KanBanLess 1.0.0

KanBanLess

Less is more. Kanban in the File System.

An AI agent skill for managing a Kanban board entirely in the file system — no database, no server, no dependencies.

How It Works

Installation

Windows

Option A — .NET global tool (recommended)

Requires .NET 10 SDK.

dotnet tool install -g KanBanLess.Cli

kanban is then available in any terminal (PowerShell, CMD, Windows Terminal).

Option B — Git Bash / WSL

If you have Git Bash or WSL installed, clone the repo and use the bash script directly:

git clone https://github.com/markdav-is/KanBanLess.git
cd KanBanLess
./kanban init

macOS

Option A — .NET global tool (recommended)

Install the .NET SDK via the official installer or Homebrew:

brew install dotnet
dotnet tool install -g KanBanLess.Cli

Add the tools directory to your PATH if prompted:

export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.dotnet/tools"   # add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bash_profile

Option B — Bash script (no .NET required)

git clone https://github.com/markdav-is/KanBanLess.git
cd KanBanLess
./kanban init

Linux

Option A — .NET global tool (recommended)

Install the .NET SDK for your distro:

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt-get install -y dotnet-sdk-10.0

# Fedora / RHEL
sudo dnf install dotnet-sdk-10.0

Then install the tool:

dotnet tool install -g KanBanLess.Cli
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.dotnet/tools"   # add to ~/.bashrc

Option B — Bash script (no .NET required)

git clone https://github.com/markdav-is/KanBanLess.git
cd KanBanLess
./kanban init

AI Agents (no install)

Agents can skip the CLI entirely. The skill files instruct them to operate directly on the file system using their built-in file and directory tools — no binary, no shell required.

Quick Start

# Create a board (makes a kanban/ folder; pass a name to customise)
kanban init
kanban init "My Project"   # creates my-project/ (or my-project-1/ if taken)
cd kanban

# Add tasks
kanban add "Design the data model"
kanban add "Write unit tests"
kanban add "Set up CI pipeline"

# Check the board
kanban status
kanban list

# Move tasks through the workflow
kanban move design-the-data-model todo
kanban move design-the-data-model doing
kanban show design-the-data-model

# Check off work
kanban check design-the-data-model "Step one"

# Complete
kanban move design-the-data-model done

Commands

Task File Format

Tasks are plain Markdown files with minimal YAML frontmatter:

---
priority: medium
tags: []
---

# Task Title

Brief description of the task.

## Checklist

- [ ] Step one
- [ ] Step two
- [ ] Step three

Metadata is derived from the filesystem — nothing duplicated in frontmatter:

• id — filename without .md
• created — file ctime
• updated — file mtime

Directory Structure

my-board/
  backlog/
    task-slug.md
  todo/
    another-task.md
  doing/
    in-progress-task.md
  done/
    completed-task.md

Principles

• No database, no server — the file system is the source of truth
• Git-compatible — all plain text, commit your board alongside your code
• Agent-first — designed to be driven by AI coding agents
• Cross-platform — C# .NET global tool works on Windows, Linux, and macOS without Git Bash

Future

• Blazor Hybrid GUI — cross-platform desktop/mobile client (MAUI Blazor Hybrid) that reads/writes the same file system structure with drag-and-drop columns, works offline, no backend required

Inspiration

This project grew out of a conversation with Piotr Jura on Threads about using the file system as a Kanban board for AI agents. Thanks Piotr.

See the original post →