42ac923ea8
In multi-workspace setups like Gas Town, nested .beads directories are intentional and separate: - Town level: ~/gt/.beads - Rig level: ~/gt/gastown/.beads Previously, FindAllDatabases() walked up the entire directory tree and warned about "multiple databases detected" even though these are unrelated beads instances for different scopes. Now FindAllDatabases() stops as soon as it finds the first (closest) .beads directory. Parent directories are out of scope. 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
bd - Beads
Distributed, git-backed graph issue tracker for AI agents.
Beads provides a persistent, structured memory for coding agents. It replaces messy markdown plans with a dependency-aware graph, allowing agents to handle long-horizon tasks without losing context.
⚡ Quick Start
# Install (macOS/Linux)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/steveyegge/beads/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
# Initialize (Humans run this once)
bd init
# Tell your agent
echo "Use 'bd' for task tracking" >> AGENTS.md
🛠 Features
- Git as Database: Issues stored as JSONL in
.beads/. Versioned, branched, and merged like code. - Agent-Optimized: JSON output, dependency tracking, and auto-ready task detection.
- Zero Conflict: Hash-based IDs (
bd-a1b2) prevent merge collisions in multi-agent/multi-branch workflows. - Invisible Infrastructure: SQLite local cache for speed; background daemon for auto-sync.
- Compaction: Semantic "memory decay" summarizes old closed tasks to save context window.
📖 Essential Commands
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
bd ready |
List tasks with no open blockers. |
bd create "Title" -p 0 |
Create a P0 task. |
bd dep add <child> <parent> |
Link tasks (blocks, related, parent-child). |
bd show <id> |
View task details and audit trail. |
bd quickstart |
Interactive guide for AI agents. |
🔗 Hierarchy & Workflow
Beads supports hierarchical IDs for epics:
bd-a3f8(Epic)bd-a3f8.1(Task)bd-a3f8.1.1(Sub-task)
Stealth Mode: Run bd init --stealth to use Beads locally without committing files to the main repo. Perfect for personal use on shared projects.
📦 Installation
- npm:
npm install -g @beads/bd - Homebrew:
brew install steveyegge/beads/bd - Go:
go install github.com/steveyegge/beads/cmd/bd@latest
Requirements: Linux (glibc 2.32+), macOS, or Windows.
🌐 Community Tools
- beads_viewer - Keyboard-driven terminal UI with kanban board, insights panel, and graph view. Built by @Dicklesworthstone.
- beads.el - Emacs UI to browse, edit, and manage beads. Built by @ctietze.
- beads-ui - Local web interface with live updates and kanban board.
npx beads-ui start. Built by @mantoni. - bdui - Real-time terminal UI with tree view, dependency graph, and vim-style navigation. Built by @assimelha.
- perles - Terminal UI with BQL (Beads Query Language) and multi-view kanban. Built by @zjrosen.
- vscode-beads - VS Code extension with issues panel and daemon management. Built by @jdillon.