Beads UI - make your pick

[maphew]

Agents love Beads, people love Beads. People also love UIs but Beads doesn't have one, and that's on purpose.

Beads is designed to be lightweight and text-first, optimized for AI-agent workflows. Adding a web UI (HTTP server, templates, Graphviz integration) significantly expands the maintenance surface area for what's currently a focused tool.

Existing extensibility: Since beads already exposes all data via --json flags and JSONL format, anyone wanting visualization can pipe to external tools (jq, graphviz CLI, custom scripts) without baking UI into the core binary.
-- Steve Yegge (ref).

The existing efforts in the UI vein which have surfaced so far:

• https://github.com/steveyegge/beads/blob/main/docs/COMMUNITY_TOOLS.md

Feel free to use this thread to combine efforts to make The One UI, debate merits of each. Or add more, your own or others discovered in the wild.

updated 2025-12-28

[vincenthsh]

Thanks for creating this tracker issue, I too spent a day on a UI to keep track of the overall (graph/swimlanes) progress.

can we remove the link to beadster in the root README because any other alternative is better than what seems to be a complete closed source and unmaintained UI

and if anyone has the source code link or a way to contribute, please correct me
original PR introducing it
#117

[steveyegge]

@vincenthsh I removed the beadster reference, good catch.

[podviaznikov]

I just saw this! wish you just tagged me - I open source the app https://github.com/beadster/beadster. It was way faster to release it then as is before.

[rassie]

One thing we might want to think about is static generation -- a beads UI is not really complicated and can be completely static, so that using the same git hooks as jsonl sync we could maintain a static website of issues. Main point why I think this might be an improvement is shareability -- in my team I'm the only one using beads (for now) so that my issue refinements are local only, but I might want to share them for discussion.

[maphew]

Another idea in same vein: Excel can open json directly using 'Data >> Get Data >> From File'. There's some messing about to get Power Query to expand the columns, but do it once and save the xlsx. From that point people just need to use 'Refresh' button to see current state.

Actually now that I think about it, you can probably do the same from the sqlite db.

Might need to work from a copy to keep Excel from locking the files though.

[sebcook-ctrl]

Agents love Beads, people love Beads. People also love UIs but Beads doesn't have one, and that's on purpose.

Beads is designed to be lightweight and text-first, optimized for AI-agent workflows. Adding a web UI (HTTP server, templates, Graphviz integration) significantly expands the maintenance surface area for what's currently a focused tool.
Existing extensibility: Since beads already exposes all data via --json flags and JSONL format, anyone wanting visualization can pipe to external tools (jq, graphviz CLI, custom scripts) without baking UI into the core binary.
-- Steve Yegge (ref).

The existing efforts in the UI vein which have surfaced so far:

* https://github.com/mattbeane/beads-viz-prototype

* https://github.com/mantoni/beads-ui

* https://github.com/maphew/beady

* https://github.com/steveyegge/beads/tree/main/examples/monitor-webui

* [Add UI #255](https://github.com/steveyegge/beads/pull/255)

Feel free to use this thread to combine efforts to make The One UI, debate merits of each. Or add more, your own or others discovered in the wild.

Please add another to your list https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=AgentNativeAbstractionLayer.agent-native-kanban
This is a vscode extension Agent Native Abstraction Layer for Beads or ANAL Beads for short, it is a Kanban board.

[TheEditor]

Bit surprised not to see one of the earliest UIs listed - Jeff Emanuel's bv - Beads Viewer: https://github.com/Dicklesworthstone/beads_viewer

Steve himself happens to like this tool a lot.

[maphew]

oh wow, bv is so smooth and fast, thanks for the highlight

[TheEditor]

He's worth your follow on Twitter as well - nick is doodlestein.

[davidcforbes]

Note: On AgentNativeAbstractionLayer, I found several stability issues, so I created a fork and am 3 days into completely rebuilding it and expanding it to support all beads fields and features as well as incremental data loading on demand to handle very large databases (e.g., 10,000+ issues). I also like the table-view that planet57/Beads uses, so I will add the option to switch between Kanban and tableview.

