pad

Pad

Project Management for the agent era.

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One binary. Local-first. No accounts required. Pad gives you a CLI, a web UI, and an AI agent skill — all backed by SQLite, all running on your machine. Your project data never leaves your laptop.

Quick Start

brew install PerpetualSoftware/tap/pad
cd your-project
pad init                    # configure, auth, workspace, AI skill — all in one
pad server open             # opens the web UI at localhost:7777

pad init is the smart entry point — it auto-detects what's needed, walks you through each step, and is safe to re-run anytime (it skips finished steps and prints a status summary).

Then, in a fresh agent session in your project, say:

/pad onboard

Your new workspace ships with the canonical onboard playbook auto-activated. The agent walks an interview, inspects your codebase if it has shell access, and adapts your workspace's collections, conventions, roles, and playbooks to match the project. It's the fastest way to go from empty workspace to "okay, this is mine."

Why Pad?

Tools like Linear, Jira, and Notion are built for teams on the cloud. Pad is built for developers on their machine — and for the AI agents working alongside them.

	Pad	Linear / Jira	Notion
Setup	pad init	Create account, invite team, configure	Create account, pick template
AI agents	Native /pad skill for 7+ tools	Third-party integrations	Third-party integrations
Data	Local SQLite, you own it	Their cloud	Their cloud
Offline	Full functionality	Read-only cache at best	Limited
CLI	First-class	Afterthought	None
Price	Free, open source	Per-seat pricing	Per-seat pricing

Features

For Developers

CLI that doesn't get in your way. Create tasks, search items, check status — without leaving the terminal.

pad item create task "Fix OAuth redirect" --priority high
pad item create idea "Real-time collaboration" --category infrastructure
pad item list tasks --status in-progress
pad item search "authentication"
pad project dashboard                   # Project dashboard
pad project next                        # What should I work on?
pad server info                         # How this client is connected to Pad

Web UI that stays out of your way. A clean, dark-themed interface at localhost:7777 with:

• Board, list, and table views — drag-and-drop between status columns
• Keyboard navigation — j/k to move, Enter to open, Esc to go back, Cmd+K to search
• Rich text editor — Tiptap-based with markdown, formatting toolbar, and auto-save
• Wiki-links — type [[Title]] to link between items
• Real-time updates — agent creates a task in the terminal, it appears in the browser instantly (via SSE)
• Dashboard — collection overview, active work, plan tracking, activity feed

For AI Agents