kb

An automated Kanban board for VS Code. You add high-level ideas to your task list, and a team of AI agents triage, execute, review, and merge them, all inside your editor.

Getting started

1. Install the extension
2. Open the command palette → KB: Open Dashboard
3. Create a task — the AI takes it from there

A status bar item (kb) is always visible at the bottom. Click it to open the dashboard.

The dashboard

The dashboard gives you:

• A live kanban board — tasks move through columns automatically as AI works on them
• Task detail view — see the generated spec, step-by-step progress, reviewer verdicts, and full execution log
• Dependency-aware scheduling — declare dependencies between tasks or let the engine infer them; work starts in the right order automatically
• Auto-merge — on by default; reviewed work squash-merges into your branch without you liftin5g a finger
• Parallel execution — independent tasks run simultaneously in isolated git worktrees
• Self-sustaining board — agents spawn follow-up tasks as they work: edge cases, technical debt, refactors they didn't want to scope-creep into

How it works

You create a task with a rough description. From there, a pipeline of specialized agents takes over.

Specification

A triage agent reads your codebase — file structure, existing patterns, related code — and turns your rough idea into a detailed specification. It breaks the work into discrete steps, identifies which files are in scope, writes acceptance criteria, and assigns a complexity rating that determines how aggressively the work gets reviewed later.

Scheduling

Tasks declare dependencies on each other. The scheduler builds a dependency graph and starts work only when upstream tasks are done. Independent tasks run in parallel, each in its own isolated git worktree, ensuring there are no conflicts during execution.

Execution & review

An executor agent works through the spec step by step in the worktree. At each step boundary, a separate reviewer agent, with read-only access, independently evaluates the work. The reviewer can approve (continue), request revisions (fix specific issues), or force a rethink (change the approach entirely). Review depth scales with the task's complexity rating: trivial tasks get light checks, complex tasks get thorough multi-pass review. This execution model is heavily based on Taskplane.

Merge

When execution finishes and the reviewer signs off, the task moves to "in review." By default, the completed work is automatically squash-merged into your current branch with a clean commit. Worktrees can be cleaned up after merge or reused by the next task to keep build caches warm. You can disable auto-merge if you prefer to review and merge manually.

Tasks flow through: Triage → Todo → In Progress → In Review → Done.

Theme integration

The dashboard automatically adapts to your VS Code color theme: light, dark, or custom. No configuration needed.

Commands

Also available as

• pi extension — manage tasks from chat with pi install npm:@dustinbyrne/kb
• Standalone CLI — npm i -g @dustinbyrne/kb then kb dashboard

License

ISC