Your Linear inbox, inside the menu bar popover
The smart inbox brings your Linear notifications into the TimeToBuild popover. It tracks what you have read across sections, so an item you have seen stays marked as read wherever it appears. Items update themselves in place as activity comes in, so the inbox reflects the current state rather than a stale snapshot.
What does Smart inbox do?
- Shows your Linear notifications inside the menu bar popover.
- Tracks read state across sections, so a read item stays read wherever it shows up.
- Updates items in place as new activity arrives, rather than leaving a stale copy.
- Keeps issue changes and inbox changes in sync as you work.
How it works
- 1
Open the inbox in the popover
The inbox is a section inside the TimeToBuild popover. Open the popover from the menu bar and switch to it to see your notifications.
- 2
Read and clear items
As you read an item it is marked read. That read state is shared, so the same item elsewhere in the popover shows as read too.
- 3
Watch items self-update
When new activity lands on an issue you are following, its inbox item updates in place so you always see the latest state.
Smart inbox FAQ
How does read tracking work across sections?
The inbox tracks read state at the item level and shares it across every section that can display that item. When you read a notification in one place, the same underlying item is marked read everywhere else it appears in the popover. This avoids the common problem of clearing something in one view only to see it still bold in another. The result is a single, consistent sense of what you have and have not looked at.
What does "self-updating items" mean?
When activity happens on an issue you are following, the matching inbox item updates itself in place instead of leaving an outdated copy behind. If a status changes or a new comment lands, the item reflects that without you refreshing or losing your place. This keeps the inbox accurate about the current state of your work, so you are reacting to what is true now rather than a snapshot from when the notification first arrived.
Is the inbox the same as my Linear inbox?
It draws from your Linear notifications, so it reflects the same activity you would see in Linear, but it lives inside the TimeToBuild popover in the menu bar. That means you can triage notifications without opening a browser tab or the Linear app. Reading and acting on items in TimeToBuild keeps things in sync, so your inbox stays current in both places.