March 9, 2026
Kanban? More like Kan-bam!
Show HN: VS Code Agent Kanban: Task Management for the AI-Assisted Developer
Turn AI chat into sticky notes—fans love it, Jira crowd says “integrate it”
TLDR: A new VS Code add‑on turns AI chat into simple task cards stored as text, aiming to stop memory loss between coding sessions. Commenters love the simplicity and compare it to OpenAI’s Symphony, but a loud crowd wants tight Jira-style integration and cross‑platform support, sparking a elegance‑vs‑enterprise showdown.
AI devs are buzzing over Gareth Brown’s new Agent Kanban for VS Code, which turns your AI chat history into simple, commit‑able text files you can organize like a sticky‑note board. Supporters say it finally fixes “context rot”—when your AI helper forgets last week’s plan—and keeps decisions, to‑dos, and progress inside your code editor, not lost in a chat void. There’s even a quick demo on YouTube and an intro post here.
But the comments? Pure spice. One camp is cheering the boring, readable approach: text files as the source of truth. Another camp wants it plugged into their existing boards—think Jira or GitHub issues—so the whole team can see what’s happening. A comparer dropped a name: OpenAI’s Symphony, noting this extension feels “more sophisticated” right now. Mobile folks are begging for a cross‑platform, open‑source version. And the meme of the day: “markdown as the database.” Fans call it elegant; skeptics call it fragile. Either way, everyone agrees the idea—turning messy AI chats into tidy task cards—is a vibe. The drama is set: minimalist workflow magic vs. enterprise‑grade integration, and the comments section is eating it up.
Key Points
- •Agent Kanban is a VS Code extension introducing a GitOps-friendly Kanban board for AI-assisted development.
- •The tool addresses context loss in AI agent workflows by storing each task as a Markdown file with YAML frontmatter.
- •Workflow is driven by @kanban commands: plan, todo, and implement, with a structured conversation log of [user] and [agent].
- •It leverages GitHub Copilot Chat as the agent harness instead of bundling a custom one.
- •The .agentkanban folder is designed for version control to preserve permanent task history within repositories.