bd - Beads

Distributed graph issue tracker for AI agents, powered by [Dolt](https://github.com/dolthub/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<br/>new bead"] --> depgraph["dependency<br/>graph"]
    depgraph --> ready["bd ready<br/>claimable work"]
    ready --> claim["bd update --claim<br/>agent takes it"]
    claim --> close["bd close<br/>work done"]
    close -->|blockers released| ready
    depgraph <-->|"bd dolt push / pull"| remote[("other machines<br/>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 the project Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor 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 <id>`, `bd update <id> --claim`, and `bd close <id>`.
- Use `bd remember "insight"` for durable project facts; keep per-operator preferences in your harness's own memory.
- Do not use markdown TODO lists for task tracking.

🛠 Features

• [Dolt](https://github.com/dolthub/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

🔗 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 schema 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

Command and credential-target settings must come from your shell environment or user configuration, not .beads/.env. .beads/.env only admits non-command BEADS_* and BD_* variables plus the two Dolt remote credential variables (DOLT_REMOTE_USER, DOLT_REMOTE_PASSWORD); Beads ignores credential commands, mail delegates, editor, pager, Dolt executable/host/credential-file/root-path overrides, the rest of the dolt-owned DOLT_* namespace (such as DOLT_SSH_COMMAND and DOLT_PAGER), and non-Beads process variables (such as GIT_*, SSH_*, LD_*, and DYLD_*) in that file and prints a warning for each. bd config set mail.delegate "gt mail" writes to user-global YAML rather than the replicated database; the workspace settings API rejects mail.delegate. Mail delegation also ignores project .beads/config.yaml; only shell environment variables and user-global YAML can select the delegate.

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 <command>
    bd --ignore-schema-skew <command>

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.

🔌 HTTP Backend (experimental)

A workspace can also talk to a remote bd serve over HTTP instead of opening a local Dolt database — useful for a thin client against a shared server, or for embedding beads in another program as a library.

# Point this workspace at a server (verifies the server first; writes nothing on failure)
bd connect https://bd.example.com --expect-project-id my-project

# The everyday commands work the same way: create, show, list, update, close,
# dependencies (including `bd dep tree`), comments, ready/count queries, and
# batch apply all round-trip over the wire with the same semantics as a local
# database. So does `bd ready --claim`, except against an older server or while
# any issue holds an unsatisfied external ref: then it lists and claims in two
# steps rather than one transaction (ledger row L14, linked below).
bd create "Fix auth bug" -p 1 -t bug
bd ready --json
bd close bd-a1b2 "Fixed"

# Loopback needs no TLS
bd connect http://127.0.0.1:8080

# Forget the server and restore this workspace's previous backend selection
bd connect --clear

HTTP mode is not a byte-for-byte mirror of local mode, though: some operations are knowingly refused (the wire has no way to express them) or degrade to a different-but-not-misreadable behavior (for example, a few unbounded listing shapes lose single-query snapshot isolation and instead walk the server page by page). Every one of these is a deliberate, tested row, never a silent gap — see engdocs/design/http-divergence-ledger.md for the full, generated list of what differs and why before depending on an HTTP-backed workspace for a workflow you haven't checked against it. One refusal to know up front: bd close --claim-next closes nothing over HTTP, because the wire's batch close cannot carry the claim. Close without it, then run bd ready --claim.

Cross-repo dependencies keep their policy over HTTP. The client resolves each external: reference against its own external_projects configuration. bd dep tree shows the reference as a leaf, and while it is unsatisfied the issue stays out of bd ready and bd ready --claim, and bd close refuses it without --force. A server that advertises enforcing that policy itself is trusted to do so instead.

Three CLI-level differences are worth knowing up front:

• IDs resolve exactly: an abbreviated id is not expanded (the wire has no

substring search), and a missing id is reported as not found after one lookup.

• bd update -s closed does not record closed_by_session (from --session

or CLAUDE_SESSION_ID), because the wire's update cannot carry it; the close itself happens as usual. bd close does record the session. bd reopen's history entry carries the server's own label.

• Contributor auto-routing (routing.* settings) is read from local

config.yaml / environment only, never from the server's settings: its targets are local paths.

bd connect writes two things on success: .beads/metadata.json gets "backend": "http", and a per-user, never-git-tracked sidecar (.beads/http_target.json) records the server URL and pinned project id. It never writes a credential to disk. A bearer credential, if the server requires one, comes from BEADS_HTTP_TOKEN=host[:port]=<token>, then BEADS_HTTP_TOKEN_COMMAND=host[:port]=<command> (a helper that prints a token), then the credentials file, then no credential at all. Both variables must name the server they are for (a pattern without a port matches that host on any port); a bare value is refused, because it would be sent to whatever server the workspace's http_target.json names. Connecting to a non-loopback server over plain http:// is refused by default (a bearer credential would cross the network unencrypted) — pass --allow-plaintext to override, or use https://. Switching a workspace that already selects a different backend needs --force.

