Rating · evidence to 26 Sept 2026
60
- No. 5 of 7 in category
- Medium confidence
- Trust B
- Open source
The Register / Orchestrators & meta-harnesses / Vibe Kanban
Register entry · Orchestrators & meta-harnesses · updated 26 Sept 2026
Vibe Kanban
Bloop (company shut down April 2026; now community maintained) · Orchestrators & meta-harnesses
Vibe Kanban is an open-source (Apache-2.0) tool launched with `npx vibe-kanban` that gives each task a git worktree, branch, terminal and dev server, and lets users run and review 10+ coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Copilot, Amp, Cursor, OpenCode and others) from a browser UI. Its maker Bloop shut down in April 2026 for lack of a business model; the hosted kanban/team features were removed and the project was handed to the community. Maintenance since then has been sparse, and npm downloads fell by roughly 90% between Q1 and mid-2026.
Deprecated. Bloop, the company behind Vibe Kanban, shut down on 10 April 2026. Cloud/remote features (kanban issues, comments, projects, organisations) were removed 30 days later; local workspaces keep working and the Apache-2.0 code is 'community maintained'. Commit activity paused from late April to September 2026, then a small burst of fixes and v0.1.45 (19 Sep 2026). In June 2026 the download host briefly failed and users reported npx installs breaking.
What reviewers and users praise
- Reviewers praised the worktree isolation plus visual review loop for running several agents at once
- Broad agent support and a feature set users described as mature
- Free and local; no account needed for local workspaces
What they criticise
- Vendor shut down; maintenance is sporadic and users report unfixed bugs
- The kanban board moved to the (now removed) cloud after v0.1.8, so current builds only offer local workspaces without the board
- Default agent profiles skip permission prompts (e.g. Claude Code dangerously_skip_permissions, Codex danger-full-access)
- Worktree-per-task spawns many folders; merge conflicts remain the user's problem
Experts vs the crowdcrowd cooler by 14
Experts79
Crowd64
| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Use it via | CLI, Web app, MCP server |
| Runs on | macos, linux, windows |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 |
| Updated | Evidence collected 26 Sept 2026 |
How the rating was worked out
Weights for Orchestrators & meta-harnesses: adoption 40%, experts 30%, crowd 30%. Pillars without enough evidence are left out and the others re-weighted. The method.
| Adoption & momentumweight 40% | 42 | GitHub stars 28k → 74 · npm weekly downloads 2.7k → 12 · 1 releases in 90 days → 40reach × 0.7 + momentum × 0.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Expertsindependent reviews · weight 30% | 79 | 4 independent reviews (4 positive · 0 mixed · 0 negative), averaged toward 50 for small samples. |
| Crowdcommunity sample · weight 30% | 64 | 8 dated posts from hackernews, reddit: 5 positive · 2 mixed · 1 negative (positive + ½ mixed) ÷ n, averaged toward 50 for small samples |
| Rating | 60 | medium confidence (3 of 3 pillars, 8 community posts). |
Evidence checks. 1 item removed: YouTube video does not exist or is private (1). 3 GitHub issues not counted as sentiment. How evidence is checked.
Editorial adjustment. Incident-history grade reviewed under methodology revision 2 (see the trust section).
Trust & safety
Seven dimensions graded A–D from documented facts. Overall: B.
C
Permission model
Default agent profiles auto-approve: Claude Code dangerously_skip_permissions=true, Codex sandbox=danger-full-access, Gemini/Qwen yolo=true, Copilot allow_all_tools=true. Planning mode and approval levels exist but must be configured per profile. source
B
Data access scope
Each workspace is a separate git worktree, but agents run with full-access defaults on the host. Profiles and permission prompts are documented in the agent configuration docs. source
A
Data storage
Local workspaces run on the user's machine; board/session state is local. Remote/cloud services were removed after the April 2026 shutdown; a self-hosting guide exists for the former cloud server. source
n/e
Data retention & training
The tool does not send code to the vendor; analytics (PostHog) can be disabled per reviewers. No retention or training policy applies now that the company is dissolved; not enough documentation to grade.
