cairn

cairn is a repository-native task management system designed to facilitate collaboration between human users and AI agents. Utilizing Markdown files within your repository, cairn creates a task graph that serves as a single source of truth for project tasks.

Key Features:

• Repository Integration: Every task in cairn is represented using Markdown, incorporating YAML frontmatter for machine readability and prose for human clarity. This allows tasks to be tracked with Git, maintaining a detailed history that mirrors code versioning processes.
• AI Agent Compatibility: Designed specifically for agents, cairn enables them to list available tasks, claim responsibilities, and execute observable sessions with real-time feedback. Each action taken by an agent is recorded with the corresponding actor, ensuring accountability and traceability.
• Unified Interface: Both the web UI and the MCP server act as streamlined interfaces, ensuring that agents and humans interact with the same underlying systems and data structures, promoting consistency.
• Easy Agent Connectivity: The built-in Connect page makes it trivial to integrate various agents. It auto-detects installed agents and generates their MCP configurations automatically, streamlining setup and use.

Usage Example:

To get started, build the project and launch the web UI:

make build              # Builds the cairn binary
cairn web --repo .      # Opens the task board in a web browser

For agent integration, utilize the following command:

claude mcp add cairn -- "$(pwd)/bin/cairn" serve --actor agent:claude --repo "$(pwd)"

Deployment Options:

• Desktop Application: Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux; these versions provide a native interface and automatic updates.
• Web UI: Launch directly from your terminal to access the task management board in a web browser.
• MCP Server: Operate headlessly in an agent environment, allowing for seamless task management by AI agents.

Supported Agents:

Cairn supports easy integration with several AI agents including Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, OpenCode, Kilo Code, and Pi. A comprehensive guide for connecting additional agents is available in the documentation.

Development and Security:

For developers, cairn includes commands to check code quality and build both web and desktop versions. The application operates locally and is designed as a single-user tool with a focus on simplifying the workflow without the complexities of user authentication.

To learn more or to explore the full documentation, visit cairn's documentation.