Each read (a GET, or the POST batch get) gives its first attempt 15s, from when the request is sent, to get the server's response headers (BEADS_HTTP_RESPONSE_HEADER_TIMEOUT: a duration such as 30s, a number of seconds, or off). A read whose headers do not arrive in time, or whose connection is reset, is retried once on another connection, and each retry is logged to stderr with its count. The retry has no header timer, but it runs on what is left of the 60s bound on the whole request, counted from when the first attempt was sent: a slow but healthy read still finishes if the retry's headers and body together fit in that remainder (about 45s after a header timeout), and one that needs longer now fails at 60s. The header timer never cuts off a body that is still streaming; the 60s bound still does. The events:watch stream's connect gets neither the header timer nor the retry. On Windows a reset connection is retried only when it surfaces as an early EOF, because the check matches the Unix reset error (ECONNRESET), which a Windows reset (WSAECONNRESET) is not. A write gets no header timer (the server answers a write only after it commits, so a large one can be slow and healthy) and is never retried; if the 60s bound expires after it was sent but before its headers, it fails with an error naming the server's host, because it may or may not have been applied. A batch apply of more than 100 items (a large bd create --graph plan, say) gets 6 minutes instead of 60s, because bd serve gives such a request its --large-apply-ceiling (5 minutes by default) and finishes it even after the client has given up. A server whose ceiling is raised past about 5m15s can still outlast the client. A dial or TLS timeout stays a plain connection error, since the server never saw the request, and a connect that fails says so: it names the address that refused the connection (nothing listening) or never answered (a filtered port or a down host, after the dialer's 30s), or the host name that did not resolve. off turns off only the header timer: a reset read is still retried, and a write's timeout is still reported as above.

Whether the server applies bd's external-dependency policy itself (the policy.external_dependencies capability) is remembered for 5 minutes per server URL and pinned project, in beads/http-policy/ under the user cache directory, so bd ready does not fetch the server's context before every listing just to learn it. BEADS_HTTP_POLICY_CACHE_TTL sets that window (a duration such as 1m, a number of seconds, or off); a server restarted with a different composition is seen once it passes. Claims and closes never use the cached answer: they ask the server, since a stale one could skip the client-side refusal of externally blocked work. A workspace connected without a project pin is not cached.

bd search, bd show --current and bd recompute-blocked work over HTTP too, each in its own way. bd search asks the server's listing with its text (q, behind the issues.list.search capability) and refuses before dialing against a server that does not advertise it. bd list --no-assignee, --title and --id likewise ride the listing's no_assignee, title and repeatable id, each behind its own capability (issues.list.noAssignee, issues.list.title, issues.list.ids), and the rest of bd list's filters (--updated-*, --closed-*, --defer-*, --due-*, --priority*, the text and external-ref matches, --spec, --label-pattern/--label-regex, --exclude-type, --no-parent, --no-labels, --empty-description, --pinned/--no-pinned, --deferred, --overdue, --mol-type, --wisp-type) ride it behind one capability, issues.list.filters. Time bounds are resolved on the client as they are locally; --overdue compares against the server's clock. The default --parent tree view does not carry those filters yet and refuses one rather than drop it; --flat or --json applies them to the parent's direct children (not its whole subtree). bd show --current finds the actor's in-progress or hooked issue through the server's boolean query. bd recompute-blocked is a no-op that exits 0: the server maintains is_blocked on every write, and repairing a stale flag is done in the server's own workspace (--json reports {"rows_corrected": 0, "maintained_by": "server"}).

An embedding program that links beads as a library rather than running cmd/bd registers this backend itself through the public backend/http package (bdhttp.Register), and can open a workspace with a credential scoped to one caller via beads.OpenBestAvailableWith — see that package's doc comment for the multi-tenant case. This surface is EXPERIMENTAL: pin an exact beads version.

🧹 Compacting Claude Rules

bd rules audit scans .claude/rules/*.md for contradictions and near-duplicates; bd rules compact merges related rules into one composite.

bd rules compact --auto           # Preview: composite, dropped lines, backups, deletes
bd rules compact --auto --force   # Apply

Compact only previews unless you pass --force. A composite keeps only the **Do:** and **Don't:** lines of its sources, and the preview lists every other line it drops. Applying writes the composite, copies each source to <name>.md.backup, then deletes the sources; it refuses a group whose composite or backup path already exists. To undo a merge, delete the composite and rename each <name>.md.backup back to <name>.md.

🔁 GitHub Issues Sync

bd github sync (and bd github pull/push) syncs the one repository named by github.owner and github.repo, but a database can hold beads from several repositories. In releases after v1.3.2, sync matches, fetches and updates only beads whose issue URL points at the configured repository, so pulling issue 1313 from a second repository creates a new bead instead of overwriting the bead linked to the first repository's issue 1313. A github:<number> ref has no repository and is always read as the configured one. A repository you renamed or transferred keeps syncing whichever of its names the config holds: GitHub redirects a former name to the repository, and sync asks GitHub which repository each other name your beads link under belongs to now (one request per name), so beads linked under the old name and under the new one stay matched to their issues, and a pull relinks them to the current URL. If that request fails, or the old name now belongs to another repository, beads still linked under it count as another repository's: relink them (bd update <id> --external-ref <new-url>), or the next pull imports their issues again as new beads.

🌐 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 bd's own git hook installation and git commands. It does not stop Dolt network sync; set dolt.local-only: true for that.

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 Setup | Copilot CLI Setup | Copilot VS Code MCP | Articles | Sync Branch Mode | Troubleshooting | FAQ
• Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md (Bazel builds and tests beads: install Bazelisk, then make test) | Roadmap | Contributor agent instructions
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