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1.3.0 — Open-core boundary + Desktop preview

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@jimdou jimdou released this 29 Apr 18:27
· 99 commits to main since this release
v1.3.0
d6e9699

The natural follow-up to 1.2.0. Brings the open-core boundary, the Desktop preview, and everything that was sitting in Unreleased onto a stable 1.x release.

Highlights

  • Backlog Desktop (backlog.so/desktop, packages/desktop/) is now the recommended way to run the kanban for non-terminal users. Electron shell around the same @backlog/server + @backlog/board-ui the CLI already runs — one engine, one feature surface. The macOS DMG (Apple Silicon + Intel) is in Apple notarisation; Windows + Linux follow via the same electron-builder config. Free, Apache-2.0, full feature parity with backlog serve.
  • Open-core boundary made explicit. CLI + Desktop + SDK are free forever under Apache-2.0. Backlog Cloud (private development, waitlist) only adds features that genuinely need infrastructure we run: SMTP for invites and digests, hosted auth & SSO (SAML/OIDC, SCIM), multi-tenant collaboration with real-time sync, hosted run executors (managed agents, ephemeral sandboxes), retention beyond local disk, audit log export. The boundary maps to infrastructure we run, not features we artificially gate.
  • Marketing surface refreshed at backlog.so: dedicated /cli, /desktop, /sdk, /cloud pages, an anonymous waitlist for Desktop and Cloud, and a flesh-out /docs covering quickstart, concepts, full CLI reference, workspace layout, configuration, the orchestrator, claims & the pre-commit hook, agents, connectors, the API, self-hosting, and troubleshooting.
  • Embedded server port fix (packages/server/src/index.ts). startServer({ port: 0 }) now returns the actually-bound port (read from server.address()) instead of echoing the requested 0. Required for Electron's random-port boot; the CLI gets the fix for free, so backlog serve --port 0 no longer reports the wrong URL.
  • backlog hooks pause / backlog hooks resume are now first-class subcommands (previously only documented as escape-hatches). Pausing covers a 30-minute window so you can do a sequence of commits without the per-commit BACKLOG_SKIP_HOOK=1 dance; resume re-enables on the spot.

Workspace & projects

  • backlog init initializes a workspace in the current directory; backlog init --user-level places it at ~/.backlog/<slug>/ for multi-repo projects without a single natural project root. Project name uniqueness is enforced across user-level entries.
  • config.toml carries project_location (in_repo | user_level), mirrored in the user registry's per-entry location. The cross-platform registry path is ~/.backlog/projects.json; legacy registries under ~/Library/Application Support/Backlog/ (macOS) or ~/.config/Backlog/ (Linux) are auto-migrated on first read.
  • backlog project migrate <id> --to user-level (or --to in-repo --into <repo-id>) moves an existing workspace between layouts, copying state, rewriting config.toml, updating the registry, force-reinstalling hooks, and renaming the old dir to .backlog.migrated-YYYY-MM-DD/ for rollback.
  • Projects — first-class entity grouping one or many repos. Each work item can carry a project_id. CLI: backlog project add|list|show|update|archive|remove. Storage: .backlog/projects.yaml.

Kanban board (backlog serve)

  • backlog serve — local Hono server + Svelte 5 kanban board on 127.0.0.1:7878, single binary. Cards drag between À faire / En cours / In Review / Done; live updates via SSE on every state mutation. Project dropdown + ⚙ Projects modal, 📁 Repos modal, 🔒 Permissions modal, ✂ splitter, + Ticket and + Claim modals.
  • Persistent orchestrator — start/pause/stop a background loop that re-builds the execution plan and dispatches runs every tick_interval_ms (default 5s). Pause is soft (active runs keep going), stop drains. Hydrates only when last_tick_at < 60s to avoid surprise auto-launches. CLI: backlog orchestrator start|pause|stop|status|config. UI: ▶ ⏸ ⏹ trio in the topbar.
  • Live time estimates and progress — every task gets estimated_duration_seconds (manual override or median of archived runs filtered by repo+lane, fallback 30 min) plus a derived progress_percent. Work-item progress is duration-weighted. The /board payload exposes progress_percent, eta, elapsed_seconds, total_estimated_seconds, total_remaining_seconds. UI shows a 4 px progress bar per task, ETA badge ticking every second, plus a global ETA pill.
  • Drag-to-reorder inside columns — rewrites a sparse priority_score (work items use rank). Cross-column drag still triggers status change.
  • Repo management UI + API — /api/v1/repos (GET/POST/PATCH/DELETE) wraps @backlog/core's repo-service. List, add, rename, enable/disable, force-delete repos from the kanban.
  • GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket / arbitrary Git URL clone — repos can be added by URL. RepoConfig gains git_url and provider. cloneAndAddRepo() clones into <workspace>/repos/<id> by default. CLI: backlog repos add --url ....
  • Permissions screen — toggle workspace autonomy mode (observe / assist / delegate / autopilot), edit per-claim TTL and enforce_on_commit, configure each agent (enable, sandbox mode, success mode, concurrence, allowed risks, allowed repos).
  • Mechanical splitter + AI splitter — ✂ button on work items without tasks. AI tab calls Claude (claude-opus-4-7 by default, overridable via BACKLOG_AI_MODEL) with adaptive thinking and JSON-schema constrained output. Requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY; degrades gracefully without.

CLI commands

  • backlog init, backlog doctor, backlog status, backlog serve
  • backlog project {add|list|show|update|archive|remove|migrate|migrate-rollback|export|import}
  • backlog repos {list|show|add|update|remove} (supports --url for cloning)
  • backlog work {add|list|show|move|update|remove|plan|split|import|assign-project|estimate}
  • backlog task {add|list|show|move|update|remove|block|unblock|plan|estimate|progress}
  • backlog claim {start|check|finish|list|gc} (claims gain expected_finish_at, expected_duration_seconds, agent_id; --duration and --agent flags on claim start)
  • backlog schedule {simulate|explain|run}
  • backlog runs {list|show|gc|interrupt|resume|approve|request-changes|complete|fail|handoff}
  • backlog agents {list|show|enable|disable|update|validate|health}
  • backlog sources {add|list|enable|disable|update|remove|validate|sync|push|conflicts|resolve}
  • backlog orchestrator {start|pause|stop|status|config}
  • backlog hooks {status|install|uninstall|pause|resume} (pre-commit hook exports BACKLOG_PROJECT_DIR so claim check finds the workspace whether in_repo or user_level)
  • backlog release snapshot
  • backlog worktree {list|gc}

Architecture

  • TypeScript + ESM, Node ≥ 20.
  • pnpm monorepo: cli, core, claims, connectors, config, git, hooks, schemas, server, board-ui. schemas is the source of truth (Zod) for cross-boundary types. tsup bundles everything into the published tarball.
  • Apache-2.0 (CLI). @backlog/board-ui is Apache-2.0; @backlog/server is BUSL-1.1 (commercial license for hosted use).

Notes for users coming from 1.2.0

  • npm latest now points to 1.3.0. Reinstall with npm i -g backlog@latest.
  • No data migration is required; the workspace format hasn't changed since 1.2.0.
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