Task board

Each project has a task board. Open it with Board (⌘2, Linux: Ctrl+Shift+2). Tasks can live on a local board, in GitHub issues or in GitLab issues, and you start an agent on a task without copying it by hand.

Choose the board source

1. Open Settings (⌘,, Linux: Ctrl+,) › Projects › Board source.
2. Pick Local Board, GitHub or GitLab.

Switching source deletes nothing. To set up GitHub or GitLab, see Connect GitHub and GitLab.

Use the local board

The local board needs no account. Click Use Local Board on an empty board to start.

• Columns: Backlog, Todo, In Progress, In Review, Done, Canceled.
• Each task has a priority, labels (Bug, Feature, Improvement, Documentation), a due date, comments and a Markdown description.
• You can delete a task.

Create a task

1. Click New Task.
2. Write a title and a description in Markdown.
3. Set the priority, labels or due date if you need them.

Start an agent on a task

1. Select a task and click Start Agent (⌘⏎, Linux: Ctrl+Enter).
2. Choose a profile and a folder.
3. Kanbell pastes the title and the description into the agent's input. It does not send them.
4. Read the text and press Enter.

A task in Todo moves to In Progress. Start Agent works with Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI, and is refused for shells. Kanbell warns you about hidden text (HTML comments, invisible characters) and about tasks written by external authors.

Publish the result

When the agent is done, click Publish Summary. After you confirm, Kanbell posts the agent's last message as a comment and moves the issue to In Review. It never does this on its own.

You can also tie things together by hand:

• Link to Issue… connects a session to an issue.
• Link Session… connects an issue to a session.

Let agents use the board

Inside Kanbell terminals, agents can call "$KANBELL_CLI" to read and update the board:

"$KANBELL_CLI" help
"$KANBELL_CLI" list
"$KANBELL_CLI" show 9
"$KANBELL_CLI" create "Title" --column backlog --description "..."
"$KANBELL_CLI" move 9 in_progress
"$KANBELL_CLI" comment 9 "Text"

Columns are backlog, todo, in_progress, in_review, done and canceled.

• "$KANBELL_CLI" only exists in terminals opened by Kanbell, not in Terminal.app or iTerm.
• On a GitHub or GitLab board it is read-only: list and show only.
• It never deletes or renames a task.
• Claude Code sessions on a local-board project get a short brief that points to it automatically.
• For Codex and Gemini CLI, tell the agent: Run "$KANBELL_CLI" help.

Good to know

• GitHub boards work with github.com only. Columns follow Open / closed or 1 to 5 Labels. There is no delete, assign, priority or due date, and the board shows the most recent issues.
• GitLab boards work with gitlab.com and self-hosted servers. Columns follow state or 1 to 5 labels.
• What you can change on GitHub or GitLab depends on your token and role. See Connect GitHub and GitLab.

Related: Sessions and terminals, Board feature.