Kanera

[Kanera Autumn Campaign Launch board showing cards organised into shared lists]

Kanera coordinates assigned, active, blocked, and completed work across projects, clients, and teams from one fast, polished workspace. It brings boards, structured tasks, dependency maps and timelines, notes, assignments, progress history, automation, and integrations into one focused system—more visibility than a basic Kanban board without the overhead of a heavyweight work suite.

Use the hosted service and get started in minutes, or self-host Kanera on your own infrastructure.

One place for moving work forward

• Plan in the view that fits. Move between Kanban, Table, Calendar, Dependencies, My Cards, Team Cards, and Work Done without duplicating work.
• See what unblocks the team. Connect prerequisites across boards, trace the chain in Map, Timeline, or Steps, spot risks and bottlenecks, and edit blocking links directly on the map.
• Keep the details with the task. Add descriptions, comments, attachments, labels, custom fields, watchers, and assignable checklist items to cards.
• Connect the code to the task. Link GitHub pull requests automatically through card keys, follow their review and merge states, and render commit links with readable change summaries.
• Set clear priorities. Use Home and a ranked Up next queue to keep urgent work visible across every board.
• Make progress visible. Review what was created, moved, completed, or checked off without chasing another status update.
• Keep knowledge nearby. Use personal, workspace, and board notes for decisions, processes, references, and project context, with Scratchpad ready for quick capture.
• Stay in flow from the keyboard. Open search and personal tools, jump between core pages, switch board views, create cards, and update an open card with contextual shortcuts. Press ? to see what is available.
• Delegate to AI agents. Give your agent cards to work on, follow live runs and blockers, and review results with clear agent attribution.
• Automate and integrate. Handle repetitive updates with trigger-based automations, post card activity into Slack, Discord, Telegram, or Zulip, and connect other tools through the REST API, webhooks, and MCP server.
• Get told what matters, where you want it. Choose per notification type whether an update reaches email, browser push, ntfy, Gotify, or your own webhook, then add per-workspace exceptions so one busy board does not drown out the rest.
• Work together in real time. Stay current with live updates, mentions, activity history, and controlled guest access.
• Work from any screen. The full Kanera experience adapts to phones, tablets, and desktops, and installs as a PWA on iOS, Android, and desktop.

Workspaces and standalone boards

Organisation  ├─ Workspace  │    └─ Board  │         └─ Card  └─ Standalone board       └─ Card

Use a workspace when several boards should follow the same operating model. Lists, labels, custom fields, checklist templates, and automations are configured once and used across its boards, keeping workflows and reporting consistent as projects grow.

That means a status like In Review or a field like Client has the same meaning everywhere—no rebuilding each board or reconciling mismatched setups later.

For work that does not need to share that setup, create a standalone board. It keeps its own lists, labels, custom fields, checklist templates, automations, members, access, and integrations independently of your workspaces.

Work with AI agents, with progress you can see

Use Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, or another agent you already work with to pick up cards, read their context, carry out tasks, and report back in Kanera. Agent work stays on the same boards as your team's work, with live progress, visible blockers, and a record of who did what for whom.

Know what is running and what needs you

An agent opens a run before multi-step work and updates it with a short progress note. Everyone viewing the board sees a live chip on the card; it turns amber when the agent is waiting on a person. Open the card to see the agent, its current work, and when it last reported. A pull request or session link can take you straight to the result.

[Kanera card detail showing a live Claude run, an agent-attributed comment, and the All, Comments and Agents activity filters]

When the run ends, its outcome and closing summary stay in the card's activity. Runs that stop reporting are marked stalled after fifteen minutes, so an interrupted agent does not leave work looking active. A blocked run makes the wait visible; the agent should also comment with its question so watchers and assignees are notified.

Follow your agent's work without losing attribution

With an OAuth connection, comments and changes show the person the agent acted for plus a via Claude, via Codex, or other agent badge. That includes browser sign-in through the CLI: name the agent with kanera auth login --agent "Claude Code". Personal API keys attribute actions to their owner without a via badge; workspace and board keys use the key's name.

