Merging Users

TL;DR

LinearB provides four user-merging mechanisms. Ad-hoc merge automatically merges newly discovered accounts when an exact identifier or email match exists (100% confidence). Auto-merge runs every 24 hours and automatically merges high-confidence suggestions (95%+ confidence). Bulk merge presents suggested merges for administrator approval (80%+ confidence). Single merge allows administrators to merge accounts directly from a user profile using suggestions or manual search. Administrators can also unmerge accounts when they need to remove an account from a merged user.

Understand how user merging works

User merging in LinearB ensures clean, accurate user data by unifying identities across Git and project management tools. This prevents duplicate users and improves visibility into developer activity across the platform.

A single person may appear multiple times due to different email addresses, usernames, or authentication methods. LinearB provides four merge methods to consolidate these records into a single platform user:

• Ad-hoc merge – Automatically merges newly discovered accounts when an exact identifier or email match is found
• Auto-merge – Runs every 24 hours and automatically merges high-confidence suggestions
• Bulk merge – Lets administrators review and approve merge suggestions generated by LinearB
• Single merge – Lets administrators manually merge additional accounts into an existing user from the user profile

Administrators can also unmerge an account from a merged user when the account was merged incorrectly or should be managed separately.

This improves:

• Accuracy across dashboards and reports
• Clarity in team- and user-level insights
• Data integrity for billing and licensing

Understand auto-merge

Auto-merge consolidates user identities across connected systems such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Jira, and Azure DevOps.

Auto-merge runs every 24 hours. During each run, LinearB generates a new set of merge suggestions using its identity matching engine and automatically merges suggestions with a confidence score of 95% or higher.

Merge additional accounts for a user

Use single merge when you are viewing a user and want to associate additional accounts with that user. You can select from merge suggestions or manually search for an account to merge.

1. Navigate to Settings > Users & Teams > Users.
2. Select the user you want to update.
3. Click Merge Account.
4. Select the additional account to merge.
5. Confirm the merge.

The selected account is merged into the user immediately. Historical activity from the merged account is preserved and aggregated under the unified user.

Understand ad-hoc merge

Ad-hoc merge is an automatic merge mechanism that runs whenever LinearB discovers a new account from a connected platform, Git provider, project management tool, AI tool, or collaboration tool.

If the new account has an exact identifier or email match with an existing user, LinearB automatically merges the accounts immediately. Ad-hoc merge requires a 100% confidence match.

Unlike auto-merge, which evaluates merge suggestions every 24 hours, ad-hoc merge requires a 100% confidence match and occurs automatically when new accounts are discovered.

Merge users in bulk

Use bulk merge when you need to review and merge multiple suggested user pairs at once. This is useful when onboarding new systems or performing large-scale identity cleanup.

Bulk merge displays merge suggestions with a confidence score of 80% or higher. Administrators review and approve the suggested merges before they are applied.

To merge users in bulk:

1. Navigate to Settings > Users & Teams > Users.
2. Click Bulk Merge.
3. Review the suggested merge candidates.
4. Adjust the confidence threshold if needed.
5. Select or deselect the merge suggestions you want to apply.
6. Review the designated Primary Account for each merge.
7. Click Merge.

All selected merges process immediately.

Unmerge user accounts

Use unmerge to remove an account from a merged user. This is useful when an account was merged incorrectly, when a test or inactive account was merged, or when an account should be managed separately from the primary user.

LinearB calculates activity per account and aggregates it live for the unified user. When you unmerge an account, the account's historical activity moves with the unmerged account.

To unmerge an account:

1. Navigate to Settings → Users & Teams → Users.
2. Select the merged user you want to update.
3. Locate the account you want to remove from the merged user.
4. Open the account actions menu.
5. Select Unmerge.
6. Click Save and Close.

The unmerged account is removed from the merged user and can be managed separately.

Understand primary account behavior

When users are merged, whether through single merge, bulk merge, auto-merge, or ad-hoc merge, one account is designated as the primary account:

• The primary account defines the user's name, email, avatar, and permissions
• Permissions are inherited only from the primary account
• Team memberships from all merged accounts are combined
• Historical activity from secondary accounts is preserved
• The primary account can be changed at any time
• To unmerge the current primary account, first designate another account as the primary account

In single merge and bulk merge workflows, administrators can change which account is primary before saving the merge.

Understand why user merging matters

By maintaining a unified user identity model, user merging:

• Prevents inflated user counts
• Improves billing and license accuracy
• Ensures developer activity is attributed correctly
• Provides clearer, more reliable engineering metrics

The result is a cleaner data model and more trustworthy insights across LinearB.