Working with kanman | kanman documentation

kanman works your team’s board like a colleague who is always there. It picks up what is ready, keeps the work moving, and comes to you only when it needs something a person has. You can take any story yourself at any time and hand it back when you are done.

Who works a story

Every story is worked by kanman, by people, or by both:

Nobody assigned, or kanman assigned: kanman works the story once it is in Ready.
A person assigned: that person works it. kanman does not start on it; it answers in the story’s notes and keeps the board up to date.

To take a story, open it and choose Assign to me. To hand it back, remove yourself, or assign kanman. See Who works a story.

Handing work back and forth

Some steps need a person: creating a test account at a vendor, granting access, deciding between two designs. kanman hands such a step to you the same way a colleague would:

It writes on the story what is needed and why, assigns the story to you and mentions you in a note.
You do the step and write “@kanman done” in the story’s notes, with anything kanman should know.
kanman reads the thread, checks what you did, takes the story back and continues the work that waited for it.

It works the other way round too: write on any story, mention @kanman and say what you want (“take this over”, “split this in two”, “hold this until Monday”). kanman reads the whole thread and answers in it, usually within minutes. See Notes and handovers.

Short descriptions, labels and the checklist

The board is shared, so kanman keeps it readable for people:

Short descriptions. Every story and goal card has a one-line summary. kanman writes it; you can change it.
Labels. kanman uses your team’s labels where one clearly fits and never invents new ones. Filter the board by person or label. See Labels and the board filter.
Checklist. Each story shows its acceptance criteria, the steps of kanman’s plan and your own to-dos, with a progress bar on the card. See Checklist.

Questions, bundled in one place

kanman finds out facts itself: it reads the code, the pipelines and the history before it asks anyone. What is left for a person is intent, a choice only you can make, or access kanman does not have.

Those questions are bundled in one place, so you never chase them through chat threads and merge request comments:

The line above the message box says 3 stories wait on people · 1 on you. Select it to see each story, who it waits on and what for.
Each question names the story, says why it matters and offers the options kanman sees. You can also answer in your own words.
kanman asks each question once. When you answer, it continues right away and does not ask the same thing again.

See Questions from kanman.

What you see while kanman works

Active agents. Above the message box, 3 active agents says how many helpers are at work. Select it to see each one with its story and what it is doing right now.
The story’s live line. In the conversation, each story kanman works on has one line that changes in place as the work moves: planned, in progress, checks running, in review, merged.
kanman narrates as it goes. In a team’s chat kanman says what happens in one short line per story, live: “Started 4 agents on INT-346”, “Merged 8 MRs for INT-346”, “Agent int354-e2e finished on INT-354”. A burst of similar events becomes one line, and the line updates in place; 3 earlier steps under it shows what came before. When a repository’s main branch turns red or green again, the line says so together with what kanman did about it, for example “flow_object_twilio went red on develop: noted on INT-338”. In General each team has one such line. Story keys and merge requests in these lines are links.
kanman’s words appear as it writes. Replies grow word by word, like any chat with an AI. If you prefer reduced motion, they appear at once.
The activity log. Every plan, launch, result, review, question, answer and merge is recorded with its time and reason. The team page and the conversation read from it.
Why. Ask “why did you split INT-88?” or “what are you doing right now?” and kanman answers from the log.

When kanman works

kanman looks at the board whenever something changes (a story created or moved, a note, an answer, a finished pipeline or a merge request event) and at least once an hour. Between those moments it does not poll or wait silently: a story that waits always says what it waits for.

Each team has one daily budget. When it is used up, kanman stops for the day and says so in the conversation. To stop kanman at once, pause the team; see Teams.