What is Kora?

Kora is a CLI-first project workspace that lives inside your git repo. No SaaS, no browser — just markdown files in .kora/ that humans and AI agents share.

• Unified Dashboard — A central command center for tasks, knowledge, and project health.
• Project Knowledge Base — Persistent, structured knowledge synthesized by AI agents (LLM Wiki pattern).
• Git-Native Task Board — A beautiful TUI kanban board with vim keybindings and modern hex themes.
• AI-First Protocol — A race-safe CLI that agents use to claim work and synthesize findings.

kora board

Install

npm install -g kora-dev

Or use without installing:

npx kora-dev init
npx kora-dev board

Quick Start

1. Initialize in your repo

cd your-project
kora init

This creates a .kora/tasks/, .kora/wiki/ and a .kora/config.yml file.

2. Create tasks

kora create "Build authentication flow" -p high --folder core --labels auth,api
kora create "Fix CSS injection engine" -p medium --folder ui

3. Synthesize Knowledge

AI agents can file persistent findings in the Knowledge Base:

kora knowledge create "Architecture Overview" --type technical_spec --content "The system uses a microservices..."

4. Open the Command Center

kora board

The board launches into the Dashboard by default. Use [D], [T], and [K] to jump between Dashboard, Tasks, and Knowledge Base.

4. Work on tasks

# Claim a task (race-safe — multiple agents won't collide)
kora claim TASK-abc123

# Log progress
kora comment TASK-abc123 "Implemented login endpoint, working on session handling"

# Mark as done
kora complete TASK-abc123

AI Agent Integration

Kora is built for Incremental Knowledge Synthesis. As agents work on tasks, they synthesize what they learn into the project's permanent memory.

Run kora setup to instantly configure your AI coding tools:

kora setup

This generates integration files for all major AI coding tools:

| Tool | What's generated | |------|-----------------| | Claude Code | CLAUDE.md + custom slash commands (/kora-next, /kora-done) | | Cursor | .cursor/rules/kora.mdc with alwaysApply: true | | Cline | .clinerules/kora.md | | Windsurf | .windsurf/rules/kora.md | | Codex / Copilot | AGENTS.md + .github/copilot-instructions.md | | Gemini CLI | GEMINI.md |

By default, files go to global scope (~/) where supported and project scope where required. Use --local to force everything into the current project.

# Generate for all tools at once
kora setup --all

# Force project-level only (useful for teams committing rules to git)
kora setup --all --local

Agent Workflow

AI agents use Kora through the CLI. Set these environment variables for identity tracking:

export KORA_AGENT_ID="claude-opus-4"
export KORA_RUN_ID="run_abc123"

Then the agent workflow is:

# 1. Find available work
kora list --available --format json

# 2. Claim a task (race-safe locking)
kora claim TASK-abc123

# 3. Do the work, log progress
kora comment TASK-abc123 "Implemented feature X"

# 4. Hand off context when pausing
kora handoff TASK-abc123

# 5. Or complete when done
kora complete TASK-abc123

Commands

Tasks

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | kora create <title> | Create a new task | | kora list | List tasks (supports filters) | | kora show <id> | Show full task details | | kora claim <id> | Claim a task (race-safe for agents) | | kora comment <id> | Add a comment | | kora complete <id> | Mark as done | | kora board | Launch the modern TUI dashboard |

Knowledge Base

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | kora knowledge list | List all knowledge entities | | kora knowledge show <id> | Render a knowledge doc in terminal | | kora knowledge create | Scaffold a new knowledge entry | | kora knowledge update | Patch an existing knowledge entry |

System

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | kora init | Initialize .kora/ in current repo | | kora setup | Generate AI agent integration files | | kora config | Manage global settings |

TUI Keybindings

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | D | Jump to Dashboard (Home) | | T | Jump to Task Board (Kanban) | | K | Jump to Knowledge Base | | ↑/↓/←/→ | Navigate between Tab Bar and Content | | j/k | Navigate items / Scroll | | Enter | View details / Focus | | e | Edit task or knowledge entry | | i | Inline rename (Tasks) | | n | Create new task | | c | Quick comment | | [ / ] | Move task left / right | | 1-6 | Move to specific column | | : | Command palette (Switch themes, etc.) | | / | Search & filter | | s | Toggle projects sidebar | | z | Compact mode | | ? | Help | | q | Quit |

Search Syntax

The search bar (/) supports structured queries:

@alice          → filter by assignee
#backend        → filter by label
p:high          → filter by priority
status:blocked  → filter by status
agent:          → show agent-assigned tasks
free text       → search title & description

Task File Format

Tasks are stored as markdown with YAML frontmatter. Each task lives in .kora/tasks/<folder>/TASK-<id>-<slug>.md:

---
id: TASK-abc123
title: Build authentication flow
status: in-progress
priority: high
labels:
  - auth
  - api
assigned_to:
  type: human
  id: alice
created_by:
  type: human
  id: alice
created_at: '2025-01-15T10:30:00Z'
updated_at: '2025-01-15T14:20:00Z'
depends_on: []
comments:
  - id: c1
    at: '2025-01-15T12:00:00Z'
    author:
      type: agent
      id: claude-opus-4
    body: 'Implemented JWT token generation'
    type: comment
---

Implement OAuth2 login flow with JWT tokens...

Configuration

Project Config (.kora/config.yml)

version: 1
board:
  columns: [backlog, todo, in-progress, blocked, review, done]
  wip_limits:
    in-progress: 3
    review: 2

User Config (~/.config/kora/config.yml)

ui:
  theme: default  # default (Tokyo Night), dracula, matrix

Switch themes from the TUI with the command palette (: → "Switch to X theme").

Multi-Project Support

Kora can manage tasks across multiple repos. If your workspace contains multiple projects with .kora/ directories, the TUI will discover them automatically and let you switch between them with s.

Why Kora?

| Feature | Kora | Jira | Linear | GitHub Issues | |---------|------|------|--------|---------------| | Works offline | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | Git-native | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | AI agent support | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | Partial | | Race-safe claiming | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | Context handoffs | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | No SaaS required | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | TUI board | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | Free | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |

License

ISC