Features

🤖 AI-First Design

BackMark is the first task management tool designed specifically for AI collaboration. It provides four dedicated spaces where your AI assistant can plan, document, and review its work.

`ai_plan`

Where AI designs the implementation approach. Includes implementation steps, files to create/modify, dependencies to install, and technical architecture decisions.

`ai_notes`

Real-time development log with timestamps. AI records progress updates, problems encountered and solutions, important decisions, and deviations from the original plan.

`ai_documentation`

End-user and developer documentation. AI writes API docs, usage examples, configuration options, and architecture diagrams as it builds.

`ai_review`

AI self-review and quality checks. Completed tasks checklist, tests performed and results, quality metrics, improvement suggestions, and questions for human review.

📝 Markdown-Native & Zero Lock-In

Every task is a simple .md file with YAML frontmatter. No databases, no proprietary formats.

Task File Structure Example:

---
id: 42
title: "Implement user authentication"
status: "In Progress"
priority: "high"
assignees: ["@alice", "Claude"]
labels: ["feature", "backend", "security"]

ai_plan: |
  ## Implementation Steps
  1. Setup JWT library
  2. Create auth middleware...

ai_notes: |
  **2024-11-06 14:30** - Started implementation...
---

# Implement user authentication

## Description
JWT-based authentication with refresh tokens...

Benefits:

✅ Human-readable in any text editor
✅ Perfect for Git version control
✅ Future-proof (Markdown will be readable in 50 years)
✅ Processable with standard tools (grep, sed, awk)

Why This Matters:

🔓 No vendor lock-in
🔍 Full transparency
🔄 Easy migration
📜 Complete history in Git

⚡ Blazing Fast Performance

Optional LokiJS indexing provides 50-250x faster queries on large task collections.

Performance Stats:

📊 5-10ms average command response time
🚀 Handles 1000+ tasks effortlessly
💾 ~1KB per task index size
🔄 Automatic synchronization
📈 Incremental updates

Dual Repository System:

FileSystemRepository: Direct Markdown operations for small projects (<100 tasks)

LokiIndexedRepository: In-memory indexed queries for large projects (100+ tasks)

System automatically chooses based on your config.

🎨 Beautiful CLI Experience

A delightful developer experience with colorful output, interactive prompts, and smart features.

Colorful Output

Red for critical/high priority
Yellow for medium priority
Blue for low priority
Green for done status
Magenta for AI assignees

Interactive Features

🎯 Kanban board with watch mode
🔍 Fuzzy search (configurable)
📋 Formatted tables
⌨️ Interactive prompts
⏳ Progress indicators

Developer-Friendly

💻 Zero configuration
🌐 Cross-platform support
📖 Comprehensive help
🎯 Tab completion ready
🔧 Highly customizable

🔧 Smart Automation

AI-powered automation to streamline your workflow.

`ai-breakdown`

Automatically decomposes complex tasks into logical subtasks with dependencies. Uses local heuristic analysis - no API calls, completely private.

$ backmark task ai-breakdown 42

`ai-estimate`

Estimates task complexity, duration, risks, and confidence level based on description patterns and technical keywords.

$ backmark task ai-estimate 42

`ai-review-ready`

Validates task readiness before marking as complete with an 8-point checklist including subtasks, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.

$ backmark task ai-review-ready 42

✅ Smart Validation System

Comprehensive validation ensures task quality and prevents mistakes.

Pre-Close Validations:

✅ All subtasks completed
✅ Dependencies resolved
✅ No active blockers
✅ Acceptance criteria checked

Warnings (with confirmation):

⚠️ Missing AI review for AI-assigned tasks
⚠️ Date mismatches (early/late close)
⚠️ Suspiciously quick completion

Post-Close Suggestions:

💡 Parent task completion suggestions
💡 Notifications for newly unblocked tasks
💡 Related task recommendations

All configurable via config.yml

📋 Task Templates

Pre-structured templates for common scenarios plus custom template support.

Built-in Templates:

feature - New feature development with AI plan sections
bugfix - Bug fixes with debugging workflow
refactoring - Code improvements with quality metrics
research - Investigation tasks with comparison matrix

Create from Template:

$ backmark task create-from-template \
  feature "User authentication"

Custom templates in backlog/templates/

🔒 Privacy-First

100% Offline, All Local

What BackMark Does NOT Do:

❌ No cloud dependencies
❌ No telemetry or tracking
❌ No user accounts
❌ No external API calls
❌ No internet connection required

Your Data:

✅ Stays on your machine
✅ Under your control
✅ Encrypted by your filesystem
✅ Backed up with your files
✅ Completely private