A lightweight, local-first task board that stores its data as plain markdown
files inside your project's git repo. Releases, epics and tasks live in a
.boardown/ folder next to your code, so they version, branch and diff with
the rest of the project — no cloud, no server, no account.
Usage
Open the folder that contains (or should contain) your board in VS Code.
Click the board icon in the top-right corner of the editor, or run
Boardown: Open Board from the Command Palette.
The board reads .boardown/ from the open workspace folder. On a fresh
project, the onboarding modal writes config.yaml and the board is created on
first save. Data is saved straight back to the markdown files on every change.
By default the board auto-refreshes when its .boardown/ files change on
disk — so edits made via git, the CLI, or another editor show up without a
manual reload. Turn it off with the boardown.autoRefresh setting to refresh
on demand via the Reload button instead. If a file you've changed in the
board was also changed on disk underneath you, a conflict modal lets you reload
instead of overwriting.
Features
Backlog, Board and Archive views: a Jira-style backlog, a kanban for the
current release, and a read-only archive of finished releases.
Releases with a future → current → finished lifecycle, with start /
complete actions and unfinished-task relocation on completion.
Epics that group tasks across releases and double as the backlog's
storage, usable as a filter dimension.
Task checklists and notes: each task can carry a lightweight todo
checklist (shown as a done/total badge) and timestamped notes (shown as a
count badge), edited in the task dialog.
Drag & drop to move tasks between statuses, releases and the backlog, and
to reorder within a section.
Auto-refresh on external file changes (toggle via boardown.autoRefresh).
Plain-markdown storage in .boardown/, committed to git like the rest of
your code — no cloud, no server, no account, and git is your history and
backup.
