Manual copy-paste is only for unsupported agents, existing projects where you cannot rerun bd init/bd setup, or custom instruction files. In those cases, run bd onboard and paste the printed snippet into the file your agent reads.

If your agent is not covered by bd setup, add this minimal AGENTS.md section:

This project uses bd (beads) for issue tracking.

- Run `bd prime` for workflow context and command guidance.
- Use `bd ready`, `bd show <id>`, `bd update <id> --claim`, and `bd close <id>`.
- Use `bd remember "insight"` for persistent project memory; do not create MEMORY.md files.
- Do not use markdown TODO lists for task tracking.

🛠 Features

• Dolt-Powered: Version-controlled SQL database with cell-level merge, native branching, and built-in sync via Dolt remotes.
• 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.
• Compaction: Semantic "memory decay" summarizes old closed tasks to save context window.
• Messaging: Message issue type with threading (--thread), ephemeral lifecycle, and mail delegation.
• Graph Links: relates_to, duplicates, supersedes, and replies_to for knowledge graphs.

📖 Essential Commands

| Command | Action | | --- | --- | | bd ready | List tasks with no open blockers. | | bd create "Title" -p 0 | Create a P0 task. | | bd update <id> --claim | Atomically claim a task (sets assignee + in_progress). | | bd dep add <child> <parent> | Link tasks (blocks, related, parent-child). | | bd show <id> | View task details and audit trail. | | bd prime | Print agent workflow context and persistent memories. | | bd remember "insight" | Store project memory that bd prime injects later. |

🔗 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. See Git-Free Usage below.

Contributor vs Maintainer: When working on open-source projects:

• Contributors (forked repos): Run bd init --contributor to route planning issues to a separate repo (e.g., ~/.beads-planning). Keeps experimental work out of PRs.
• Maintainers (write access): Beads auto-detects maintainer role via SSH URLs or HTTPS with credentials. Only need git config beads.role maintainer if using GitHub HTTPS without credentials but you have write access.

📦 Installation

brew install beads           # macOS / Linux (recommended)
npm install -g @beads/bd     # Node.js users

Other methods: install script | go install | from source | Windows | Arch AUR

Requirements: macOS, Linux, Windows, or FreeBSD. See docs/INSTALLING.md for complete installation guide.

Security And Verification

Before trusting any downloaded binary, verify its checksum against the release checksums.txt.

The install scripts verify release checksums before install. For manual installs, do this verification yourself before first run.

On macOS, scripts/install.sh preserves the downloaded signature by default. Local ad-hoc re-signing is explicit opt-in via BEADS_INSTALL_RESIGN_MACOS=1.

See docs/ANTIVIRUS.md for Windows AV false-positive guidance and verification workflow.

💾 Storage Modes

Beads uses Dolt as its database. Two modes are available:

Embedded Mode (default)

bd init

Dolt runs in-process — no external server needed. Data lives in .beads/embeddeddolt/. Single-writer only (file locking enforced). This is the recommended mode for most users.

When the git repo has an origin remote, bd init configures a Dolt remote named origin automatically. Cross-machine sync uses bd dolt push and bd dolt pull against refs/dolt/data; .beads/issues.jsonl is an export for viewers, interchange, and backup, not the source of truth.

Server Mode

bd init --server

Connects to an external dolt sql-server. Data lives in .beads/dolt/. Supports multiple concurrent writers. Configure the connection with flags or environment variables:

| Flag | Env Var | Default | |------|---------|---------| | --server-host | BEADS_DOLT_SERVER_HOST | 127.0.0.1 | | --server-port | BEADS_DOLT_SERVER_PORT | 3307 | | --server-socket | BEADS_DOLT_SERVER_SOCKET | (none; uses TCP) | | --server-user | BEADS_DOLT_SERVER_USER | root | | | BEADS_DOLT_PASSWORD | (none) |

Unix domain sockets: Use --server-socket to connect via a Unix socket instead of TCP. This avoids port conflicts between concurrent projects and is useful in sandboxed environments (e.g., Claude Code) where file-level access control is simpler than network allowlists. The Dolt server must be started with dolt sql-server --socket <path>. Auto-start is not supported in socket mode.

Backup & Migration

Back up your database and migrate between modes using bd backup:

# Set up a backup destination and push
bd backup init /path/to/backup
bd backup sync

# Restore into a new project (any mode)
bd init           # or bd init --server
bd backup restore --force /path/to/backup

See docs/DOLT.md for full migration instructions.

🌐 Community Tools

See docs/COMMUNITY_TOOLS.md for a curated list of community-built UIs, extensions, and integrations—including terminal interfaces, web UIs, editor extensions, and native apps.

🚀 Git-Free Usage

Beads works without git. The Dolt database is the storage backend — git integration (hooks, repo discovery, identity) is optional.

# Initialize without git
export BEADS_DIR=/path/to/your/project/.beads
bd init --quiet --stealth

# All core commands work with zero git calls
bd create "Fix auth bug" -p 1 -t bug
bd ready --json
bd update bd-a1b2 --claim
bd prime
bd close bd-a1b2 "Fixed"

BEADS_DIR tells bd where to put the .beads/ database directory, bypassing git repo discovery. --stealth sets no-git-ops: true in config, disabling all git hook installation and git operations.

This is useful for:

• Non-git VCS (Sapling, Jujutsu, Piper) — no .git/ directory needed
• Monorepos — point BEADS_DIR at a specific subdirectory
• CI/CD — isolated task tracking without repo-level side effects
• Evaluation/testing — ephemeral databases in /tmp

For daemon mode without git, use bd daemon start --local (see PR #433).

📝 Documentation

• Documentation site (versioned) | Installing | Sync Concepts | Agent Workflow | Copilot CLI Setup | Copilot VS Code MCP | Articles | Sync Branch Mode | Troubleshooting | FAQ
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