workdash

Text-based GitHub work triage dashboard ( https://alessandro.molina.fyi/workdash/ )

workdash pulls together the issues and pull requests that matter to you across your GitHub repositories, suggests what to pick up next, and makes it easy to jump into a work item — either for a quick review, a deeper AI-assisted analysis, or a full coding session in a dedicated worktree.

Platform

Linux and macOS. workdash relies on xdg-open or open and expects zellij for the interactive dashboard and terminal-backed work actions. It has not been tested on Windows.

Requirements

• Python >=3.12.
• Authenticated gh for GitHub access. workdash --configure installs a local copy when gh is not available.
• xdg-open or open for opening links and rendered analyses in your browser.
• zellij for the interactive dashboard, terminal panes, and agent sessions. workdash --configure installs a local copy when zellij is not available.
• Global gh and zellij binaries are preferred; configured local copies are used as fallbacks.
• Optional, depending on which actions you use from the TUI:
  • claude — to analyze or launch a Claude coding session.
  • codex — to analyze or launch a ChatGPT Codex session.
  • code — to launch a VSCode + Copilot coding session.

Installation

With uv — one isolated install, workdash on your PATH:

uv tool install workdash

For development install:

pip install -e '.[test]'

First-time setup

On the first run you need a configuration file at ~/.config/workdash/config.json. Generate it interactively with:

workdash --configure

The wizard fills in:

• Your GitHub username.
• Zellij availability. If zellij is not on PATH, the wizard downloads the latest release binary into the workdash configuration directory.
• GitHub CLI availability. If gh is not on PATH, the wizard downloads the latest release binary into the workdash configuration directory. Authentication is still handled by gh; run gh auth login if startup reports that gh is not authenticated.
• The list of repositories to track (see Repository selectors below).
• A working directory where per-item git worktrees will live.
• The analyze and launch commands for Claude and Codex (auto-detected when the tools are on your PATH).

You can edit ~/.config/workdash/config.json by hand at any time. Re-running --configure only prompts for fields that are still empty, except for Zellij: the wizard always checks for a global zellij first and downloads a fresh local binary when no global binary exists. It does the same for gh, checking for a global GitHub CLI first and downloading a fresh local copy when none is available.

Usage

Launch the TUI:

workdash

Useful flags:

workdash --print       # list items as plain text, no TUI
workdash --refresh     # force a refresh from GitHub
workdash --debug       # verbose logging
workdash --configure   # run the interactive setup wizard
workdash --direct      # start without the automatic Zellij wrapper
workdash --version     # print version and exit

What gets shown

workdash gathers the following for your configured GitHub username:

• Open pull requests you authored.
• Open pull requests where you are a requested reviewer, plus open pull requests you have already reviewed (shown as REVIEW).
• Open issues assigned to you.
• Open issues and pull requests across the tracked repositories.

Items are merged, deduplicated, and sorted by last update. One item is marked with * as the suggested next thing to pick up.

Repository selectors

The repositories list in config.json accepts:

• owner/repo — a specific repository.
• owner/* — every repository accessible to you under that owner.

TUI keybindings

• o — open the selected item in your browser.
• r — refresh the list from GitHub.
• a — analyze the selected item. Opens a dialog to open the cached analysis (if any), or run a fresh analysis with Claude or Codex. Fresh analyses are cached and rendered as HTML in your browser.
• c — launch a coding session on the selected item. Opens a dialog to pick Claude, Codex, or VSCode Copilot. workdash prepares a dedicated git worktree for the item and starts the chosen tool in it, preloaded with context about the issue or PR.
• t — open a terminal in the selected item's worktree (no agent launched).
• q — quit.

Worktrees

Coding and analysis actions operate on a per-item git worktree rooted under the configured workdir. Each tracked repository gets a local clone, and each work item gets its own worktree alongside it, so you can hop between items without disturbing other in-progress work.

Print mode

--print emits one row per item, sorted by last update (most recent first):

TYPE   repo#number   YYYY-MM-DD   title

TYPE is ISSUE, PR, or REVIEW (for review-requested PRs). The suggested item's title is prefixed with * . If nothing matches, the output is No work items found..

Analysis cache

Analyses produced with a are cached under ~/.config/workdash/cache/ so that re-opening an item is instant. The cache is keyed by the item's GitHub updated_at timestamp, so any change on GitHub automatically invalidates the cached analysis and the next a will re-run it.

Product behavior

Canonical product behavior is described in features/.

The .feature files are the source of truth for what the software does. They are product specifications first and executable BDD scenarios second.

Implementation progress can be tracked separately, for example in PROJECT_PLAN.md, by referencing stable feature and scenario IDs.

BDD-first development (mandatory)

Every new feature must start with a BDD definition under features/, and every change to existing behavior must update the relevant .feature file before any implementation or test code is modified. The .feature files are the contract; code follows them, not the other way around.

This applies to agents and humans alike. A change that lands code without a matching features/ update is incomplete.

Tests

From the repository root:

PYTHONPATH=src pytest

BDD suite

tests/bdd/ drives development from the .feature files in features/. pytest_bdd.scenarios(...) auto-generates one pytest test per Scenario, so adding a scenario to features/ is enough to pull it into the suite. Step definitions live under tests/bdd/steps/; scenarios whose steps are not yet implemented fail with StepDefinitionNotFoundError, which is the intended TDD signal for BDD-first development.

License

workdash is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3. See LICENSE for the full text.