Summary kata offers local-first issue tracking for AI-assisted software development, featuring a stable CLI for agents and a TUI for humans. It solves the problem of scattered task management by providing a structured, auditable ledger separate from code repositories. This enhances agent ergonomics and human oversight, benefiting developers and researchers.

How It Works A local daemon manages a SQLite database for issue states and event history. The CLI provides stable, JSON-first commands optimized for automation, with predictable failures and idempotency. The TUI offers a human-readable interface to browse and manage agent-generated work on the same data stream. This design prioritizes agent ergonomics and auditability via append-only comments and explicit destructive operations, keeping workspace bindings minimal (.kata.toml) and out of code history.

Quick Start & Requirements Installation requires Go 1.26+ via go install go.kenn.io/kata/cmd/kata@latest; pre-built binaries are unavailable. Initialize with kata init in your workspace, then use commands like kata create "task description", kata list, kata show <short_id>, or kata tui for interactive browsing. Documentation is at https://katatracker.com/.

Highlighted Details

• Agent Ergonomics: Stable CLI, JSON output, predictable failures, idempotency keys, "search-before-create" workflow.
• Human Oversight: Interactive TUI for browsing, triaging, and editing issues.
• Local-First & Clean Repos: Issue state in local SQLite via daemon; minimal .kata.toml binding committed.
• Extensibility: Supports event streaming, remote daemons, and federation.
• Migration: Includes import from systems like Beads.

Maintenance & Community kata is in an "early public preview," with potential command/UI changes before stable release. Specific contributor details or community links are not provided, but docs/ and https://katatracker.com/ are the definitive resources.

Licensing & Compatibility Licensed under the terms in its LICENSE file. Its local-first nature ensures compatibility with any directory, including non-Git repositories, and it's optimized for agent-first workflows.

Limitations & Caveats As an early preview, kata may have breaking changes. It is not a full project management suite or Git workflow engine. Synchronization relies on its remote daemon/federation, not direct Git integration. Users must build from source using Go.