[Kanera notification drawer on the Agent tab showing a comment on the campaign tracking card attributed to Amelia Hart via Codex]

Your agent's changes can notify you even though it acts on your behalf. The Agent tab brings those updates together, and Work Done distinguishes agent output from your own actions. Agents still operate within the connected person's current board permissions, and read-only credentials prevent writes at the server.

Read more about agent runs, attribution, and the Agent Workflow template.

Connect your agent through MCP or the CLI

The CLI and the MCP server expose the same tool layer, so anything an agent can do over MCP it can also do with kanera from a shell. That includes the Timeline view's schedule: work.schedule (CLI kanera schedule <boardId>, SDK kanera.work.schedule()) returns the critical path, slack in working days, scheduling conflicts and the projected finish for a board or workspace, so an agent can answer "when will this finish" and "what slips if this moves" with the same numbers the chart shows, and the schedule.conflict_detected and schedule.critical_path_slipped events, or scheduling_conflict_appears / critical_path_slips automations, tell it when a plan needs attention. Try the CLI without installing it:

npx -y @kanera/cli commands

Read-only credentials are enforced by the server, and self-hosted Kanera exposes its own MCP address and API for the same CLI and SDK. See Work with coding agents from the terminal for picking up cards and reporting progress from Claude Code or Codex.

A board for delegating work and reviewing results

Start with the Agent Workflow template: Backlog → Agent Working → Waiting on Me → Review → Done. Describe the task on a card, then ask your agent to pick it up. Following Kanera's agent instructions, it moves the card as work starts, needs your input, or finishes. You review the result and decide when it belongs in Done.

[Kanera Agent Workflow board with Backlog, Agent Working, Waiting on Me, Review, and Done lists, including live agent run chips]

The workflow combines ordinary cards with agent runs. Runs track a working session; card moves remain explicit actions by the agent or a person, so starting or finishing a run does not silently move the card.

See Kanera in action

Home keeps today and the week in focus

Start with overdue work, items due today, the next seven days, and recent progress in one focused view. Jump back into active boards and scan the week without opening each project separately.

[Kanera Home showing Amelia's focus tiles, recent progress, ranked Up next queue, recent boards, and activity in dark mode]

Boards and shared lists keep the workflow visible

Move cards through lists while keeping labels, assignees, due dates, checklist progress, and visual covers in view. Boards in a workspace share the same ordered lists, so stages such as Intake, In progress, Review, and Done remain consistent across related projects.

[Kanera Autumn Campaign Launch board showing cards organised into shared lists]

Keyboard shortcuts keep routine actions close

Press ? to open a shortcut sheet that reflects the current screen. Use two-key sequences to jump to Home, My Cards, Team Cards, or Settings; single keys to open Scratchpad, Up next, notifications, and board tools; and contextual card shortcuts for assignment, labels, due dates, lists, completion, watching, and copying links. Letter shortcuts automatically stand down while you type.

[Kanera keyboard shortcut sheet showing global, navigation, board, and open-card actions]

Up next keeps priorities in order

Build one ranked queue from cards assigned to you across every accessible board. Reorder it as priorities change, keep source boards and due dates visible, and see the same order on Home, My Cards, board cards, and Table.

[Kanera My Cards showing a ranked Up next queue beside assigned work]

Table view turns live work into structured reports

Group and sort cards by list, assignee, due date, label, status, or custom field, then choose the columns that matter and edit any of them in place. Numeric custom fields support sum and average aggregates per group, with a second breakdown dimension for questions such as hours by client and work type.

Export the filtered result to Excel as a multi-sheet workbook containing card rows, spreadsheet-friendly summaries, and a readable report when aggregates are enabled.

