---
title: "Keep the lint rule, remove its type-graph dependency"
description: "Linear rewrote its type-aware custom lint rules to use static analysis over the syntax tree."
url: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/lint-without-types
canonicalUrl: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/lint-without-types
---

# Keep the lint rule, remove its type-graph dependency

Linear rewrote its type-aware custom lint rules to use static analysis over the syntax tree.

## How to choose an approach

This technique currently has one documented company example. Validate its prerequisites, tradeoffs and original CI environment against your repository before adapting it.

- **[Linear](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/linear#lint-without-types)**: Use it when Type-aware lint setup dominates and equivalent syntax-only checks can be demonstrated. Check before adopting: A rule-by-rule equivalence ledger comes first. Keep genuinely type-aware rules in a required pass.

## Apply this technique

````text
Evaluate and apply this CI technique to my repository: Keep the lint rule, remove its type-graph dependency.

Linear rewrote its type-aware custom lint rules to use static analysis over the syntax tree.

Read the technique and its source-backed company examples: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/lint-without-types.md

Inspect this repository’s CI workflows, build and test commands, dependencies, and recent run timings. Identify where this technique applies and explain the expected benefit using this repository’s evidence.
Measure a baseline from recent comparable runs: elapsed time, queue time, runner minutes and failures where available. If data is unavailable, say what cannot be measured.
Compare relevant company approaches, checking prerequisites, platform differences and tradeoffs. Rank applicable options by evidence, fit and measurable opportunity; do not present company results as predictions for this repo.
Recommend the smallest safe change, show what checks and fallback paths remain, and ASK ME WHICH CHANGE TO APPROVE BEFORE EDITING ANY FILES.
Only after approval, work on a new feature branch, make one reversible change, and open a reviewable pull request. Never merge or push to a default or protected branch.
Keep required checks, test coverage, deployment and release behavior intact. Validate the change and compare equivalent runs where possible; report limitations and what should be monitored after merge.
````

## How Linear used this technique

Read what Linear changed and follow the original sources.

### Linear: Keep the lint rule, remove its type-graph dependency

Linear rewrote its type-aware custom lint rules to use static analysis over the syntax tree, so ESLint no longer builds the TypeScript type graph. API lint time fell 68% and full-repository lint time 55%.

Evidence: Documented technique

Use it when: Type-aware lint setup dominates and equivalent syntax-only checks can be demonstrated.

Before applying it: A rule-by-rule equivalence ledger comes first. Keep genuinely type-aware rules in a required pass.

[Read more in the Linear playbook](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/linear#lint-without-types)

[Primary source](https://linear.app/now/ci-bottleneck-reworked#lint-without-the-type-checker)

## CI optimization is continuous work.

Apply this technique yourself, or use StarSling Runners for faster GitHub Actions and optional agent-driven optimization PRs, which teams on eligible paid plans can turn on.

[Get self-improving CI](https://starsling.dev/products/runners)

## Related techniques

### [Use a faster native linter without losing rules](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/native-lint-tools)

Move supported lint checks to a fast native implementation and preserve coverage for rules it does not support.

2 implementations · 2 companies (Linear, Spotify)

## Company Playbooks

### [Anthropic](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/anthropic)

Run only affected tests

### [DoorDash](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/doordash)

Run build and test in parallel, sharded across CI agents

### [Linear](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/linear)

Benchmark the same job on faster hardware

### [Mastra](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/mastra)

StarSling runners for the slowest test workflow

### [OpenAI](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/openai)

Rank CI fixes by the minutes they save

### [Ramp](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/ramp)

Move a CPU-bound test suite to a faster CPU

### [Shopify](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/shopify)

Let an agent iterate against one CI metric

### [Spotify](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/spotify)

Build arm64 on native arm64 runners

### [Stripe](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/stripe)

Run only the tests a change can reach

### [Uber](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/uber)

Build the merge-queue speculations most likely to be needed