kantan-kanban 2026.4.0b1

A local, privacy-first, kanban application that makes working with multiple boards easy.

Kantan Kanban README

Kantan Kanban (Easy Kanban) is a Kanban board application designed for individuals, with a strongly pull oriented workflow and a single point of reference to see all in-progress work across multiple boards. While still allowing per board task management.

Intro

Kantan Kanban is a response to challenges I encountered as an individual using various Kanban solutions. Those include:

• Managing multiple boards was just enough of a burden that eventually one or more boards wouldn't see work for periods of time.
• Tasks were not really moved by pulls, instead you need to navigate to the board an push the task along the chain.
• Most applications are online, either exclusively or to a degree that offline use is severely limited.

I aim to instead use automated pulls to refill the in-progress column as jobs are completed, with user approval, because things aren't always ready immediately. As well as having an overall "To Do" list, which shows you at a glance everything that's in progress, so you don't need to be in the app any longer than necessary.

Feature overview

• Pull Oriented: automatically (or with user action) pull the top task from a boards' to-do column to in-progress
• See Your in-progress tasks at a glance: a consolidated view of all in-progress tasks helps you to act
• Focused: only holds the information needed to keep tasks flowing, no distractions like background images or gamification
• Local Only: no network connections - optional database encryption planned

Contents

• Kantan Kanban README
  • Intro
  • Feature overview
  • Contents
  • Roadmap
    • Known Issues
  • Find Out More
  • Getting Started
    • Requirements
    • Install
    • Usage
  • Screenshots
  • Used technologies
  • Contribute
  • License
  • Sources

Roadmap

This project is currently in Beta, with the most important features in place. This is a rough outline of notable future planned improvements/additions.

• Decide on core features and project goal(s)
• Initial UI Designs
• Create QtQuick components for UI
• Integrate components into a test UI
• Using SQLAlchemy create an initial database schema and basic CRUD functions
• Integrate SQLite db with Qt's MVC approach using Pandas as a bridge
• Implement initial pull logic for task management
• Connect UI to db for task creation and editing (in progress)
• Todo.txt exports
• Initial public release
• Add due dates, strict/lax variants
• Add retrospective widget
• Editing columns
• Creation of additional columns (eg. Backlog, Archive, On Hold, etc.)
• Allow multiple In Progress columns
• Theming
• Optional encryption of project database

Known Issues

• Moving tasks will sometimes cause the column the task is in to appear blank
  • Workaround: Move any task, add a new task, or exit the current view and return

Find Out More

See my latest blog post to see what I'm working on now: https://jfmcconnell.com

Also check out DECISION_LOG.md for details on why certain behaviors are prioritized.

Getting Started

Install the program via pip, on first launch it will create a database file in your systems default data directory, as well as a settings TOML file in the default config directory. See below for basic usage.

Requirements

• Python >= 3.12.11
• platformdirs >= 4.5.0"
• pyqt6 >= 6.10.0
• sqlalchemy >= 2.0.44
• tomlkit >= 0.13.3
• CaskaydiaCove Nerd Font - Download Page

Install

Installation available via pip: pip install kantan-kanban.

Usage

Note: program is currently in Beta, expect interface quirks/roughness and for some features to not yet be implemented.

The first time the program is launched you will be presented with a blank GUI with one blue button active on the left side of the screen.

Click that (the "New Project") button to show a simple dialog to create a new board. The only field that is required is the name, but I suggest reviewing everything shown. In particular I think it is good to give some thought to the Work In Progress limit, and how it will interact with multiple overlapping projects. When you are happy with things, press Accept to proceed. The program will create a new blank board using the information you provided, and will make three default columns: "To Do", "In Progress", and "Done".

You may add new tasks in the "To Do" column, again with a simple dialog where only the name is required. New tasks are always added to the bottom of the list. You can drag and drop the task buttons within the column to re-order them.

When you are ready to work on a task, press the "Pull Task" button at the bottom of the "In Progress" column, or press the "->" button when viewing the details of a task that's in the "To Do" column. Any tasks in the "In Progress" column will also show up in the initial Overview screen, so you can see all of the tasks you want to work on in one place.

When a task is complete, click on it to see it's details, and then press the "Done" button in the bottom left. In the same way, if you want to completely remove a task, press and hold the "Delete" button.

You may delete boards that are no longer needed by viewing the board, pressing the "Edit Board" button and then press and hold the "Delete" button. This will give an error if there are any open tasks (ie. in the "To Do" or "In Progress" columns), so be sure to mark these complete or remove them first. This cannot be undone.

Screenshots

Screenshots of a pre-release version:

Used technologies

• Python
• Qt: QtQuick/QML
• PyQt6
• SQLAlchemy
• TOMLKit

Contribute

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

License

GPL3+

Sources

This README is based on: https://gitlab.com/kopino4-templates/readme-template