CLI reference — Kandown docs

The output contract

Before the commands, the rule that governs all of them:

stdout carries data only — ids, JSON, tables. Everything decorative (✓ Created…, warnings, errors) goes to stderr. Exit code 0 on success, non-zero on failure.

So $(kandown create …) captures exactly one id, and --json | jq never chokes on a checkmark.

Interactive

Command	Description
`kandown`	Web UI + terminal board
`kandown init`	Initialize in the current project
`kandown board`	Terminal UI only, no browser
`kandown settings`	Terminal settings editor
`kandown doctor`	Diagnose config, daemon, ports, task frontmatter
`kandown help`	Full help

Tasks

Non-interactive, agent- and CI-friendly.

Command	Description
`kandown list`	List tasks
`kandown show <id>`	Print a task file's raw content
`kandown create "title"`	Create a task
`kandown move <id> <status>`	Move to a column, or to `archived`
`kandown assign <id> [name]`	Assign, or unassign by omitting the name
`kandown commit [-m msg]`	`git add tasks/ .kandown/kandown.json` + commit
`kandown export`	JSON or CSV out
`kandown import`	Trello JSON or Markdown in

`kandown list`

kandown list [-s status] [-a assignee] [-t tag] [-p priority] [--archived] [--json]

Flag	Effect
`-s`, `--status`	Filter by column
`-a`, `--assignee`	Filter by assignee
`-t`, `--tag`	Filter by tag
`-p`, `--priority`	Filter by `P1`–`P4`
`--archived`	Include archived tasks
`--json`	Emit JSON instead of a table

kandown list --json | jq '.[] | select(.priority=="P1") | .title'

`kandown create`

kandown create "title" [-p priority] [-a assignee] [-t tag …] [--to status] [--id custom-id] [--json]

Flag	Effect
`-p`, `--priority`	`P1`–`P4`
`-a`, `--assignee`	Assignee name
`-t`, `--tag`	A tag; repeat for several
`--to`	Target column (defaults to the first)
`--id`	Use a specific id instead of generating one
`--json`	Print the whole task object rather than just the id

ID=$(kandown create "Refactor auth middleware" -p P1 -t backend -t security)

`kandown move`

kandown move <id> <status>
kandown move t14 archived     # archive

Moving to the terminal column fails, with a non-zero exit code, while any depends_on entry is unresolved. See Tasks § dependencies.

`kandown work`

Prints the full agent context — rules, project instructions, live board digest and the next actionable task — as Markdown on stdout. Documented in For AI agents.

`kandown mcp`

Starts the stdio MCP server. See MCP server.

Daemon & maintenance

Command	Description
`kandown daemon status`	Is this project's daemon running, and on what port
`kandown daemon start`	Start it
`kandown daemon stop`	Stop it
`kandown daemon refresh-all`	Restart outdated daemons on the current CLI version
`kandown projects`	List every open Kandown project on this machine
`kandown update`	Update the CLI and the project's `kandown.html`

Tip

kandown doctor is the first thing to run when something is off. It checks config, daemon state, port availability and every task's frontmatter, and tells you how to fix what it finds.

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
`KANDOWN_NO_UPDATE=1`	Disable the background update check (recommended in CI)
`KANDOWN_DEBUG=1`	Print full stack traces instead of a one-line summary
`KANDOWN_AGENT_HOOK_URL`	Endpoint that receives tasks from Send to Agent / TUI `g`
`KANDOWN_AGENT_HOOK_LABEL`	Custom label for the agent hook button
`KANDOWN_AGENT_HOOK_HEADERS`	JSON object of extra headers for the hook request