Taproot

Put the idea at the top, branch out into the steps it takes, and check them off as you go. Done items fade but stay put, so you can see how far you've come. Every project is also open to AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Grok or your own): they can read it as JSON, Markdown, Mermaid or a picture, and, with a token you've allowed to write, add and tick off work while you watch.

Features

And also:

• A canvas with edges, flowing downwards. Any card can spread its sub-tasks out sideways or list them down its side, and each project caps depth and branching so big plans stay readable.

• Cards, pills, milestones and plain text in nine colours. No freehand drawing.

• Fast and bubbly. Cards spring into place and nudge their neighbours; checking off is instant.

• Multi-user. Everyone has private projects and tokens; admins manage users and backups.

• Live sync across tabs, devices and agents, with an activity log of who did what.

• Small, automatic backups (gzipped SQLite, usually a few KB) on a schedule, on demand, and before every upgrade.

Related MCP server: crunchy-work

Get started

Docker (recommended)

mkdir taproot && cd taproot
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/j4ckxyz/taproot/main/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8787 and create the first account; it becomes the admin. Your data lives in the taproot-data volume. Images are built for amd64 and arm64 (so a Raspberry Pi works too).

Prefer a single command?

docker run -d --name taproot -p 8787:8787 -v taproot-data:/data --restart unless-stopped ghcr.io/j4ckxyz/taproot:latest

To use it from other devices or hosted agents, put it behind a reverse proxy with HTTPS (Caddy, Traefik, nginx) and set PUBLIC_URL and SECURE_COOKIES=true (see .env.example). ChatGPT and most hosted agents need HTTPS to reach your MCP server.

Node

Requires Node 22.13+ (it uses the built-in node:sqlite, so there's no database driver to compile).

git clone https://github.com/j4ckxyz/taproot.git && cd taproot
npm ci
npm run build
npm start                 # http://localhost:8787

Try it with demo projects

TAPROOT_URL=http://localhost:8787 TAPROOT_EMAIL=you@example.com TAPROOT_PASSWORD=your-password npm run seed:demo

Adds the four demo projects from the screenshots (on a fresh server it also creates the admin account with those details).

Updating

Releases are listed on the releases page, and admins see "Update available" in the app (Settings → About & updates) when there's a new one.

# Docker
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

# Node
npm run update            # git pull, install, build; then restart the server

Your data is never touched by an update. If a new version changes the database, a pre-upgrade backup is written to DATA_DIR/backups first. To stay on a version, pin the image tag, e.g. ghcr.io/j4ckxyz/taproot:0.1.

Using it

• Start: create a project with just a name (icon and colour are picked for you) and you're straight into typing the first step.

• Add: press Tab (sub-task) or click Add. Double-clicking empty paper adds a branch too.

• Rename: click a selected card again, double-click it, or press Enter.

• Everything else: right-click a card (or the paper) for every action, or use the little toolbar above the selected card: done, due date, colour, shape, notes and more.

• Live: other tabs, people and agents show up as avatars and labelled cursors. Cards someone else changes pulse in their colour, and the activity log (H) says who changed what. Click an entry to jump to that card.

Keyboard

Press ? anywhere for the full sheet (Esc or a click closes it).

You can also drag a card onto another to move it there, or drop it near a sibling's edge to reorder.

Connecting agents

1. In Settings → API & agents, create a token. It's read-only by default. You can allow writing and limit it to particular projects, now or later.

2. The token is shown once, along with ready-to-paste setup for each client:

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http taproot https://your-host/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer tap_…"

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

{ "mcpServers": { "taproot": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://your-host/mcp", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer tap_…"] } } }

Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf and other clients that take a URL plus headers

{ "mcpServers": { "taproot": { "url": "https://your-host/mcp", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer tap_…" } } } }

ChatGPT, claude.ai connectors, Grok and other clients that take only a URL: use https://your-host/mcp/t/tap_… with "no authentication". The token is part of that URL, so treat the URL like a password. You can turn this off with MCP_ALLOW_TOKEN_IN_URL=false.

Your own agents (.env)

TAPROOT_URL=https://your-host
TAPROOT_TOKEN=tap_…

MCP tools

Write tools only appear for tokens that have write access.

While an agent reads or edits a project, anyone who has it open sees the agent live: an avatar, a labelled cursor on the card it last touched, a pulse on what changed, and a line in the activity log.

REST API

• Base: /api/v1 with Authorization: Bearer tap_…

• Interactive docs: /api/docs. OpenAPI: /api/openapi.json. Agent primer: /llms.txt

• Highlights: GET /projects, GET /projects/{id}, GET /projects/{id}/outline, GET /projects/{id}/export?format=png|svg|excalidraw|markdown|opml|mermaid|json, POST /projects/{id}/ops, GET /deadlines?days=14, GET /projects/{id}/events (Server-Sent Events), GET|POST /projects/{id}/presence (who is looking)

Backups and data

• Automatic snapshots go to DATA_DIR/backups every BACKUP_INTERVAL_HOURS (default 24), keeping BACKUP_KEEP (default 14). Admins can back up now, download or delete backups in Settings → Backups.

• To restore, stop the server and then run npm run restore -- <backup-file> (Docker: docker compose run --rm taproot node dist/server/cli.js restore <file>). The current database is saved as a pre-restore backup first.

• Backups are plain gzipped SQLite files. Each user can download all their projects as JSON from Settings → Profile & data.

• Other admin commands: npm run backup and npm run create-user -- <email> <password> [--admin].

Configuration

See .env.example. Every setting is optional.

Development

npm ci
npm run dev             # API on :8787, Vite with hot reload on :5173
npm test                # unit tests
npm run test:e2e        # browser tests (uses your installed Chrome)
npm run typecheck

Project layout

shared/   model types, tree helpers, waterfall layout, deadline logic, SVG renderer (used by browser and server)
server/   Hono app: auth, REST API, MCP server, exports, backups, SQLite store
web/      React + Tailwind client (canvas, details panel, settings)
tests/    Vitest suites (npm test)