docket

Markdown tickets that live in your repo. You read them in a text editor or CLI. Your agent reads them over MCP.

• docket
  • Start Here
  • A Ticket
  • CLI
  • MCP
  • Key Ticket Rules
  • Configuration
  • Concurrent Access
  • Validation
  • Docket Runs on Docket
  • Development
  • License

Start Here

uv tool install ticket-docket  # or: pipx install ticket-docket
cd my-project
docket deploy .

This installs two commands: docket for you and docket-mcp for your agent.

Then add at least one project key to .docket.toml for your future tickets:

docket key add "CORE" "tactical-sim core"

Make your first ticket:

docket new CORE "Skirmish setup"

A Ticket

File: docs/tickets/todo/CORE-14_skirmishSetup.md

---
id: CORE-14
title: Skirmish setup
status: todo
priority: 1
requires: [CORE-9, GEN-3]
metadata: {}
---

Goal: a screen where the player sets up one battle and plays it.

Unknown fields are round-tripped untouched. Filenames are frozen at creation so prose cross-references never break.

CLI

[!IMPORTANT] In Windows PowerShell, the ` character can be treated as an escape character. Typing "Use `argparse` instead" produces \x07. For code blocks in a body, use the MCP surface or a text editor.

A ticket id is the command:

docket CORE-14         # show it, dependency context and all
docket CORE-14 status  # bare word, for a pipe
docket CORE-14 done    # todo, wip, or done. The file follows
docket CORE-14 set [-t TEXT] [-p N] [-r A,B|none] [-ra A,B] [-rr A,B]
docket CORE-14 meta [KEY [VALUE]] [-c]

Everything else works on the set:

docket new CORE "Skirmish setup" [-r CORE-9,GEN-3] [-p 1] [-b TEXT]
docket list [-s todo] [-k CORE] [-m 2]
docket graph [-i CORE-14 | -k GEN] [-o FILE]
docket key list | add KEY "desc" [-r TEXT] | remove KEY
docket validate | deploy PATH | upgrade PATH

-r replaces the dependency list. -ra and -rr edit the one already there. Both in one call is refused.

Every short flag has a long form (-k/--key, -p/--priority, -m/--priority-max, and so on). --help lists your actual keys and priority range.

MCP

docket-mcp is a stdio server. Ten tools, each returning JSON as text.

Key Ticket Rules

1. Dependencies point one way. A ticket declares requires and nothing else. Reverse edges are derived, so a one-sided edge is impossible rather than merely detectable.
2. Status is the truth, the directory follows. Only done moves a file, and nothing writes one without the other. validate catches a file moved by hand.
3. Keys are a whitelist. An unregistered key is refused, so a typo cannot spawn an orphan group. A key must be added explicitly before it can be used.

Configuration

.docket.toml at the repo root. Read and written with tomlkit, so comments, spacing, and key order survive every write like:

root = "docs/tickets"
todoDir = "todo"
doneDir = "done"
defaultPriority = 2
maxPriority = 4
lockTimeout = 5.0

[keys]
# Primary arch
CORE = "tactical-sim core"
# The strategic layer is a distinct area.
META = "campaign and progression"

A key's rationale becomes the comment above it, and removing the key takes the comment with it. The status vocabulary is deliberately not configurable.

docket deploy never rewrites an existing .docket.toml. Run docket upgrade . later to refresh the template and repair the server entry without touching your config or tickets.

Concurrent Access

Writes are serialized across processes through .docket.lock at the repo root, which deploy adds to your .gitignore.

• Readers share the lock, writers take it exclusively.
• The whole read-modify-write is held, not just the write. Two processes cannot mint the same id.
• Files are replaced atomically.

Config value lockTimeout is how long a process waits before giving up. Hitting it raises an error that changed nothing, so the call is always safe to retry.

Validation

docket validate errors on:

• A requires entry naming an id that does not exist, or a dependency cycle
• Two tickets sharing an id, or an unregistered key
• An id disagreeing with its filename prefix, or a status disagreeing with its directory
• A priority outside the band, or a status outside the vocabulary
• A file under a status directory that cannot be read as a ticket

validate has no warnings of its own. That severity exists for create_ticket, which downgrades a dangling requires entry so a batch written out of order is not stranded halfway.

Docket Runs on Docket

This repo is its own first consumer. Every feature above arrived as a ticket, committed in docs/tickets/. done/ is the history of how the tool got built, todo/ is what is next.

Development

uv sync
uv run pytest
uv run docket --help
uv tool install --editable --force .  # install your working copy

The core library holds every rule. The CLI and MCP server are thin shells with no logic of their own, which is what keeps the two surfaces from disagreeing.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full details.

License

GNU GPL v3.0 or later, with an output exception.

Anything Docket writes into your repository is yours under whatever terms you choose: deployed templates, ticket files, generated artifacts. Running Docket against a repository places no license obligation on that repository. The exception reaches only what Docket produces, never Docket's own source.