# iNaturalist's use of a closed issue tracking system **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [July 9, 2026, 3:47pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalists-use-of-a-closed-issue-tracking-system/81513 "2026-07-09T15:47:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zygy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/zygy/32/1134_2.png) [@zygy](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/zygy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 3:47pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalists-use-of-a-closed-issue-tracking-system/81513/1 "2026-07-09T15:47:36Z")
It seems that some time last year iNaturalist started using a private workspace at linear.app for issue tracking. Maybe they were also using a private system before that, but I wasn’t aware of it. Regardless, it’s odd for an open source project like iNaturalist to use a closed issue tracking system, as it discourages volunteer participation. I know iNaturalist has never been gung ho on cultivating volunteer developers (judging by how hard it is to get pull requests reviewed or merged), but I’m wondering if anyone on staff could comment on this decision and its implications, or better yet, comment on iNaturalist’s position regarding being an open source project and its relationship with volunteer code contributors. It doesn’t seem like this subject gets discussed very much and I really have no idea what the current staff’s thoughts about it are. ---
**Author:** ![pisum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@pisum](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pisum)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2026, 5:54pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalists-use-of-a-closed-issue-tracking-system/81513/2 "2026-07-09T17:54:42Z")
i’m not necessarily against iNat staff and associates using a closed communication system for development – it helps to at least have this as an option when it’s necessary to share sensitive information – but it would be helpful to include good enough notes on the commits in the open source repo to allow all folks to follow generally what’s going on. ---
**Author:** ![zygy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/zygy/32/1134_2.png) [@zygy](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/zygy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2026, 5:12am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalists-use-of-a-closed-issue-tracking-system/81513/3 "2026-07-10T05:12:34Z")
Typically the way sensitive information or discussions are handled in open source projects is that there is some tag or component or group that is used to switch issues from public to private as needed, e.g. “Security” or “Sensitive”. Most issue tracking systems that I’ve used support this, e.g. Phabricator, Jira, Bugzilla. Sadly, GitHub doesn’t though. I’m curious if linear.app supports a public mode for issues or if iNaturalist has any policies on adding non-staff to their linear.app projects. I’m not trying to agitate for any particular set-up, I’m just curious if iNaturalist is intentionally moving more towards a closed development model or if this is just an accident of adopting a new development platform. ---
**Author:** ![zoology123](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/zoology123/32/66135_2.png) [@zoology123](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/zoology123)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 8:59am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalists-use-of-a-closed-issue-tracking-system/81513/4 "2026-07-14T08:59:53Z")
I would be interested in a short comment on this from staff, as it does make iNaturalist seem less open and community oriented. ---
**Author:** ![rademacherdan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/rademacherdan/32/64901_2.png) [@rademacherdan](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/rademacherdan)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 2:09pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalists-use-of-a-closed-issue-tracking-system/81513/5 "2026-07-23T14:09:28Z")
Thanks for raising this, and sorry for the slow reply. Here’s a brief explanation of where things stand: **Why we moved to Linear:** GitHub Issues doesn’t have a private/sensitive mode (as zygy noted — no equivalent to a “Security” component you can toggle), and the planning functionality in Github is limited. We needed a tool that could handle sprint planning, roadmapping, and the occasional sensitive discussion (security reports, user-specific bug reports) in one place. Linear gives us that. It doesn’t offer a “public read” mode. **What hasn’t changed:** Our code is still open on GitHub. **Where we’re trying to improve transparency:** We’ve started publishing regular blog updates on product/engineering goals ([like this for example](https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/133388-our-product-goals-for-july-december-2026)) so the community has visibility into direction and priorities even if the day-to-day ticket work happens in Linear. I hope this provides transparency to a wider audience than ever would have read our issue backlog. **Where there’s a gap:** Using Linear does make things harder for open source contributors, but that’s been a longstanding challenge independent of this tool switch — PR review has been inconsistent, and it’s often unclear how we want outside contributors to participate. As a result, the existing tickets in Github no longer reflect our current work. We recently added a new technical delivery manager to our team. In the coming months, we’ll be cleaning up old open tickets in Github (some go back _many_ years) and developing ways to better facilitate external contributions. ---
**Author:** ![zoology123](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/zoology123/32/66135_2.png) [@zoology123](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/zoology123)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 6:14pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalists-use-of-a-closed-issue-tracking-system/81513/6 "2026-07-23T18:14:06Z")
I appreciate the reply and under stand the reasoning. I especially appreciate it as this is one of those posts that I feel a year ago wouldn’t get a staff comment. Overall I think it’s complicated to balance openess and security. ---
**Author:** ![zygy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/zygy/32/1134_2.png) [@zygy](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/zygy)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2026, 1:48am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalists-use-of-a-closed-issue-tracking-system/81513/7 "2026-07-25T01:48:59Z")
Thanks for the detailed reply Dan! Looking forward to hearing more about how iNat can better facilitate external contributions. I think even a small amount of effort in this direction could produce significant results. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 1:49am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalists-use-of-a-closed-issue-tracking-system/81513/8 "2026-09-23T01:49:45Z")
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