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Cline launches Kanban with worktree-linked parallel CLI agents

Cline launched Kanban, a local multi-agent board that runs Claude, Codex, and Cline CLI tasks in isolated worktrees with dependency chains and diffs. Teams can use it as a visual control layer for parallel coding agents on repo chores that split cleanly.

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Cline launches Kanban with worktree-linked parallel CLI agents
Cline launches Kanban with worktree-linked parallel CLI agents

TL;DR

  • Cline launched Kanban as a free, open-source local web app for running multiple coding agents against the same repo, with current support for Claude Code, Codex, and Cline CLI according to the launch thread and Cline's own announcement.
  • The implementation detail that matters is isolation: each task card gets its own terminal and git worktree, so parallel agents can work without stepping on each other, as shown in the product demo and described in Cline's post.
  • Kanban adds orchestration on top of those agents with linked cards, auto-commit handoffs, real-time diffs, inline PR-style comments, and a built-in git interface, according to the feature list and the linked documentation writeup.
  • Cline is positioning the product as a visual layer for repo-scale task routing rather than another agent runtime: its follow-up line says it moves developers "out of the terminal, into the board."

What shipped

Cline Kanban is a standalone local board for multi-agent coding orchestration. In the launch thread, TestingCatalog describes it as a "free, open-source local web app" that runs multiple CLI agents in parallel on a git repo, while Cline's announcement frames it as "CLI-agnostic multi-agent orchestration."

The concrete compatibility list is narrow but immediately useful: Claude Code, Codex, and Cline CLI work now, with more agents planned according to the launch thread. Installation appears to come through the existing CLI — Cline's announcement gives the command npm i -g cline — which suggests Kanban is shipping as part of the broader Cline toolchain rather than as a separate hosted service.

The product choice here is local-first. TestingCatalog's feature summary says there is "no cloud infrastructure required," and the linked documentation article adds that it runs in the browser against local repos and uses Node.js 18+ plus provider API keys or free models.

How the workflow works

The core workflow is per-task isolation plus dependency chaining. Cline's announcement says tasks run in worktrees, with clickable diffs and linked cards that form dependency chains so "large amounts of work" can complete autonomously. TestingCatalog's demo thread adds that each card gets its own terminal and isolated worktree, so agents can operate in parallel without branch conflicts.

The review loop is built into the board. The demo thread calls out real-time diffs, inline PR-style comments, and a built-in git interface, and the documentation article expands that into commit and pull-request creation, branch management, and conflict handling. That makes Kanban less about generating code in a chat box and more about supervising multiple long-running repo tasks from one surface.

The most consequential feature for teams with repetitive repo chores is automatic handoff between cards. TestingCatalog's feature list says one task can finish, commit, and trigger the next automatically; the documentation article gives the example of API testing after a schema migration. The same writeup also says Kanban can import whole sprints from Linear, turning backlog items into agent tasks on the board.

Further reading

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