Kanban Factory 🏭

An animated local live theater for your real Kanban board and scheduled routines.

Cards float on conveyor lanes (backlog → todo → doing → done). When the board changes, chips fly between stages with hop arcs, particle bursts, and soft blips. Routines appear as a crew of characters with personalities — Pickup grabs work, Groom unblocks backlog, Pipeline checks the merge clinic, etc.

This UI talks only to your machine (Kanban + Brain CLIs over the LastDB socket). Nothing is uploaded; nothing is multi-tenant cloud.

Public source: https://github.com/EdgeVector/kanban-factory
Canonical (EdgeVector contributors): lastdb:///kanban-factory (LastGit)

Requirements

1. LastDB stack with Kanban initialized
   Follow https://thelastdb.com/llms.txt (or last-stack-install-apps after cloning Last Stack). You need kanban and ideally brain on PATH.
2. Node 18+ (node on PATH; Homebrew Node is fine)
3. A running lastdbd (brew services start lastdb)

Quick start (public install)

# After Last Stack apps are installed and `kanban init` works:
git clone https://github.com/EdgeVector/kanban-factory.git \
  ~/.local/share/edgevector/kanban-factory
cd ~/.local/share/edgevector/kanban-factory

# One-shot (foreground)
node server.mjs
# → http://127.0.0.1:4177

# Or auto-start on login (macOS LaunchAgent)
./scripts/install-launchd.sh install
open http://127.0.0.1:4177

If you used Last Stack (~/.last-stack/bin/last-stack-install-apps), the installer also clones this repo under ~/lastdb-apps/kanban-factory when the GitHub mirror is public:

cd ~/lastdb-apps/kanban-factory
node server.mjs
# or: ./scripts/install-launchd.sh install

LaunchAgent helpers

./scripts/install-launchd.sh status
./scripts/install-launchd.sh restart
./scripts/install-launchd.sh update     # git pull tip (if this is a git checkout) + reinstall
./scripts/install-launchd.sh uninstall

The installer renders ProgramArguments, WorkingDirectory, HOME, and log paths from the checkout you run it from — never hardcode another machine’s paths into the template.

Logs: ~/Library/Logs/kanban-factory.out.log and .err.log

Env knobs:

Variable	Default	Meaning
PORT	4177	HTTP bind (loopback only)
POLL_MS	60000	Board poll interval
KANBAN_BIN	first kanban on PATH	Board CLI
FOLD_CHECKOUT	(unset)	Optional path to fold monorepo for version “ahead of running” panel
NODE_BIN	node on PATH	Node binary for LaunchAgent

What it reads (mostly read-only)

Source	How
Live cards	kanban list --json --all (full board; bare --json may cap per column)
Routine activity	Heartbeat log files + optional brain references
LastDB version panel	lastdbd/lastdb --version + lastdb status (+ optional local git if FOLD_CHECKOUT is set)

Board/brain scrapes are read-only. Version panel is read-only (no upgrades).

One local mutation: fleet mode switching via routines-profile apply when that CLI exists:

Endpoint	Effect
GET /api/routines-profile	Current mode + available profiles
POST /api/routines-profile {"profile":"low-credit"}	Apply named profile

UI: top-bar Fleet chip — click (or press M) for the mode panel.

curl -sS http://127.0.0.1:4177/api/lastdb-version | jq '.running'
# optional: FOLD_CHECKOUT=/path/to/fold POLL_MS=4000 node server.mjs

Features

• Real card titles, priority, kind, repo, assignee, blocked state
• Hover any card or crew member for details; click a card for sparkles
• Move sounds (Web Audio — click once to unlock, toggle with Sound)
• Optional factory Hum (soft sub-bass)
• Parade button for a satisfying hop of in-flight work
• Session HUD: ships / grabs / streak · shift clock (morning/day/night)
• Momentum bar, marquee ticker, SHIPPED stamp, screen shake, achievements
• Theater mode (pipeline focus) · keyboard: S sound · P parade · F theater · H hum
• Factory log of heartbeats + detected board moves
• Animations fire on column diffs between polls

Crew personas (examples)

Routine	Character
kanban-pickup	The Grabber — scoops todo → doing and ships
pipeline-health	The Medic — merge/deploy nurse
groom-board	The Janitor — promotes unblocked backlog
kanban-watch	The Owl — reconciles stuck PRs
kanban-validate	The Inspector — END STATE stamps
program-driver	The Foreman — next program slices
north-star-rollup	The Cartographer — constellation map
routine-fleet-health	Fleet Doctor — routine vitals

EdgeVector maintainers (LastGit / portals)

Canonical gate: lastdb:///kanban-factory. GitHub is a read-only mirror for public clone/browse — open change requests with lastgit cr, not gh.

# portal is empty; work only in a worktree
~/code/edgevector/kanban-factory/bin/wt start kanban/<card-slug>

License

MIT — see repository metadata / LICENSE if present.