steveyegge / beads

bd - Beads **Distributed graph issue tracker for AI agents, powered by Dolt.** **Platforms:** macOS, Linux, Windows, FreeBSD Beads provides a persistent, structured memory for coding agents. It replaces messy markdown plans with a dependency-aware graph, allowing agents to handle long-horizon tasks without losing context. ⚡ Quick Start **Note:** Beads is a CLI tool you install once and use everywhere. You don't need to clone this repository into your project. 🛠 Features • **Dolt-Powered:** Version-controlled SQL database with cell-level merge, native branching, and built-in sync via Dolt remotes. • **Agent-Optimized:** JSON output, dependency tracking, and auto-ready task detection. • **Zero Conflict:** Hash-based IDs ( ) prevent merge collisions in multi-agent/multi-branch workflows. • **Compaction:** Semantic "memory decay" summarizes old closed tasks to save context window. • **Messaging:** Message issue type with threading ( ), ephemeral lifecycle, and mail delegation. • **Graph Links:** , , , and for knowledge graphs. 📖 Essential Commands | Command | Action | | --- | --- | | | List tasks with no open blockers. | | | Create a P0 task. | | | Atomically claim a task (sets assignee + in_progress). | | | Link tasks (blocks, related, parent-child). | | | View task details and audit trail. | 🔗 Hierarchy & Workflow Beads supports hierarchical IDs for epics: • (Epic) • (Task) • (Sub-task) **Stealth Mode:** Run to use Beads locally without committing files to the main repo. Perfect for personal use on shared projects. See Git-Free Usage below. **Contributor vs Maintainer:** When working on open-source projects: • **Contributors** (forked repos): Run to route planning issues to a separate repo (e.g., ). Keeps experimental work out of PRs. • **Maintainers** (write access): Beads auto-detects maintainer role via SSH URLs or HTTPS with credentials. Only need if using GitHub HTTPS without credentials but you have write access. 📦 Installation • **npm:** • **Homebrew:** • **Go:** **Requirements:** Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, or Windows. Security And Verification Before trusting any downloaded binary, verify its checksum against the release . The install scripts verify release checksums before install. For manual installs, do this verification yourself before first run. On macOS, preserves the downloaded signature by default. Local ad-hoc re-signing is explicit opt-in via . See docs/ANTIVIRUS.md for Windows AV false-positive guidance and verification workflow. 🌐 Community Tools See docs/COMMUNITY_TOOLS.md for a curated list of community-built UIs, extensions, and integrations—including terminal interfaces, web UIs, editor extensions, and native apps. 🚀 Git-Free Usage Beads works without git. The Dolt database is the storage backend — git integration (hooks, repo discovery, identity) is optional. tells bd where to put the database directory, bypassing git repo discovery. sets in config, disabling all git hook installation and git operations. This is useful for: • **Non-git VCS** (Sapling, Jujutsu, Piper) — no directory needed • **Monorepos** — point at a specific subdirectory • **CI/CD** — isolated task tracking without repo-level side effects • **Evaluation/testing** — ephemeral databases in For daemon mode without git, use (see PR #433). 📝 Documentation • Installing | Agent Workflow | Copilot Setup | Articles | Sync Branch Mode | Troubleshooting | FAQ •