Task/Management/Git-Friendly/26/05/Comparison

• Git-friendly task manager comparison

  • Evaluation criteria

    • A good replacement for this repo should store task state in Git-friendly text files or Git-native objects, avoid SQLite as the committed source of truth, and work from a CLI without requiring a hosted service.
    • It should be legible to AI coding agents without dumping huge JSONL blobs into context, support basic issue states and dependencies, and have a clear ready/blocked view for resuming work.

  • Candidates

    • In order of current preference, high to low
    • BeansTasks

      • hmans/beans

        • CLI/Tool that implements a git-backed issue tracker for AI agents.

        • Data Model

          • Markdown stored in .beans/

        • My Notes

          • includes a TUI
          • by 2026-05-26 Tue
            • ~800 GitHub/Stars
            • hasn't been updated in a month
          • creator Person/Hendrik Mans has many established Open Source projects
          • includes AI/Coding/Tool/Plugins
            • Claude Code Plugin
            • OpenCode/Plugin

        • Engineering Choices

          • written in Go

        • Installation

          • Getting the Executable

            • GitHub/Release Releases · hmans/beans

              • install with mise

                • mise use -g hmans/beans

            • brew brew install hmans/beans/beans

          • AI/Agent/Setup here

            • The most basic way to teach your agent about Beans is to simply add the following instruction to your AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, or equivalent file:

            • **IMPORTANT**: before you do anything else, run the `beans prime` command and heed its output.

            • Some agents provide mechanisms to automate this step:

            • Claude Code

              • The README says "An official Beans plugin for Claude is in the works" but one appears to be available at https://github.com/hmans/beans/blob/main/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

              • for the time being, please manually add the following hooks to your project's .claude/settings.json file:
                

                • {
                  "hooks": {
                    "SessionStart": [
                      { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "beans prime" }] }
                    ],
                    "PreCompact": [
                      { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "beans prime" }] }
                    ]
                  }
                  }
    • beadwork

      • jallum/beadwork

        • CLI/Tool that implements a git-backed issue tracker for AI agents.

        • Data/Model

          • plans, progress, and decisions live as files on an orphan branch instead of mixing into the main worktree.

        • My Notes

          • design.md looks like what I've thought about building

            • All data lives on a git orphan branch, manipulated directly in the object database via go-git. Every operation is an atomic commit. Sync uses fetch-rebase-push with intent replay on conflict.
              

            • For storage layout and sync mechanics, see docs/design.md.
              

          • ~44 GitHub/Stars as of 2026-05-26 Tue
          • includes Self/Update - To update an existing install: bw upgrade.

        • CLI commands

          • bw init                                           # initialize in any git repo
            bw onboard                                        # print bootstrap snippet for CLAUDE.md / GEMINI.md
            bw create "Fix auth bug" --type bug -p 1          # create an issue
            bw ready                                          # list unblocked work
            bw comment bw-a1b2 "Fixed in latest deploy"       # add a comment
            bw close bw-a1b2                                  # close it
            bw sync                                           # push to remote

        • Features

          • Dependencies - see bw dep

        • Engineering Choices

          • written in Go; see source for bw executable here

        • Installation

          • Getting the Executable

            • GitHub/Release jallum/beadwork/releases

              • Installing globally with mise

                • mise use -g jallum/beadwork

            • Installer script

              • curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jallum/beadwork/main/install.sh | sh

          • AI/Agent/Setup here

            • bw onboard prints a snippet for your project's agent instructions file (CLAUDE.md, GEMINI.md, etc.). Once installed, agents automatically load workflow context via bw prime at the start of each session.
              

    • ff

      • ff

        • Distributed note taker and task manager using RON CRDTs.
        • it's pretty bare-bones:

          • $ ff
            Actual:
              * buy milk
                id 458a1456lrc-12z3opnykw, start 2018-01-10
              * learn Haskell
                id 459h2tqxutq-24nuhr86ae, start 2018-01-14

        • Data/Model

          • Where stored:
            • Personal mode: configured via ff config dataDir; config is in XDG config at ff/config.yaml unless project mode applies.
            • Project mode: if run inside a Git repo, it creates/uses .ff in that repo. README example shows after ff add, the repo contains .ff .git, and you commit .ff.
          • On disk it appears collection-oriented, like:

            • .ff/
              config.yaml
              note/
                <RON-doc-id>
              tag/
                <RON-doc-id>
              contact/
                <RON-doc-id>
              tag_group/
                <RON-doc-id>

          • Core entities in ff-core/lib/FF/Types.hs:
            • Note
              • status: Active, Archived, or Wiki
              • text: mergeable RgaString
              • start, end: dates
              • tags: set of Tag refs
              • track: external issue-tracking metadata
              • links: set of Link refs
              • recurring: bool
            • Tag
              • text
              • desc
            • Contact
              • status
              • name
            • TagGroup
              • name
              • exclusive
              • member set
            • Link
              • target: note ref
              • type: currently SubNote for Hierarchy

        • My Notes

          • no dependency tracking per se, but it does include a parent/child model
          • as of 2026-05-26 Tue, has ~200 GitHub/Stars

        • Engineering Choices

          • written in Haskell

        • Installation

          • Getting the Executable

    • tk

      • wedow/ticket: Fast, powerful, git-native ticket tracking in a single bash script. Dependency graphs, priority levels, zero setup.

        • CLI/Tool that implements a git-backed issue tracker for AI agents.

        • Data Model

          • Markdown Yaml Frontmatter files in .tickets/.

        • My Notes

          • there's a "migrating from beads" section of the README with a Beads uninstall script migrate-beads
          • Rooted in the Unix/Philosophy
            • inspired by Person/Joe Armstrong/Blog/14/06/25/Minimal Viable Program
          • as of 2026-05-26 Tue, hasn't been updated in two months, probably because it's got a small surface area
          • uses Behavior/Driven/Development with the behave python library; see the features directory for files such as ticket_notes.feature.

        • Features

          • supposedly allows managing and querying against complex issue dependency graphs (unverified)

        • Engineering Choices

          • written in Shell/Script; see the ticket executable.

        • Installation

          • Getting the Exec/ut/able

            • brew

              • brew tap wedow/tools
                brew install ticket

            • git clone and symlink, then git pull for updates

          • AI/Agent/Setup

            • Agents.md

              • This project uses a CLI ticket system for task management. Run tk help when you need to use it.
                

  • Excluded

    • OpenSpec - it's not really a task manager. It's only oriented at "what's the next change"
    • td and td/sidecar remain useful references, but this garden's definition of Task/Management/Git-Friendly rejects SQLite-backed task state as not truly Git-friendly for this purpose.
    • HamsterBase Tasks and Will Be Done are interesting local-first task apps, but they are GUI or app-sync oriented rather than CLI repo-local Beads replacements.