Cline Kanban is an open-source local web app published by Cline Bot Inc. Type npx kanban at the root of a git repository and a Kanban board opens in your browser, letting you run CLI-style coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, and the Cline CLI in parallel. Every task card automatically gets its own terminal and git worktree, so multiple agents can work at the same time without their changes colliding. It positions itself not as an IDE replacement but as a workbench for running many agents and reviewing their diffs, and it is officially offered as a research preview. The license is Apache 2.0.
Key Features
- A card equals a terminal plus a worktree: Each task card you create is assigned an independent terminal and a disposable git worktree. You never have to switch branches or clean up by hand, and running five tasks at once does not mix the working trees
- Dependency chains for autonomous runs: Cards can be linked to form dependencies (⌘ + click). When a preceding card finishes, the following card starts on its own, so a sequence such as “implement → add tests → refactor” can be handed off as a whole
- Real-time diff review and line comments: The diff appears next to the agent’s terminal output, and you can comment directly on diff lines to steer the agent’s work. A diff viewer with checkpoints is built in
- Auto-commit / auto-PR: There are settings to commit reviewed work automatically, or to go all the way to opening a pull request. Merge conflict resolution can be delegated as well
- Built-in git interface: Commit history, branch management, and fetch / pull / push are all available from inside the board, cutting down on trips between the terminal and the editor
- Linear MCP integration: Linear tickets can be imported, turning a sprint backlog into agent task cards in one step. There is no need to copy descriptions back into prompts
- Sidebar chat for task breakdown: Describe what you want in the chat and it helps split the work into cards. Creating cards manually is of course still possible
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Open source | $0 | All features. No account required, runs locally, Apache 2.0 license |
Cline Kanban itself is free and requires no account. Note, however, that the code is actually written by separate agents such as Claude Code, Codex, or the Cline CLI, so their subscriptions or API usage fees are billed separately.
Pricing information is current as of August 2026. Please check the official documentation for the latest pricing.
Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Starts with just
npx kanban, with no config files added to your existing repository - Worktree management is automatic, so the usual parallel-execution problem of losing track of which branch you were on rarely happens
- Not tied to a specific agent — it detects the CLI agent you already have installed
- Everything runs locally, so your code never lands on an external service’s board
- Open source (Apache 2.0), so you can read the implementation when behavior is unclear
⚠️ Cons
- It is a research preview that relies on experimental agent features, so expect spec changes and bugs
- Node.js 18 or later and a git repository are required, and the agents themselves must be installed separately
- Running in parallel consumes API quota quickly, making costs hard to estimate on usage-based agent plans
- Because several agents produce large changes at once, the review burden shifts onto the human
- As a local app, it is not suited to sharing a board across a team
Comparison with Similar Services
| Item | Cline Kanban | Conductor | Claude Code (standalone) | Linear |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main use | Parallel CLI agents and diff review | Parallel agents (macOS app) | Delegating coding in a single session | Team task management |
| Agent choice | Claude Code / Codex / Cline CLI and more | Mainly Claude Code | Claude Code only | No agent execution |
| Where it runs | Local (browser UI) | Local (native app) | Terminal | Cloud |
| Worktree isolation | Automatic | Automatic | Manual | ─ |
| Price | Free and open source | Free tier available | Follows your Claude plan | Mostly paid plans |
Who Is It For
- Developers who use Claude Code or Codex daily and find waiting on one session at a time too slow
- People with several small independent tasks that should each proceed on its own branch
- Anyone who wants to review agent output as a proper diff rather than judging only whether it ran
- Teams managing sprints in Linear who want to hand tickets straight to agents
- Open-source-minded developers who do not want to be locked into one vendor’s agent
Summary
Cline Kanban is a tool for moving from running CLI coding agents one at a time to running several at once and reviewing the diffs together. Its core value is that the tedious parts of parallel execution — branch management and waiting your turn — are automated through per-card worktree isolation and dependency chains. On the other hand it is a research preview, and both the review burden and the agent-side usage fees go up. A good starting point is to line up two or three low-stakes tasks and see whether parallel execution fits your workflow.