The KanbanThing CLI

kanbanthing is a terminal client for a KanbanThing board. It signs in to a board with its link and password, then creates boards, lists, adds, edits and moves cards, and manages columns from a shell. Every command takes --json, so a script or an AI agent can drive the same board a person has open in a browser.

Install

Requires Node 20 or newer. The CLI is not on npm yet — until it is, build it from source:

git clone https://github.com/tronschell/kanban-cli
cd kanban-cli
npm install && npm run build
node dist/cli.js --help

The binary is called kanban. Once the package is published, this becomes:

npm i -g kanbanthing

Quickstart

Sign in with the board link you already share with your team. The board password is asked for once and kept on this machine.

kanban login https://www.kanbanthing.com/board?id=<board-id>
kanban add "Write the spec"
kanban ls
kanban mv "Write the spec" Done

Commands

Command	Meaning
login <board-url>	Sign in to a board and remember it on this machine
logout	Forget the stored credentials for a board
boards	List the boards you are signed in to
use <alias>	Set the board later commands run against
create <name>	Create a board and sign in to it
board	Show the current board: name, columns and expiry
ls [--column <name>] [--all]	List cards, optionally in one column
add <title>	Add a card
mv <card> <column>	Move a card to another column
edit <card>	Change a card's title, description, colour or due date
rm <card>	Delete a card
columns	List the columns on the board
column add <name>	Add a column
column rename <col> <name>	Rename a column
column rm <col>	Delete a column and the cards in it
rename <name>	Rename the board
password	Change the board password
share	Print the board's share link
delete	Delete the board
version	Print the CLI version
help [command]	Show usage for the CLI or one command

Every command runs against the board set by use, or the one named by --board.

Global flags

Flag	Meaning
--json	Machine-readable output on every command
--board <alias\|uuid>	Run this command against a board other than the default
--no-color	Plain output with no ANSI escapes
--help	Usage for the CLI, or for the command in front of it
--version	Print the version and exit

For AI agents

Add --json to any command and it prints a JSON object instead of formatted text. To sign in without a prompt, set KANBAN_BOARD to a board id or URL and KANBAN_PASSWORD to its password.

export KANBAN_BOARD=<board-id>
export KANBAN_PASSWORD=<board-password>
kanban ls --json

Exit codes:

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Error
2	Usage error
3	Authentication failure
4	Not found

Source

The CLI is open source at github.com/tronschell/kanban-cli.

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