Boarda is a lightweight, developer-friendly Kanban project management tool built for teams and open-source contributors who want clarity without clutter.
- Beginner-friendly: Clear folder structure, good docs, labeled issues.
- Opinionated MERN: Enforces clean MERN best practices.
- No bloat: Only essential Kanban features.
- OSS-first: Built to grow through community contributions.
This repository contains both the client and server code.
- Node.js installed on your machine.
- Git.
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Star the repository
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Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/your-username/boarda.git cd boarda -
Setup Client & Server:
- Frontend: See Client Setup Instructions for details on setting up the React application.
- Backend: See Server Setup Instructions for details on setting up the Node.js/Express API (check
.env.examplefor environment configuration).
- View all boards you own or are a member of
- See tasks assigned to you across boards
- Clean, text-first layout with no visual clutter
- Quick access to create a new board
- Create multiple boards for different projects
- Rename boards
- Delete boards (admin only)
- Default Kanban workflow:
- Backlog
- In Progress
- Review
- Done
- Create tasks within a board
- Edit task details
- Delete tasks (permission-based)
- Task fields include:
- Title
- Description (Markdown supported)
- Status
- Priority (Low / Medium / High)
- Assignee
- Tags
- Created and updated timestamps
- Drag and drop tasks between columns
- Automatically update task status on move
- Optimistic UI updates for smooth interaction
- Focused task detail view in a modal
- View and edit task metadata
- Comment on tasks
- Minimal layout to reduce distraction
- Invite users to boards
- Share boards with specific permissions:
- Admin – full control
- Editor – create and edit tasks
- Viewer – read-only access
- View-only board sharing via link
- Edit access restricted to invited users
- Email and password authentication
- Secure password hashing
- JWT-based authentication
- Protected API routes
- Role-based access control
- Free Tier: Standard access to board creation and task management.
- Premium Tier: Unlocks advanced features (future planned features).
- Tier Check: Backend validation to ensure users access features according to their subscription status.
- Clean, distraction-free interface
- Text-first design
- No unnecessary animations
- Consistent spacing and typography
- Designed for developers and open-source contributors
The following features are intentionally planned for future versions once the core experience is stable.
- Live task updates across users
- Real-time drag and drop syncing
- Presence indicators
- Task activity log
- Board-level activity feed
- Audit trail for task changes
- GitHub issue linking
- Import tasks from GitHub issues
- Sync with GitHub repositories
- Custom columns
- Column reordering
- Board templates (Sprints, Bugs, Docs)
- Task search
- Advanced filtering (priority, tags, assignee)
- Task sorting
- Due dates and reminders
- Public read-only boards
- Shareable public URLs
- Embeddable boards for documentation
- User mentions in comments
- Notifications
- Comment editing and deletion
- Mobile-optimized UI
- Progressive Web App (PWA)
- Native mobile apps (future consideration)
- Granular permission controls
- Guest users
- Board-level audit logs
- Task completion statistics
- Simple progress summaries
- Lightweight productivity insights
OpenBoard intentionally avoids feature bloat. New features are added only if they:
- Improve clarity
- Preserve simplicity
- Enhance collaboration without complexity
The goal is to remain minimal, predictable, and developer-friendly.
MIT