Installation

Get agentic-kanban running in under a minute. One Go binary, zero dependencies.

Quick install (curl pipe)

The fastest way for trusted environments:

shell
curl -sfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mrSamDev/agentic-kanban/main/install.sh | sh

This downloads the latest binary for your OS/arch and places it in /usr/local/bin. Requires curl and sh.

For production — pin a version

Use the GitHub Releases page to download a specific version and verify the checksum:

shell
# Download a specific release
curl -L -o kanban https://github.com/mrSamDev/agentic-kanban/releases/download/v0.1.12/kanban_linux_amd64
chmod +x kanban
./kanban --version

# Verify checksum (compare against the release page)
sha256sum kanban

Build from source

Requires Go 1.24 or later. Pure Go — no CGo needed.

shell
git clone https://github.com/mrSamDev/agentic-kanban.git
cd agentic-kanban
go build -o kanban ./cmd/kanban/
./kanban --version

Initialize a project

After installing, scaffold a new kanban project:

shell
cd your-project
kanban init

# Or with a plan file and harness:
kanban init --harness pi --plan plan.md

This creates .kanban/ with a SQLite database, agent .md files, and embedded skill files. See Commands reference for init options.

What gets created

tree
.kanban/
├── kanban.db          # SQLite database (coordination state)
├── agents/
│   ├── manager.md     # Manager agent definition
│   ├── worker.md      # Worker agent definition
│   └── reviewer.md    # Reviewer agent definition
├── skills/
│   ├── INDEX          # Skill index
│   ├── manager/       # Manager protocol skills
│   ├── worker/        # Worker protocol skills
│   └── reviewer/      # Reviewer protocol skills
└── hooks/             # Event hooks (optional, create as needed)

Upgrading

Re-run the curl install to get the latest binary. The database schema is automatically migrated on open — no manual steps. To check your current version:

shell
kanban --version

Troubleshooting

"command not found"

The installer places the binary in /usr/local/bin. Ensure it’s in your PATH. If you lack permissions, try sudo or install to ~/.local/bin.

Build fails

Ensure Go 1.24+ is installed. Run go version to check. If you see CGo errors, the project uses modernc.org/sqlite which is a pure-Go SQLite implementation — CGo is not required. File an issue if it persists.

Database locked

If you see database is locked errors, another kanban process is holding a write lock. The built-in retry loop (100ms/200ms/400ms backoff) handles transient contention. For persistent locks, check for stuck processes.