gastownhall/beads

bd - Beads

Distributed graph issue tracker for AI agents, powered by Dolt.

Platforms: macOS, Linux, Windows, FreeBSD

Docs: https://beads.gascity.com/

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.

flowchart LR
    create["bd create
new bead"] --> depgraph["dependency
graph"]
    depgraph --> ready["bd ready
claimable work"]
    ready --> claim["bd update --claim
agent takes it"]
    claim --> close["bd close
work done"]
    close -->|blockers released| ready
    depgraph <-->|"bd dolt push / pull"| remote[("other machines
and agents")]

⚡ Quick Start

# Install beads CLI (system-wide - don't clone this repo into your project)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gastownhall/beads/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
Initialize in YOUR project
cd your-project
bd init
Optional: refresh or install richer instructions for your agent
bd setup codex    # Codex CLI - installs skill, AGENTS.md guidance, and hooks
bd setup claude   # Claude Code - installs hooks/settings
bd setup factory  # Factory.ai Droid - creates/updates AGENTS.md

Note: Beads is a CLI tool you install once and use everywhere. You don't need to clone this repository into your project.

bd init creates or updates AGENTS.md by default so agents can discover the beads workflow, and also installs project Claude/Codex integrations unless you pass --skip-agents or --stealth. Use bd setup --list to see supported integrations, including bd setup codex, bd setup factory, bd setup claude, bd setup mux, bd setup cursor, and more. See Agent and IDE setup.

Manual copy-paste is only for unsupported agents, existing projects where you cannot rerun bd init/bd setup, or custom instruction files. In those cases, run bd onboard and paste the printed snippet into the file your agent reads.

If your agent is not covered by bd setup, add this minimal AGENTS.md section:

This project uses bd (beads) for issue tracking.
Run bd prime for workflow context and command guidance.
Use bd ready, bd show , bd update  --claim, and bd close .
Use bd remember "insight" for persistent project memory; do not create MEMORY.md files.
Do not use markdown TODO lists for task tracking.

🛠 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 (bd-a1b2) 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 (--thread), ephemeral lifecycle, and mail delegation.
• Graph Links: relates-to, duplicates, supersedes, and replies-to for knowledge graphs.

📖 Essential Commands

| Command | Action | | --- | --- | | bd ready | List tasks with no open blockers. | | bd create "Title" -p 0 | Create a P0 task. | | bd update --claim | Atomically claim a task (sets assignee + in_progress). | | bd dep add | Link tasks (blocks, related, parent-child). | | bd show | View task details and audit trail. | | bd prime | Print agent workflow context and persistent memories. | | bd remember "insight" | Store project memory that bd prime injects later. |

🔗 Hierarchy & Workflow

Beads supports hierarchical IDs for epics:

• bd-a3f8 (Epic)
• bd-a3f8.1 (Task)
• bd-a3f8.1.1 (Sub-task)

Stealth Mode: Run bd init --stealth 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 bd init --contributor to route planning issues to a separate repo (e.g., ~/.beads-planning). Keeps experimental work out of PRs.
• Maintainers (write access): Beads auto-detects maintainer role via SSH URLs or HTTPS with credentials. Only need git config beads.role maintainer if using GitHub HTTPS without credentials but you have write access.

📦 Installation

brew install beads           # macOS / Linux (recommended)
npm install -g @beads/bd     # Node.js users

Other methods: install script | go install | from source | Windows | Arch AUR

Requirements: macOS, Linux, Windows, or FreeBSD. See docs/getting-started/installation.md for complete installation guide.

Upgrading? Replacing the binary is not always the whole story. Short version: sync remote-backed databases with your current bd, back up with bd export --all, upgrade the binary, then run bd info --whats-new, bd hooks install, and bd version. If the upgrade crosses a schema migration on a remote-backed database, exactly one designated clone runs bd migrate and bd dolt push; other clones install the new binary and run bd bootstrap. See the full upgrade guide or docs/getting-started/installation.md.

Security And Verification

Before trusting any downloaded binary, verify its checksum against the release checksums.txt.

The install scripts verify release checksums before install. For manual installs, do this verification yourself before first run.

On macOS, scripts/install.sh preserves the downloaded signature by default. Local ad-hoc re-signing is explicit opt-in via BEADS_INSTALL_RESIGN_MACOS=1.

See docs/reference/antivirus.md for Windows AV false-positive guidance and verification workflow.

💾 Storage Modes

Beads uses Dolt as its database. Two modes:

• Embedded (default) — bd init. Dolt runs in-process, data lives in

.beads/embeddeddolt/, single writer. Recommended for most users.

• Server — bd init --server. Connects to an external dolt sql-server

for multiple concurrent writers; data lives in .beads/dolt/.

Cross-machine sync uses bd dolt push / bd dolt pull against refs/dolt/data on your git remote; .beads/issues.jsonl is an export for viewers and interchange, not the source of truth or a backup. Back up and migrate between modes with bd backup; reclaim space with bd prune / bd purge.

Full detail — connection flags, sockets, maintenance, backup, and migration — in the Dolt backend guide.

Schema Version Guard

bd checks the database schema version at open time. If the database has been migrated by a newer binary and an older binary tries to open it, bd exits with an actionable error rather than issuing queries that fail with cryptic SQL errors:

`

schema version mismatch: database is at v45, binary knows up to v42 (3 migrations ahead)

Your bd binary is stale. Queries for dropped or renamed columns will fail
  with cryptic SQL errors (e.g. "column X could not be found in any table in scope").
Rebuild from main:
    CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -tags gms_pure_go ./cmd/bd
Or install the latest release:
    CGO_ENABLED=0 go install -tags gms_pure_go github.com/steveyegge/beads/cmd/bd@latest
To proceed despite the risk (some read commands may still work):
    BD_IGNORE_SCHEMA_SKEW=1 bd 
    bd --ignore-schema-skew 

`

When this fires: only when the database schema is ahead of the binary (a newer binary migrated the database; this binary doesn't know those migrations). Normal upgrades, where the binary migrates the database forward, are unaffected.

Escape hatch: BD_IGNORE_SCHEMA_SKEW=1 (or --ignore-schema-skew) bypasses the guard with a warning on stderr. Use this only if you know the forward migrations are additive and safe for your specific workload.

🌐 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.

See docs/related-projects.md for adjacent or complementary projects that solve different problems in the same neighborhood.

🚀 Git-Free Usage

Beads works without git. The Dolt database is the storage backend — git integration (hooks, repo discovery, identity) is optional.

# Initialize without git
export BEADS_DIR=/path/to/your/project/.beads
bd init --quiet --stealth
All core commands work with zero git calls
bd create "Fix auth bug" -p 1 -t bug
bd ready --json
bd update bd-a1b2 --claim
bd prime
bd close bd-a1b2 "Fixed"

BEADS_DIR tells bd where to put the .beads/ database directory, bypassing git repo discovery. --stealth sets no-git-ops: true in config, disabling all git hook installation and git operations.

This is useful for:

• Non-git VCS (Sapling, Jujutsu, Piper) — no .git/ directory needed
• Monorepos — point BEADS_DIR at a specific subdirectory
• CI/CD — isolated task tracking without repo-level side effects
• Evaluation/testing — ephemeral databases in /tmp

📝 Documentation

• Documentation site | Installing | Sync Concepts | Agent Workflow | Copilot CLI Setup | Copilot VS Code MCP | Articles | Sync Branch Mode | Troubleshooting | FAQ
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