[Kanera Platform Delivery Table view showing grouped card rows, configurable columns, and export controls]

Team Cards Overview shows what everyone is busy with

Open Overview in Team Cards to see everyone’s work across boards. One panel per teammate answers "what is each person working on, and what is next?" without opening each board in turn: their In progress cards longest-running first with time in progress, what they recently moved or created themselves, the head of their Up next queue, their other assigned cards by due date, and what they finished this week. Open, In progress, Overdue, and Done counts expand into the full list, in-progress work with no assignee gets its own panel, and folding a section folds it for everyone.

[Kanera Team overview with panels for Ben Ortega, Grace Liu, and Henry Walsh showing their In progress cards with time in progress, recent activity, Up next, and assigned work]

Pick one teammate to see just their panel with their Up next queue docked beside it. Reorder their queue, and queue what they should do next from the open cards they have not queued yet, listed soonest due first.

[Kanera Team overview focused on Ben Ortega with his ranked Up next queue and the open cards not yet queued docked beside his panel]

Dependencies show what can move next

Connect cards with Blocks, Blocked by, or Relates to relationships, including across boards. Kanera makes blocked work visible and shows when the last active prerequisite clears, helping the next person pick up the handoff.

Open Dependencies on a board, in My Cards, or in Team Cards. Follow the chain in Map, compare due weeks in Timeline, or read a numbered Steps list that adapts to your phone. On a workspace board, switch between the board's chains and the wider workspace while keeping each card's source and permissions intact.

[Kanera Dependencies Map showing connected prerequisites, blocked cards, owners, and filters for Blocked, At risk, Start here, and Ready]

Find Blocked, At risk, Start here, and Ready work without losing the chain around it. The biggest bottleneck points to the card holding up the most open work; Critical path highlights the longest routes by number of open cards. Timeline aligns every chain to shared due-week columns and marks prerequisites due after their dependents in amber.

[Kanera Dependencies Timeline aligning connected cards by due week and marking scheduling risks in amber]

In Map or Timeline, drag from a card's + handle to add a blocking link, or select a connector to remove it. Tap-to-link and keyboard controls work too, with Undo and Redo for your map edits. Changes update live, and agents can inspect the same chains through MCP, the CLI, SDK, or REST API.

Read the Dependencies view, timeline, and editing guide or learn about card relationships and blocking.

Timeline view plans the work ahead

Give a card a start date next to its due date and the board's Timeline view draws it as a bar on a Gantt-style chart, grouped by list, assignee or label. Drag a bar to reschedule it (its working-day length is kept), pull an end to change its length, click an empty lane to place an unscheduled card, and drag from one bar's end to another to make the second wait on the first. Critical path runs a working-day schedule over the board's blocking links, highlights the chain with no slack, fades the rest and shows how far each other card could slip. Cards whose prerequisite is planned to finish after they start are flagged as scheduling conflicts.

[Kanera campaign Timeline with start-to-finish bars grouped by list and connected by dependency wires]

Read the Timeline and Start Dates guide for working-day scheduling, desktop and phone controls, MCP planning examples, and schedule events.

Keep GitHub pull requests and commits with the work

Keep implementation and review beside the task's requirements, discussion, and delivery history.

Pull requests link themselves and stay in sync

Connect your organisation's GitHub App, then include a card key such as KAN-123 in a pull request's branch name, title, or description. Copy branch name in card detail or the card menu gives you a branch name containing the key.

The card's Pull requests section shows the repository, PR number, title, and added and deleted lines when available. GitHub webhooks keep draft, open, merged, and closed states current, and linking and state changes appear in the card's activity. Open any entry to jump straight to the review on GitHub.

[Kanera card showing merged and open GitHub pull requests with repository names and line changes, beside commit and PR previews in a comment]

Pull requests from forks are ignored. Self-hosted deployments can bootstrap the GitHub App in-app or supply its credentials, and must configure webhook delivery for PR sync; see GitHub App setup and webhook configuration.

Commit links become readable change summaries

Paste a GitHub commit URL into a card comment and save it to see the commit title, short SHA, repository, changed-file count, and added and deleted lines when available. Pull request links also render rich previews, so implementation and review updates stay readable in the conversation. The same rendering works in descriptions and notes, with support for repository, issue, and release links too.

