beads/website/docs/reference/advanced.md

id, title, sidebar_position

id	title	sidebar_position
advanced	Advanced Features	3

Advanced Features

Advanced beads functionality.

Issue Rename

Rename issues while preserving references:

bd rename bd-42 bd-new-id
bd rename bd-42 bd-new-id --dry-run  # Preview

Updates:

• All dependencies pointing to old ID
• All references in other issues
• Comments and descriptions

Issue Merge

Merge duplicate issues:

bd merge bd-42 bd-43 --into bd-41
bd merge bd-42 bd-43 --into bd-41 --dry-run

What gets merged:

• Dependencies → target
• Text references updated across all issues
• Source issues closed with merge reason

Database Compaction

Reduce database size by compacting old issues:

# View compaction statistics
bd admin compact --stats

# Preview candidates (30+ days closed)
bd admin compact --analyze --json

# Apply agent-generated summary
bd admin compact --apply --id bd-42 --summary summary.txt

# Immediate deletion (CAUTION!)
bd admin cleanup --force

When to compact:

• Database > 10MB with old closed issues
• After major milestones
• Before archiving project phase

Restore from History

View deleted or compacted issues from git:

bd restore bd-42 --show
bd restore bd-42 --to-file issue.json

Database Inspection

# Schema info
bd info --schema --json

# Raw database query (advanced)
sqlite3 .beads/beads.db "SELECT * FROM issues LIMIT 5"

Custom Tables

Extend the database with custom tables:

// In Go code using beads as library
storage.UnderlyingDB().Exec(`
  CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS custom_table (...)
`)

See EXTENDING.md.

Event System

Subscribe to beads events:

# View recent events
bd events list --since 1h

# Watch events in real-time
bd events watch

Events:

• issue.created
• issue.updated
• issue.closed
• dependency.added
• sync.completed

Batch Operations

Create Multiple

cat issues.jsonl | bd import -i -

Update Multiple

bd list --status open --priority 4 --json | \
  jq -r '.[].id' | \
  xargs -I {} bd update {} --priority 3

Close Multiple

bd list --label "sprint-1" --status open --json | \
  jq -r '.[].id' | \
  xargs -I {} bd close {} --reason "Sprint complete"

API Access

Use beads as a Go library:

import "github.com/steveyegge/beads/internal/storage"

db, _ := storage.NewSQLite(".beads/beads.db")
issues, _ := db.ListIssues(storage.ListOptions{
    Status: "open",
})

Performance Tuning

Large Databases

# Enable WAL mode
bd config set database.wal_mode true

# Increase cache
bd config set database.cache_size 10000

Many Concurrent Agents

# Use event-driven daemon
export BEADS_DAEMON_MODE=events
bd daemons killall

CI/CD Optimization

# Disable daemon in CI
export BEADS_NO_DAEMON=true
bd --no-daemon list