Backlog 📋

Backlog is a high-performance visual task and priority manager engineered for developers and AI agents. It features a native macOS / multiplatform desktop GUI (powered by Fyne), an interactive Burn-Up progress chart, a resident menu bar icon (System Tray) with live status metrics, multi-project support, task dependencies & blocking detection, hierarchical subtask branching, a fast CLI, and a native MCP (Model Context Protocol) server.

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Features

📈 Interactive Burn-Up Progress Chart

• Chronological Timeline: Visualizes total scope (blue) and completed tasks (green) over time.
• Non-blocking Live Hover Indicator: Hovering over any milestone smoothly displays the exact date, total scope, completed count, and pending workload (📅 02 Sep: ● Total Scope: 12 · ● Completed: 8 · ⏳ Pending: 4).
• Direct Point Values: Key milestones display numeric values directly on the plot.
• Empty State Guidance: Clear visual cues when initializing a new project.

⛔ Dependencies, Blocking Detection & Cycles

• Task Prerequisites (depends_on): Declare task dependencies to enforce strict execution order.
• Automatic Blocked State: Tasks remain marked as blocked (⛔ [blocked by #X]) until all prerequisite tasks are completed.
• Cycle Prevention: Circular dependencies (e.g. A → B → A) are detected and rejected.

🌳 Hierarchical Task Tree & Subtasks

• Branching Breakdown (parent_id): Decompose complex features and epics into manageable subtasks.
• Cascade Deletion: Removing a parent task automatically and cleanly cascades to all its descendants.

🖥️ Native Desktop GUI (Fyne)

• Master-Detail Layout:
  • Left Pane: Searchable, filterable task list with hierarchical tree indentation, priority badges, effort sizes, blocking alerts, and assignee pills.
  • Right Pane (Split View): Interactive Burn-Up chart on top, comprehensive Markdown detail inspector on the bottom.
• Markdown Renderer: Formatted headers, code blocks, lists, quotes, and links for descriptions and resolution notes.
• Priority Tier Filters:
  • T1 · Blocker (Red)
  • T2 · Important (Orange)
  • T3 · Visual debt (Teal)
  • T4 · Internal (Purple)
  • T5 · Future (Gray)
• Effort Size Chips: Filter by XL, L, M, S, XS.
• Keyboard Navigation: Use ↑ / ↓ arrow keys to quickly navigate between tasks.

🪟 Menu Bar / System Tray Resident App

• Always-Visible Metric: Displays the active project and pending ratio at all times ([Project] 4/12).
• Instant Project Switcher: Switch active projects directly from the menu bar.
• Quick Task Creation: Instant shortcut to launch the "New Task" dialog.

🤖 AI Agent & MCP Integration

• Model Context Protocol (MCP):
  • SSE endpoint on http://127.0.0.1:8485/sse and stdio transport via backlog mcp.
  • Provides tools for autonomous agents to inspect tasks, manage priorities, track dependencies, assign work, and log implementation resolutions.
  • Built-in workflow resource (backlog://workflow).

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Installation & Build

Requirements

• Go 1.22+
• macOS 11.0+ (Universal binary: Apple Silicon arm64 + Intel amd64) or Linux/Windows

Build Commands

# Build universal macOS .app bundle
make bundle

# Build standalone CLI binary
make build

# Run all test suites
make test

The universal bundle will be available at bin/Backlog.app.

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CLI Usage

# Set default project for current session (optional)
export BACKLOG_PROJECT=my-project

# List open tasks (hierarchical tree display)
backlog list
backlog list --tier 1
backlog list --done=all
backlog list --blocked

# Add a root task
backlog add --title "Migrate authentication to OAuth2" --tier 1 --size L

# Add a dependent subtask
backlog add --title "Implement refresh token rotation" --parent 1 --depends 1 --size M --assignee manuel

# Assign or claim tasks
backlog assign 2 claude

# Mark task as completed with resolution notes
backlog done 2 -r "Implemented PKCE with automatic refresh rotation in commit abc1234"

# Project management
backlog projects
backlog project use web-app
backlog project new backend --name "Backend Service"

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MCP Server Configuration

HTTP SSE Connection (Recommended when Backlog desktop is running)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "backlog": {
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8485/sse"
    }
  }
}

Stdio Connection (Standalone execution)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "backlog": {
      "command": "backlog",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

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License

MIT License — Altenwald