BoardAgent

A task manager that lives on your computer — for you and your AI agents. Terminal UI, REST API, MCP server. Free, local, no cloud.

Install (Windows)

You need the prebuilt exes. Two ways to get them:

Option A — use the release binaries (easiest): Download the latest release from GitHub → unzip → double-click INSTALL.bat. That's it. It copies the programs, sets up autostart, installs a watchdog, and adds the app to your PATH.

Option B — build them yourself: Requires Python 3.10+.

pip install -e .          # installs the 3 CLI commands
python scripts/build_exes.py   # builds boardagent.exe, boardagent-server.exe, boardagent-mcp.exe into dist/

Then run INSTALL.bat.

Related MCP server: pith

Run

Windows (after INSTALL.bat): double-click boardagent.exe (or type boardagent in a terminal). The background server auto-starts at logon.

Anywhere (source):

boardagent-server   # terminal 1 — the background service
boardagent          # terminal 2 — the task board UI

First-time tips:

• Press c to create a task, a for AI mode, q to quit.

• Full keyboard-first: arrows move, space selects/opens, enter activates.

• Settings tab: theme, opacity, API keys, keybinds.

Let an AI agent use the board

Point your MCP host (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Hermes) at boardagent-mcp:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "boardagent": { "command": "C:\\path\\to\\boardagent-mcp.exe" }
  }
}

Create an API key in Settings → API Keys for anything else.

How it works

• REST API — source of truth, http://127.0.0.1:7373.

• MCP server — thin adapter over the same service layer.

• Textual TUI — the app you see, talks to the service over localhost.

• Data lives in ~/.boardagent/boardagent.db (SQLite). Everything local.

Docs

• For humans: docs/human/ — intro, MCP setup, themes, packaging.

• For AI agents: docs/agent/ — token-optimized REST + MCP references.

• Engineering decisions: DECISIONS.md.

Development

python -m pytest
python scripts/generate_agent_docs.py   # needs the server running
python scripts/build_exes.py            # Windows exes into dist/

License

MIT — see LICENSE.