board

A tiny three-column kanban TUI — Backlog · In Progress · Done — with a scratchpad, meant to run in a pane next to your Claude Code sessions.

The board is stored as a plain Markdown file (./.board.md in whatever directory you launch it from). That's the whole trick: because it's human-readable Markdown, a Claude Code session working in the same directory can read your backlog, add cards, or move them — and the running TUI picks up those changes live (it re-reads the file about once a second). You get a shared board without a server, a database, or any glue.

 ◆ board   ./.board.md                                                    6 cards
╭────────────────────────────╮╭────────────────────────────╮╭────────────────────────────╮
│ BACKLOG  3                 ││ IN PROGRESS  1             ││ DONE  2                    │
│ • wire up scratch pane     ││ • column rendering         ││ ✓ project scaffold         │
│ • add color theme          ││                            ││ ✓ markdown store + tests   │
│ • handle [auth] bug        ││                            ││                            │
╰────────────────────────────╯╰────────────────────────────╯╰────────────────────────────╯
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ SCRATCHPAD  tab to edit                                                                    │
│ remember: atomic writes so Claude never sees a torn file                                   │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
 a:add e:edit h/l:col j/k:card H/L:move spc:done d:del tab:notes q:quit

Run

Go is provided by mise (see mise.toml).

make run              # run in the current directory (uses ./.board.md)
make build            # build ./board
make install          # install `board` onto your PATH (GOBIN / GOPATH/bin)

Once installed, just run board in any project directory and it reads/writes ./.board.md there — the same directory your Claude Code session is working in.

board                 # ./.board.md in the current directory
board -file notes.md  # or point it at any file

Keys

Key	Action
←/→ or h/l	focus previous / next column
↑/↓ or k/j	select previous / next card
g / G	jump to first / last card
a or n	add a card to the focused column
e or Enter	edit the selected card
H / L (or < / >)	move the card to the previous / next column
Space	send the card to Done (from Done, back to Backlog)
J / K	reorder the card down / up within its column
d or x	delete the selected card
Tab or s	jump into the scratchpad; Tab/Esc there saves and returns
Ctrl-P (in scratchpad)	promote the line under the cursor into a Backlog card
r	reload from disk now
q or Ctrl-C	quit (saves first)

In the scratchpad, jot a thought on its own line and hit Ctrl-P to turn it into a Backlog card — the line moves out of your notes and onto the board.

Every change is saved immediately (atomically), so the file on disk always reflects what you see.

The file format

.board.md is just Markdown with four fixed ## sections:

## Backlog
- [ ] a card

## In Progress
- [ ] another card

## Done
- [x] a finished card

## Scratchpad
free-form notes — this section is kept verbatim, so it may safely contain
lines that look like ## headers or - [ ] cards

Notes:

• A card's column is decided by its section, not its checkbox. On save, Done cards are written as - [x] and the rest as - [ ]. (So if Claude ticks a box in Backlog, the card stays in Backlog — move it with Space or L to actually complete it.)
• The Scratchpad is always last and captured raw to end-of-file.
• Any preamble above the first header and any unknown ## Sections you (or Claude) add are preserved across saves — board won't delete content it doesn't model.
• While you're actively typing in the scratchpad, an external change to the scratch text won't clobber your edits; you'll see a hint and can reload with r after tabbing out.

Layout

cmd/board/main.go          entrypoint: resolve ./.board.md, load, run
internal/board/store.go    the data core — Markdown parse/serialize + atomic save
internal/ui/               Bubble Tea model, key routing, column rendering
internal/theme/theme.go    the "Reef" teal palette

Built with Bubble Tea v2, Bubbles v2, and Lip Gloss v2.

make test    # store round-trip/idempotency tests + headless model-update tests
make vet

License

MIT © Joey Beninghove