone needs to participate directly in your Linear workflow. See Linear’s role documentation.
There is also an Enterprise option to share individual private-team issues without wider team access. Recipients can comment and edit most issue details. That is a more specific option than team access, rather than a public, view-only portal. See Linear’s issue-sharing documentation.
Asks: for request intake and replies
Linear Asks turns requests from Slack, email or web forms into issues and supports replies through synced conversations. Linear describes Asks primarily around internal requests; check the supported requester access and plan requirements for your situation. Asks is available on Business and Enterprise, with web forms among the Enterprise features. See the current Asks guide.
If the main requirement is to receive a request and reply in an existing channel, evaluate that workflow first. A persistent view of a client’s work is a separate requirement from intake.
Lucidlane: for a dedicated view of each client’s work
Lucidlane gives each Linear Customer a branded portal. Clients use it to submit requests, check their linked issues and reply while your delivery team works in Linear. Project and status settings narrow visible requests. Comments on shared issues can sync to the portal, so keep internal-only discussion outside those threads.
Choose this workflow when you want clients to use a separate interface, with your branding and portal address. See the product overview and portal-based pricing.
Questions to decide with your team
- Does the client need to edit work inside Linear, or follow and discuss their requests?
- Do they need a view of several requests, or just a conversation about one issue?
- Which notes and issues should stay internal?
- Will they use a portal, or is email or Slack central to the relationship?
- Which option fits your current Linear plan and number of client contacts?
Lucidlane’s channels add-on is coming soon. For a workflow that depends on email or messaging intake today, evaluate the available native options rather than assuming the portal replaces them.
Ready to try a portal workflow? Start with sharing Linear work with clients and test it using the setup checklist.
Native feature descriptions checked against Linear’s documentation on 28 October 2026. Follow the source links for current availability.