D
Incident history (24 months)
Two public, unacknowledged vulnerability reports against the Vibe Kanban Cloud/Remote server (v0.1.27) remain open: an OAuth return_to account-takeover (reporter CVSS 8.8) and an invitation-redemption flaw (CVSS 6.3). A later issue reports that all security contact addresses bounce; a SECURITY.md was added on 2026-09-17. The hosted cloud has been shut down, but the self-hosted server code is still offered. These are reporter claims, not confirmed CVEs. Kept at D under revision 2: two public vulnerability reports (CVSS 8.8 and 6.3) against the cloud/remote server remain open and unacknowledged. source
D
Compliance
No attestations; the company behind the project has shut down and the project is community maintained. source
A
Transparency
Apache-2.0 licensed source on GitHub with tagged releases; docs site still online. source
The experts
4 named independent reviews found; dated reviews from the last 12 months are scored.
- positive
And honestly? This is one of the most interesting projects I've seen in a while.
Artur Skowroński, VirtusLab (GitHub All-Stars series) · 7 Jan 2026 · virtuslab.com - positive
today I'm showing you Vibe Conbon, which is a really great open source project that you can use today to organize all of these agents
Zen van Riel (YouTube, 49k subscribers) · 7 Jan 2026 · youtube.com - positive
Vibe Kanban is better when you have actual multi-step work that you can break into separate pieces.
AI Stack Engineer (YouTube, 17.6k subscribers) · 8 Feb 2026 · youtube.com - positive
Vibe Kanban is a rare thing, a shutdown story with a decent ending.
Zane, vibecoding.app · 2 Aug 2026 · vibecoding.app
The crowd
8 coded posts from hackernews, reddit.
5 positive2 mixed1 negative
- mixed
Vibe Kanban was fun when it was only about one humans PMing many agents. But then it IIRC went in some weird directions.
HN comments · 13 Aug 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - mixed
It's open source and so you can run it locally / fork it, but it has stopped improving and there are still annoying bugs that need to be fixed
HN comments · 22 May 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
Personally i've just been using Claude Code with a coding agent UI (vibe-kanban) that has wrapped over "claude -p" for more than half a year without problems.
HN comments · 18 May 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
I found this the other day, pretty cool concept of how kanban could work in an AI future.
HN comments · 12 Mar 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - negative
I didn't love the Git worktree flow when I tried vibe kanban, spawning lots of folders seemed like it could get problematic on large codebases
HN comments · 9 Mar 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
1. Vibe Kanban (most mature, reliable, supports lots of models, great previews and tooling, mobile friendly)
r/ClaudeCode · 11 Jan 2026 · reddit.com - positive
For folks using Claude Code + Vibe Kanban, I’ve been refining a workflow like this since December, when I first started using VK.
r/ClaudeCode · 7 Feb 2026 · reddit.com - positive
Blocked, Running and Done is exactly what Vibe Kanban gives you (and maybe others).
r/ClaudeCode · 15 Apr 2026 · reddit.com
Pricing
As published, checked 26 Sept 2026.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Open source (local) | Free | Free; paid cloud plans ended with the April 2026 shutdown (recent payers refunded per the announcement) |
Recent changes
- 19 Sept 2026
v0.1.45 published after a five-month gap (fixes, pnpm audit, Copilot bump); first activity since the shutdown source
- 17 Sept 2026
SECURITY.md added for private vulnerability reporting source
- 18 Jun 2026
Users report the website domain lapsed and `npx vibe-kanban` downloads failing; a community fork (vibe-kanban-indie) was suggested source
- 24 Apr 2026
v0.1.44: sunsetting banner added and project routes switched to export-only source
- 10 Apr 2026
Bloop announces shutdown; cloud features removed after 30 days; project continues as community-maintained open source source
Ranked alongside
Other ranked entries in Orchestrators & meta-harnesses.
Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these, observed up to 26 Sept 2026.