[maphew]

List moved to https://github.com/steveyegge/beads/blob/main/docs/COMMUNITY_TOOLS.md

[maphew]

@steveyegge there's a [blocked] label on this discussion, what's that mean?

[americaanspirit]

found a cool plugin that uses beads in workflows
https://github.com/GantisStorm/essentials-claude-code

[bglenden]

I created (i.e., vibe-coded) a TUI for my idiosyncratic preferred usage pattern (hierarchical based on epics/tasks/sub-tasks, TUI, colorized based on ready/blocked/closed). https://github.com/bglenden/bsv

[maphew]

Nice background @bglenden :), issue a PR against https://github.com/steveyegge/beads/blob/main/docs/COMMUNITY_TOOLS.md to have it included

[bglenden]

Done! - Brian

…

On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 10:40 PM matt wilkie ***@***.***> wrote: Nice background @bglenden <https://github.com/bglenden> :), issue a PR against https://github.com/steveyegge/beads/blob/main/docs/COMMUNITY_TOOLS.md to have it included — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#276 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AD7TP7274M3PNA67H3L46L34GBRDFAVCNFSM6AAAAACLSWYHFCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKNBVHE2TINI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[mdlmarkham]

What about adapting something like vibe-kanban to use beads for backlog management?

[miqcie]

Setup automation tool that might be useful for folks getting started with beads (and grepai):

grepai-beads-helpers - One-command setup for beads + grepai

What it does:

• Automated installation (./setup.sh) handling Go, PATH config, bd init
• Cross-platform (macOS, Linux)
• Bulk project indexing for grepai
• Creates ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md with auto-usage rules

What is GrepAi
grepai is a semantic code search tool—search by what code does, not just what it's called.\

Built it because setting up these tools across multiple projects meant repeating the same steps every time. Happy to submit a PR to COMMUNITY_TOOLS.md if there's interest.

[w3dev33]

`Hi Steve,

I built a standalone desktop app for managing Beads issues outside the IDE.

Why? VS Code's resource usage was too heavy for my workflow. I wanted to keep
my issues visible without having the editor open. The VS Code extension by Planet57
(listed in Community Tools) was the inspiration for the UI design.

Stack: Tauri 2 (Rust) + Nuxt 4 / Vue 3 + shadcn-vue

Repo: https://github.com/w3dev33/beads-task-issue-tracker

Features:

• Dashboard with issue counts by status/type/priority
• Filterable/sortable issue list
• Create, edit, comment on issues
• Project switching & favorites
• Dark/Light theme
• Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux

I'd love to have it listed in COMMUNITY_TOOLS.md under "Native Apps":

Beads Task Issue Tracker -
Lightweight standalone desktop app for managing Beads issues outside your IDE.
Built with Tauri. By @w3dev33. (TypeScript/Rust)

Happy to submit a PR if you prefer. Thanks for creating Beads!`

[cameronsjo]

Beadspace — a drop-in dashboard for GitHub Pages

No longer maintained. Built to scratch an itch; not actively developed. Repo (and README) are still up if you want to fork or adapt it: https://github.com/cameronsjo/beadspace

Inspired by @mattbeane's beads-viz-prototype.

[guybedo]

i just needed a simple beads web ui, so here's one: https://github.com/guybedo/beads_webui

[nmelo]

Beadbox just shipped cross-platform support in v0.7.0, so figured it's worth an update here.

What's new since the COMMUNITY_TOOLS.md listing:

• Now runs on macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel), Linux (.deb and AppImage), and Windows
• Code-signed and notarized on macOS
• Floating version label, /api/version endpoint for scripting
• Epic progress bars now only count closed children (accuracy fix)

For those unfamiliar: Beadbox is a native desktop app (Tauri/Next.js) that watches your .beads/ directory over WebSocket and updates the UI in real time. Epic tree view with progress bars, dependency badges, inline editing, multi-workspace switching, keyboard navigation.

No account, no cloud. Reads the beads SQLite database directly.

