kanbo

A Kanban board your coding agents work, and you approve.

Website · npm

Quick start

npm install -g kanbo-cli
kanbo connect claude              # once: registers kanbo's MCP server for every project
cd your-project && kanbo init     # a board for this project

Then tell your agent: "take the next card from kanbo." Watch the board and approve cards with kanbo serve.

kanbo with no board here starts a short setup wizard; run it again any time for the home screen. See Getting started for the walkthrough — every question it asks, what your agent does, and how to approve a card.

Related MCP server: Agent Kanban

What you get

• A board in a file, or a shared Postgres database. .kanbo/board.db next to your code for one project on one machine, or an external Postgres (Supabase works) for a team of people and agents. See storage.

• Agents work it over MCP. Seventeen kanbo_* tools, and the server explains the rules itself when the client connects — nothing is written into your project's CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md. See MCP reference; the CLI reference covers the commands you run.

• You approve. kanbo enforces it, not just asks. approve, return and column changes are a person's; an agent's shell is refused with exit code 4, and on Postgres the database roles refuse it too. See agents.

• Watch it in a terminal, or in your browser. kanbo board and the interactive home screen, or kanbo serve for a board page over HTTP (sub-tasks inside their parent card, a List view, keys, bulk changes). See HTTP API.

Works with

Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI — and anything else that speaks MCP over stdio. See using kanbo with agents.

Documentation

• Getting started — the wizard, the home screen, connecting an agent, approving a card

• Installation — npm, npx, from source, native module notes, upgrading

• Using kanbo with agents — kanbo connect, what the MCP server tells an agent; the agent-vs-person rules

• Orchestrator examples — an instruction text to paste, Claude Code subagents, Codex, a worked session

• CLI reference — every command and flag

• MCP reference — every kanbo_* tool and its inputs

• HTTP API — kanbo serve, routes, security model, the board page

• Storage — board files, shared Postgres/Supabase, roles, schema, migrations

• Configuration — KANBO_* environment variables and .kanbo/binding.json

• Performance and Agent efficiency — how fast, and how many tool calls an agent needs

• FAQ · Troubleshooting

• Full index · Contributing · Security · Changelog

License

PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 — free for noncommercial use (personal, research, educational, and more; read the license for the exact terms). Commercial use — selling it, or building it into a paid product or service — needs a separate license: write to lionmause999@gmail.com.

Versions up to and including 0.2.0 were released under MIT and stay under MIT.