How to Forecast Completion Dates in Linear App

We love Linear. It's fast, beautiful, and the "Cycles" concept effectively replaces the heavy-handedness of traditional Sprints.

But when stakeholders ask "When will Project X be done?", looking at the Cycle burn-up chart only tells part of the story. It tells you about the current cycle, but it doesn't easily project that velocity forward across multiple future cycles to give you a long-term completion date for a large backlog.

Why Native Linear Charts Aren't Enough

Linear's built-in insights are fantastic for retrospective analysis ("How did we do last cycle?") and short-term tracking ("Are we on track for this cycle?"). However, for long-term planning, they lack probabilistic modeling. They generally rely on average throughput, which, as we discussed in our previous article, is risky.

Forecasting with ForecastFlow

We built ForecastFlow to fill this exact gap. It acts as a specialized "forecasting plugin" for Linear.

1. Connect your Linear Workspace

Securely connect via API Key. We only read issue completion data to calculate your throughput.

2. Select Your Team & State

Choose the team you want to forecast for and identify which workflow state represents "Done" (e.g., 'Completed', 'Canceled' usually excluded).

The Result: A Date You Can Trust

Once connected, you simply enter the number of issues remaining in your backlog (or a specific feature). ForecastFlow runs 10,000 simulations using your actual Linear throughput data.

Instead of saying "It will be done in 4 weeks," you can say:

"We have an 85% confidence level that we'll deliver this scope by March 24th."

This shifts the conversation from improved guesswork to data-backed risk management.

Does it work with Cycles?

Yes! Because ForecastFlow looks at daily throughput, it naturally accounts for the rhythm of your cycles, including the "downtime" between them or the ramp-up at the start. It captures the reality of how your team works, not the idealized version.