Install (macOS):
brew tap beadbox/cask && brew install --cask beadbox

Or download from https://beadbox.app. Free during beta.

Repo: https://github.com/beadbox/beadbox

[w3dev33]

From Beads Task-Issue Tracker to PaiR — a different path

I've been building Beads Task-Issue Tracker for the past few months as a desktop frontend for bd and br. As the ecosystem evolves toward Dolt-only storage, daemon removal, and multi-agent orchestration, I've taken a different direction with PaiR — a standalone issue tracker with its own CLI and no external dependencies.

This isn't a disagreement with where Beads is heading. Autonomous agents are the future — I genuinely believe that. But I think we're skipping steps. Most developers today work with AI, not behind it. They need to understand what's happening, keep control, and build trust progressively before delegating more.

PaiR is built for that transition: start with pair programming, gradually delegate more, but always keep visibility. It's a didactic approach — if you don't understand what the AI does today, you won't know what to delegate tomorrow.

The Beads Tracker remains functional on bd 0.49.x and br 0.1.x. PaiR migrates those projects automatically. For anyone interested in a human-in-the-loop approach to AI-assisted development: pair.w3dev.fr

[nmelo]

Update since my last post: Beadbox now ships on Windows as of v0.16.6, which was the most requested platform.

Since beads went Dolt-only in v0.57, we're the only desktop GUI that works out of the box with current versions. We've always wrapped bd for data access, so the storage change was a non-event.

Recent additions since February: settings panel, workspace health monitoring, startup diagnostics, and a dev console for troubleshooting.

beadbox.app / brew tap beadbox/cask && brew install --cask beadbox

[peterkc]

Congrats on the Windows launch and the Dolt migration being a non-event — that's a good sign for the architecture.

I ran into an issue on v0.16.6 with a password-protected Dolt server: BeadBox's startup hits Error 1045 (Access denied) because the bd list call doesn't pass credentials. The error screen only shows a "Retry" button with no way back to setup to reconfigure.

Filed it here: beadbox/beadbox#4

[kehwar]

Can't manage to make it work through WSL

[nmelo]

@kehwar would you mind opening an issue in our github repo, i'd like to get that looked at for you. https://github.com/beadbox/beadbox/issues/

[jklenk]

Hey all! I built something that isn't a UI but fits here: thread, a read-only analytics layer for your Beads/Dolt history. Recently added to the community tools!

Repo: https://github.com/jklenk/thread
MIT, open to PRs

What Is It

thread is a read-only analytics layer that sits on top of your local Beads/Dolt history.

The part I'm most excited about is thread prime --json. Agents can read it at session start and calibrate against your project's trends/health context before claiming their first bead.

Design Principles

Workflow-aware: detects epic, flat singleton, or mixed workflows and adapts its signals accordingly.

Thread uses event-driven rework cost — reopens, revisions, rejections, compactions. Accounts for both agent-driven and human-directed closes, in solo workflows I found these were indistinguishable by actor string alone.

The bead is the atomic unit, while agents represent the pipeline. Thread observes behavior and surfaces patterns without inferring intent.

What's validated and what isn't

Tested on solo Beads workflows in embedded mode. 147 tests (134 unit + 13 integration).

Not yet validated: Gas Town / hop:// URI actor classification is implemented but untested against real Gas Town data. If you're running Gas Town I'd genuinely love to know what you find.

Install

uv tool install git+https://github.com/jklenk/thread

Then from any beads project

thread refresh        # extract from Dolt history
thread prime          # plain-language project health
thread prime --json   # agent-consumable
thread report         # self-contained HTML report
thread query "<sql>"  # ad-hoc against the DuckDB layer

Integrate

thread is designed for agents/scripts to consume as well as humans; every metric includes the numeric value, plain-language signal, and verdict. Example keys you'd get:

{                                                                                                                                                                                                        
   "workflow_type": "epic",
   "completion_rate": 0.94,                                                                                                                                                                               
   "completion_verdict": "good",
   "completion_signal": "94% of beads reached completion",                                                                                                                                                
   "cycle_time_p50_secs": 252,
   "cycle_time_verdict": "good",                                                                                                                                                                          
   "cost_p90_multiple": 5.3,
   "skip_claim_rate": 0.04,                                                                                                                                                                               
   "recent_sessions": [...],
   "interactions": {...},                                                                                                                                                                                 
   "agent_knowledge": {...},                                                                                                                                                                              
   ...
 }                                                

The main use case is feeding it into another Claude session at startup to give the agent a structured snapshot of project health without the agent having to query Dolt or DuckDB itself.

