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Linear & remote MCP servers (OAuth)

Beyond stdio and plain-HTTP MCP servers, Hive speaks the modern Streamable-HTTP MCP transport with OAuth 2.1 + PKCE. That lets agents talk to hosted MCP services that authenticate you in the browser — Linear being the headline example.

Everything lives in Settings → Tools.

Why OAuth

Plain-HTTP MCP servers use a static bearer token from an env var. Hosted providers like Linear instead want a real OAuth handshake: you authorize Hive once in your browser, and Hive holds short-lived tokens that it refreshes automatically. No long-lived secret sits in your config.

The flow uses a loopback redirect — http://127.0.0.1:51736/callback — so the browser hands the authorization code back to the Hive app running on your machine.

Add Linear

There's a one-click "Add Linear (issues)" preset under Settings → Tools. It adds a server pointed at mcp.linear.app/sse. You still have to enable and Connect it (below).

1. Create a Linear OAuth app

Linear is a confidential provider, so you supply your own OAuth app's credentials.

  1. In Linear, go to Settings → API → OAuth apps and create one.
  2. Set the redirect URI to exactly:
http://127.0.0.1:51736/callback
  1. Grant scopes: read, write, issues:create.
  2. Note the app's Client ID and Client secret.

2. Add → enable → Connect

  1. Add Linear (issues) from Settings → Tools.
  2. Enable the server. As with every MCP server, install/add is inert — enabling is what wires it into chats. See the security note below.
  3. Click Connect on the server row. On the first Connect, Hive prompts for the OAuth app's Client ID (and Client secret, since Linear is confidential). It then opens your browser for the OAuth consent screen.
  4. Approve in the browser. The code returns to the loopback redirect and Hive stores the tokens, refreshing them as needed.

Once it's connected and enabled, your agents can read, create, and update Linear issues through the server's tools.

The /linear command

The composer's / menu includes /linear, which pulls your Linear issues into the conversation context — handy for "summarize my open issues" or "draft a comment on the top one" without the agent having to fetch them tool-call by tool-call.

Connecting other OAuth MCP servers

The Linear preset is just a convenience. Any Streamable-HTTP MCP server that supports OAuth 2.1 + PKCE works the same way:

  1. Add the server with its …/sse (or HTTP) endpoint — manually or via Install from the internet.
  2. Enable it.
  3. Click Connect and provide the Client ID (plus secret for confidential providers) when prompted.

The redirect URI you register with the provider is always http://127.0.0.1:51736/callback.

Security: enabling is the gate

Inert until enabled

The same MCP security model applies: a server you add does nothing until you enable it, and Connect only runs the OAuth flow you initiate. Tokens are scoped to the OAuth app you create and can be revoked from the provider side at any time. Per-tool trust toggles in the Tools pane still gate individual calls.