beads
Beads is a command-line issue tracker that gives coding agents persistent memory of tasks and project facts.
What it is good for
- Keeping an AI coding agent on track across long tasks
- Replacing messy markdown plans with a task list
- Tracking dependencies between tasks an agent works on
- Storing project facts so an agent remembers them later
At a glance
- Who it is for
- Setup
- Guided command-line setup
Level 4 of 5. You copy and paste commands into a terminal by following the instructions. Comfortable territory for vibe coders.
- Cost
- Free and open source
- Type
- Agent app
- Tasks
- Works with
- Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Factory, Dolt, Git
Momentum
- Rank this week
- Not ranked yet
- Best rank
- None yet
- GitHub stars
- 28,407
GitHub numbers as of Nov 2, 2026. Updated weekly.
Official links
Setup steps are on the official pages. We do not repeat them here, since they change.
Questions
- Is beads free?
- Yes. It is free and open source (MIT license).
- Do I need to know how to code to use beads?
- You do not need to write code, but setup means copying and pasting commands into a terminal by following its instructions.
- What does beads work with?
- According to its own documentation, it works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Factory, Dolt, and Git.
- What is beads good for?
- Keeping an AI coding agent on track across long tasks, replacing messy markdown plans with a task list, tracking dependencies between tasks an agent works on, and storing project facts so an agent remembers them later.
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