README
¶
jira-kanban
A fast, lightweight Jira kanban board for the terminal.
Jira's web interface is resource-heavy and slow — it easily consumes hundreds of megabytes of RAM and still feels sluggish. jira-kanban gives you a snappy, keyboard-driven view of your board that stays out of your way and uses a fraction of the resources.
Install
go install github.com/raulvc/jira-kanban@latest
First run
On first launch, jira-kanban will prompt for any missing configuration values interactively (with masked input for the API token) and save them automatically:
$ jira-kanban
Jira base URL [https://your-company.atlassian.net]:
Email [you@company.com]:
API token:
Board ID [42]:
After that, the config file is stored at ~/.config/jira-kanban/config.yml and you won't be prompted again.
Configuration file
base_url: "https://your-company.atlassian.net"
email: "you@company.com"
api_token: "your-jira-api-token"
board_id: 42
API token — Create one at id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/security/api-tokens.
Override the board
You can switch boards without editing the config:
jira-kanban 17 # positional board ID
jira-kanban --board 17 # flag form
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
← / → |
Move between columns |
↑ / ↓ |
Move between cards |
f |
Filter by assignee |
e |
Filter by epic |
enter |
View issue details |
t |
Transition issue (with search filter) |
o |
Open issue in browser |
a |
Assign issue (from board or detail view) |
c |
Create issue (from board) / Create subtask (from detail view) |
h |
Recent activity history |
+ |
Cycle theme |
r |
Refresh board |
q |
Quit |
How it works
- Cold start — fetches all visible issues from the board and builds a local cache.
- Warm start — returns cached data instantly, then syncs changes in the background.
- Incremental sync — only fetches issues that changed since the last sync, instead of re-downloading the entire board.
- Optimistic transitions — moving a card updates the UI immediately, then persists to Jira in the background.
- Assignee management — assign or unassign issues directly from the board or detail view. The current user is highlighted with a ★ marker.
- Create issues & subtasks — create new issues from the board view, and subtasks from the detail modal. Rich text descriptions with URL linking and code blocks are supported. Tab-navigable OK/Cancel buttons.
- Subtask navigation — view and select subtasks inside the detail modal; press Enter to open a nested detail view for any subtask.
- Recent activity history — press
hto see your recently updated issues with changelog summaries (e.g. "status: To Do → In Progress · 2h ago").
Themes
Four built-in color themes are available and can be cycled with +:
- Kanagawa Dark (default)
- Kanagawa Light
- Darcula
- Darcula Light
The selected theme is saved to ~/.config/jira-kanban/config.yml and restored on next launch.
theme: "Kanagawa Light"
Cache is stored at $XDG_CACHE_HOME/jira-kanban/<board-id>.json.
License
BSD-2-Clause
Documentation
¶
Overview ¶
Command jira-kanban displays a Jira board as an interactive terminal kanban.
Source Files
Directories
¶
| Path | Synopsis |
|---|---|
|
cmd
|
|
|
dummyjira
command
|
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internal
|
|
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cache
Package cache persists board issue data locally so that subsequent loads only need to fetch issues updated since the last sync.
|
Package cache persists board issue data locally so that subsequent loads only need to fetch issues updated since the last sync. |
|
config
Package config handles loading, saving, and interactively prompting for the application configuration stored in ~/.config/jira-kanban/config.yml.
|
Package config handles loading, saving, and interactively prompting for the application configuration stored in ~/.config/jira-kanban/config.yml. |