[Kanera card comment rendering a GitHub commit and pull request as rich previews with titles, repository names, changed-file counts, and added and deleted lines]

Public repository previews work without a GitHub App connection. Connect the App to preview private repositories it can access in workspace and board content.

Notifications keep important changes together

Review mentions, assignments, comments, due-date changes, and other updates without losing the board context behind them. Group the feed by day, board, or person, narrow it to one board or one colleague, and search it by card, board, or list.

[Kanera notification drawer over a project board]

Then decide where each notification type reaches you: email, browser push, ntfy, Gotify, or a signed webhook of your own. Per-workspace rules pause or narrow a single noisy workspace without weakening your account defaults, and the in-app drawer always keeps the complete history regardless of what is switched off elsewhere.

Rich cards keep the work and its context together

Descriptions, custom fields, checklists, due dates, comments, attachments, and activity all live in one focused card view.

[Kanera card detail showing custom fields, an assignable checklist, comments, and activity]

Team Cards brings assigned work together across boards

See the whole visible team or focus on one teammate without losing each card's board, list, fields, or permissions. Switch between Board, Team overview, Table, Calendar, Dependencies, and Work Done views to review ownership, workload, and execution order across projects.

[Kanera Team Cards focused on Ben Ortega with his ranked Up next queue beside assigned work across accessible boards]

Automations keep routine work moving

Build automations from a When trigger and ordered Do actions. Triggers can respond when cards enter or leave lists, a custom field changes to a selected value, a due date approaches or arrives, a start date arrives, assignments and labels change, checklists or cards complete, or a card reaches the configured inactivity period. Kanera can then add labels, assign people, apply checklist templates, set due dates and custom fields, move cards, or mark work complete. Automations can belong to one standalone board or run across every board in a workspace.

[Kanera automation builder showing a trigger and ordered card actions]

Work Done shows what actually moved forward

Review a daily history of cards created, moved, and completed, plus finished checklist items. Use it on a board, My Cards, or Team Cards for standups, async updates, progress reviews, and client check-ins.

[Kanera Work Done view showing a daily history of card and checklist progress]

Fully functional on mobile and installable as a PWA

Kanera's responsive, touch-friendly interface keeps boards, cards, Table, Calendar, My Cards, Team Cards, notifications, settings, and the rest of the product available on phones and tablets. Use it in the browser or install the PWA on iOS, Android, or desktop. Installed devices support push notifications, and recently opened boards remain available for browsing when the connection drops.

Explore the full product tour at kanera.app/features.

Move to Kanera without starting over

Kanera includes guided importers for Trello JSON, Kanera board JSON exports, and CSV files. Upload an export, map its columns or workspace data, review the result, then confirm a controlled one-time import. Kanera can preserve attachment links and copy supported uploaded files when Trello is connected for the import. Your original board or file stays unchanged, and later source changes are not synced automatically.

For Jira, ClickUp, Asana, monday.com, Notion, Linear, spreadsheets, or an internal system, export one representative project as CSV and use the CSV importer. Review its columns, users, dates, and multi-value fields before importing the full project.

• Import from Trello
• Explore migration options

Hosted or self-hosted

Hosted Kanera is the simplest way to get started. New accounts include a 30-day Pro trial with no card required; teams can then stay on Free or upgrade to Pro. Pro adds unlimited boards and automations, board guests for clients and contractors, the REST API, webhooks, chat destinations, personal notification channels, and email support, typically within one business day. See current pricing.

Self-hosted Kanera has no plan gating and no per-seat charges. Everything above is included, including guests, the REST API, webhooks, chat destinations, and personal notification channels. You control the infrastructure, storage, maintenance, and backups.

• Self-hosting guide
• Docker deployment
• Dokploy deployment
• Releasing and npm publishing

For developers

Kanera is a pnpm monorepo built with Angular 22, Fastify 5, Socket.IO 4, PostgreSQL 18, Drizzle ORM, and Valkey.