Add one line to your AGENTS.md and agents will automatically read Thread's project health summary at session start, giving them historical pattern context before they claim their first bead. For example:

Run 'thread prime --json' at session start for project health context.

Screenshots

From a human-facing version `thread report --output ~path/to/report/output.html

[brendan-appstart]

Hi! 👋 I also built a UI for beads and would love to have it considered for the tools/ecosystem list.

Bead Me Up, Scotty — a fast, local, open-source (MIT) web UI for beads.
🌐 Site: https://beadmeupscotty.com
💻 Repo: https://github.com/brendan-appstart/bead-me-up-scotty

It shells out to the bd CLI (--json, BD_JSON_ENVELOPE=1) and adds zero new persisted schema — bd stays the single source of truth.

Two things set it apart from the other tools in the list:

1. It's multi-project. Switch between any number of beads repos, and each browser tab can work with a different project independently (URL-per-project routing). Add projects through an in-app folder browser, or run scotty from inside any repo and it opens that project.

2. It's full read/write, not just a viewer. You can create, edit, and prioritize beads right from the UI:

• drag between columns to change status; drag within a column to set the run-order your agent follows
• edit title/description/priority/assignee inline
• manage dependencies and comments, archive/delete
• Adds attachment + attached images support for beads

Plus the usual: Kanban board, list view, epics with live progress, an interactive dependency graph, multi-select filters + full-text search, human-vs-agent attribution, light/dark, and live updates as your agent changes data underneath you. There's a built-in Demo project so it runs even with no bd installed, and you can install it globally and run scotty from anywhere.

▶️ 2-min demo: https://youtu.be/0zpg_FRX-wE?si=4KnsyyJXt70oktJC

Happy to add a screenshot or tweak anything — would you consider adding it to the tools list? I will open a PR :) Thanks for building beads! 🙏

[rassie]

Your repo is non-public or something, the links are broken.

[brendan-appstart]

Thank you! I just fixed that. Can't believe I overlooked that! But please check again.

[rassie]

Yes, now I see it, thanks!

[brendan-appstart]

I also submitted a pull request which adds an entry to the bottom of the Web UIs section of docs/COMMUNITY_TOOLS.md

[brendan-appstart]

I added a dozen new features, here are a few:

https://youtu.be/8hr_bRnd_34

[brendan-appstart]

[cuongbphv]

Built a VS Code dashboard for beads — Beads Dashboard

• Marketplace
• Open VSX
• source
• PR for community-tools.md is docs: add Beads Dashboard to Editor Extensions in community-tools.md #5336

Two things I ended up caring about that might be useful to others building UIs here:

1. Columns derived from status categories at runtime. Statuses are user-extensible in beads, so a board with hardcoded columns silently drops custom ones. Loading bd statuses --json and grouping by category means a project-specific status lands in the right column with no code change.

2. Detecting outside changes without watching Dolt. I tried watching the Dolt directory and gave up: a plain bd list dirties noms/journal.idx and the manifest, so a watcher fires on its own reads. .beads/last-touched is a read breadcrumb, not a change marker.
   What works is a cheap watermark — bd list --flat --all --sort updated --limit 1 (~0.4s) compared against the last id@updated_at, with the full snapshot fan-out (~2s) only when it moves, plus a forced resync every 12th tick to bound the one-second-resolution blind spot. Nothing runs while every view is hidden or the window is unfocused.

Happy to go deeper on either if it helps someone.