Make Kanban boards from text

kanban Plunder Sprint 7

tag Priority
  Urgent red
  High orange
  Low green default

tag Crew as c
  Blackbeard red
  Anne Bonny purple
  Calico Jack teal

[Awaiting Orders] red
  Recruit gunners at Tortuga priority: High, c: Calico Jack
  Chart new trade route priority: Urgent, c: Anne Bonny
    Scout the Windward Passage
    Avoid Royal Navy patrols
  Resupply rum and powder priority: Low, c: Calico Jack

[Underway] orange wip: 2
  Forge letters of marque priority: High, c: Anne Bonny
  Raid merchant convoy priority: Urgent, c: Blackbeard
    Three ships spotted off Nassau

[Done] green
  Bribe the harbour master priority: High, c: Anne Bonny
  Repair hull damage priority: Low, c: Blackbeard

Overview

Kanban boards visualize work items as cards organized into columns. Columns typically represent workflow stages (To Do, In Progress, Done). Cards can carry tags for color-coded categorization and freeform detail text.

Drag-and-drop: In the app, drag cards between columns or reorder within a column. The editor text updates automatically.

Syntax

kanban Board Title

[Column Name]
Card Title
Card Title key: Value, key: Value
  Freeform detail text
  Another detail line

Settings

Columns

Columns are defined with [Column Name] syntax. All cards between one column header and the next belong to that column.

Kanban columns model a workflow pipeline. Cards move left to right as work progresses. Each column should answer “what stage is this work in?” If something isn’t a stage — like acceptance criteria, decision gates, or definitions of done — model it as a tag on cards rather than a separate column.

[To Do]
[In Progress]
[Done]

WIP Limits

Add wip: N after a column header to set a work-in-progress limit. A warning appears when the limit is exceeded:

[In Progress] wip: 3

Cards

Each non-indented line within a column creates a card. Cards can have tags and detail lines.

Tags

Tags follow the card title. Multiple tags are comma-separated:

Build login priority: High, assignee: Alice

Detail Lines

Indented lines under a card are freeform detail text:

Build login priority: High
  OAuth + email/password support
  Needs design review first

Card Colors

Append a color name (lowercase) to a card title:

Urgent fix red

Tag Groups

Tag groups define categories with color-coded values. They appear before columns and use the tag directive:

tag Priority
  High red
  Medium yellow
  Low green default

tag Assignee as a
  Alice blue
  Bob purple

• default marks the fallback value for cards without an explicit tag
• alias provides a short name for the tag (e.g., a instead of assignee)
• Colors are shown as dots on each card

Complete Example

kanban Product Roadmap

tag Status
  Blocked red
  Active green default

tag Team as t
  Frontend blue
  Backend purple
  Design yellow

[Backlog]
Dark mode support t: Frontend
API rate limiting t: Backend
  Research token bucket vs sliding window

[In Progress] wip: 3
User dashboard t: Frontend, status: Active
  Charts and metrics overview
Auth refactor t: Backend, status: Active

[Review]
Payment integration t: Backend, status: Blocked
  Waiting on Stripe webhook setup

[Done]
Onboarding flow t: Design
Landing page t: Frontend