For AI tools and automated research, see the LLM-readable documentation index.

apps/api/           Fastify API, worker, public API, and migrationsapps/web/           Angular web applicationapps/admin-web/     Angular administration applicationapps/mcp/           MCP server for AI clientsapps/cli/           kanera command-line interface for terminals and AI agentspackages/sdk/       @kanera/sdk TypeScript client for the public APIpackages/shared/    Shared schema, DTOs, events, and workspace defaultsdocker/             Local and production support files

Local setup

You will need Node.js 24, pnpm 11 (usually through corepack enable), and Docker.

pnpm installcp .env.example .env
pnpm dev:dbpnpm db:migratepnpm dev

Open http://localhost:4200.

The example environment uses PostgreSQL on localhost:5433 and Valkey on localhost:6379. Replace JWT_SECRET and MEDIA_SIGNING_SECRET with unique random values before exposing the application outside your machine. See .env.full.example for optional settings and defaults.

To load a realistic demo workspace:

pnpm dev:db:reset:seed

Seed account details are documented in dev-db-seed-content/README.md.

Useful commands

pnpm dev                  # API :3000 + worker :3003 + web :4200pnpm dev:public-api       # Public integration API on :3001pnpm dev:mcp              # MCP server on :3002pnpm cli -- whoami        # Run the kanera CLI from the workspacepnpm dev:db               # Start local PostgreSQL and Valkeypnpm dev:db:down          # Stop local database servicespnpm db:generate          # Generate Drizzle migrationspnpm db:migrate           # Apply pending migrationspnpm build                # Build and type-check all packagespnpm lint                 # Type-check and lint all packagespnpm test                 # Run unit and integration test suitespnpm test:api             # Run API unit and route testspnpm test:cli             # Run CLI testspnpm test:sdk             # Run SDK testspnpm test:api:integration # Run API integration tests with isolated PostgreSQL

Architecture at a glance

• Flexible board model: workspaces share lists, labels, and custom fields across their boards, while standalone boards keep their configuration isolated.

• Realtime collaboration: REST is the write path and Socket.IO fans out typed events to connected clients.

• Durable events: board- and workspace-scoped events are recorded in an outbox for cross-process realtime delivery and webhooks.

• Integrations: workspace API keys support external tools without exposing user credentials.

• Delivery outside the app: chat destinations are webhook endpoints with a provider set, so Slack, Discord, Telegram, and Zulip reuse the webhook worker, retry policy, and delivery history. Personal notification channels run through the push queue, with HMAC-signed payloads for user-owned endpoints.

• Agent-native MCP: OAuth-capable AI clients can connect with short-lived tokens, structured tool results, explicit safety annotations, and auditable access. An organisation admin can hand a connected agent a blank account and have it bootstrap workspaces and standalone boards from templates.

• Typed API client: @kanera/sdk wraps the public API with card-key resolution, cursor iteration, idempotent retries, and webhook signature verification. See packages/sdk/README.md.

• Agent-native CLI: kanera exposes the same tool layer as the MCP server to any agent that can run shell commands, with a machine-readable command catalog and exit codes that distinguish "not permitted" from "failed". Try it without a global install using npx -y @kanera/cli commands, or install it with npm install --global @kanera/cli.

Kanera also supports MCP event subscriptions for card creation, updates, moves, and new comments, delivered through verified HTTPS callbacks. See MCP events for filtering, subscription lifetimes, and deployment checks.

Hosted MCP clients connect to https://mcp.kanera.app/mcp. See the AI and MCP guide for supported clients and setup instructions. For the command line, see apps/cli/README.md.

License

Kanera is source available under the Elastic License 2.0. You may inspect, modify, and self-host it for your own use, but may not provide Kanera to third parties as a hosted or managed service.

The @kanera/sdk API client is the exception: it is MIT licensed so it can be embedded in any application without license-policy friction.

The Kanera name, logo, and brand assets are covered separately by TRADEMARKS.md.