Kanzo

Kanzo is a kanban board in your browser and an MCP server in one small program, so you and your coding agents work on the same tasks. The whole board is one folder, and a private git repo keeps it in step on every machine you use: no account, no server.

Install

curl -LsSf https://github.com/emanuele-em/kanzo/releases/latest/download/kanzo-installer.sh | sh

For macOS and Linux, including every Raspberry Pi. Every release is signed by GitHub: check a download with gh attestation verify <file> --repo emanuele-em/kanzo. Or with Cargo:

cargo install kanzo

Use

Command	Does
kanzo	Starts the board at http://localhost:4242 and opens it; --port for another port, --no-open to not open it
kanzo service install	Keeps the board running and starts it at login; uninstall removes it
kanzo mcp	The MCP server for agents: they start it, not you
kanzo sync	Commits the board and pulls or pushes it; --repo <url> sets the repo, --keep-local or --keep-remote when both sides changed
kanzo export	Prints the board as Markdown; -f json for JSON, -p <project> for one project, -o <file> to save it
kanzo update	Installs the latest release and restarts the board's service; the board offers new versions too
kanzo init	Creates the data folder; the first run does this too
kanzo --version	Prints the version

Every command takes --home <dir> to use another data folder.

n adds a task, / or ⌘K searches every project, Tab moves to the description, ⌘↵ saves and closes, Esc cancels.

Need somewhere to park ideas? Turn on the Backlog column in Settings, at the bottom of the sidebar: agents leave its tasks alone until you move them to todo.

Paste or drop an image into a task or a comment to attach it, as in ChatGPT. Agents get its file path and can open it.

When a new version is out, the sidebar offers it: one click installs it and restarts the board.

Connect your agents

claude mcp add kanzo --scope user -- kanzo mcp   # Claude Code
codex mcp add kanzo -- kanzo mcp                 # Codex

Other MCP clients: run kanzo mcp (apps like Raycast need the full path, from which kanzo), or use the running board at http://localhost:4242/mcp.

Then ask: "take the next task from kanzo and do it." The agent moves the card to doing and comments as it works. It finds the right project from the git remote of the repo it works in; link more repos to a project from its ⋯ menu.

Your board on every machine

A laptop, a desktop, a Raspberry Pi: they all share one board through a private git repo you own.

1. Create an empty private repo on GitHub, or anywhere git can push.
2. Click Settings at the bottom of the sidebar, choose Sync and paste its URL. Kanzo makes ~/kanzo a git repo and pushes the board.
3. On each other machine, do the same with the same URL: Kanzo offers to use the board that's already there.

From then on, choose Sync, or run kanzo sync, when you switch machines. It commits the board and pulls or pushes it, and it's safe while the board and your agents are running. If both machines changed the board, Kanzo asks which one to keep. To move to another repo, change it in Settings, under Sync.

Sync is for switching machines: work on one, sync, then move to the other. For agents on several machines at once, run one board with listen = "0.0.0.0" on a network you trust, and point every agent at http://<host>:4242/mcp, passing the project by name.

Settings

Everything lives in ~/kanzo: the board in kanzo.db, settings in config.toml. Use another folder with --home or KANZO_HOME.

port = 4242
listen = "127.0.0.1"   # "0.0.0.0" opens the board to your network: no logins, so only on one you trust
mcp_http = true        # MCP at /mcp

Small and fast

Program	4.1 MB, SQLite included
Memory	4.5 MB idle, 8 MB with 3,000 tasks
Start	2 ms
Board of 3,000 tasks	17 ms to load in the browser
Agents' tool list	about 900 tokens, once per session
Agents' replies	10 to 60 tokens of plain text

Measured on an Apple M4.

License

AGPL-3.0: use it, change it and share it; if you offer a changed version over a network, share its source too. To help, see CONTRIBUTING.

_{mcp-name: io.github.emanuele-em/kanzo}