Pad

Project Management for the agent era.

<a href="https://github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad/actions/workflows/ci.yml"><img src="https://github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg" alt="CI"></a>
<a href="https://github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad/releases"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/PerpetualSoftware/pad" alt="Release"></a>
<a href="https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad"><img src="https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad" alt="Go Report Card"></a>
<a href="https://github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad/pkgs/container/pad"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/ghcr.io-perpetualsoftware%2Fpad-blue?logo=docker&logoColor=white" alt="Container image on GHCR"></a>
<a href="https://github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad/raw/v0.10.0/LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-Apache%202.0-blue" alt="License"></a>
<a href="https://github.com/sponsors/xarmian"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/sponsors/xarmian?label=sponsors&logo=github" alt="GitHub Sponsors"></a>






<a href="https://getpad.dev">Website</a>
&nbsp;·&nbsp;
<a href="https://getpad.dev/docs">Docs</a>
&nbsp;·&nbsp;
<a href="https://getpad.dev/blog">Blog</a>
&nbsp;·&nbsp;
<a href="https://getpad.dev/changelog">Changelog</a>
&nbsp;·&nbsp;
<a href="https://x.com/getpaddev">X</a>
&nbsp;·&nbsp;
<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/getpaddev.bsky.social">Bluesky</a>

One binary. Local-first. No accounts required. Pad gives you a CLI, a web UI, and an AI agent skill — all backed by SQLite, all running on your machine. Your project data stays on your laptop — unless you take it to Pad Cloud.

Quick Start

brew install PerpetualSoftware/tap/pad
cd your-project
pad init                    # configure, auth, workspace, AI skill — all in one
pad server open             # opens the web UI at localhost:7777

pad init is the smart entry point — it auto-detects what's needed, walks you through each step, and is safe to re-run anytime (it skips finished steps and prints a status summary).

Then, in a fresh agent session in your project, say:

/pad onboard

Your new workspace ships with the canonical onboard playbook auto-activated. The agent walks an interview, inspects your codebase if it has shell access, and adapts your workspace's collections, conventions, roles, and playbooks to match the project. It's the fastest way to go from empty workspace to "okay, this is mine."

Why Pad?

Tools like Linear, Jira, and Notion are built for teams on the cloud. Pad is built for developers on their machine — and for the AI agents working alongside them. When you do want your projects on every device or a teammate on the board, Pad Cloud hosts the same product with sync, workspace invites, and role-based access.

Features

For Developers

CLI that doesn't get in your way. Create tasks, search items, check status — without leaving the terminal.

pad item create task "Fix OAuth redirect" --priority high
pad item create idea "Real-time collaboration" --category infrastructure
pad item list tasks --status in-progress
pad item search "authentication"
pad project dashboard                   # Project dashboard
pad project next                        # What should I work on?
pad server info                         # How this client is connected to Pad

Web UI that stays out of your way. A clean, dark-themed interface at localhost:7777 with:

• Board, list, and table views — drag-and-drop between status columns
• Keyboard navigation — j/k to move, Enter to open, Esc to go back, Cmd+K to search
• Rich text editor — Tiptap-based with markdown, formatting toolbar, and auto-save
• Wiki-links — type [[Title]] to link between items
• Real-time updates — agent creates a task in the terminal, it appears in the browser instantly (via SSE)
• Dashboard — collection overview, active work, plan tracking, activity feed

For AI Agents

Your agent becomes a project partner. Install the /pad skill once, and your AI coding tool can read, create, and update project items through natural language.

pad agent install        # Auto-detects your tools and installs the skill

Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, OpenCode, GitHub Copilot, Amazon Q, and JetBrains Junie.

Then just talk to your project:

> /pad what should I work on next?
> /pad I finished the OAuth fix
> /pad create a task to add rate limiting
> /pad let's brainstorm about the API redesign

Conventions and playbooks teach agents how your project works:

• Conventions — trigger-based rules like "run tests before marking a task done" or "use conventional commits"
• Playbooks — multi-step workflows like "when implementing a feature: read the spec, create a branch, write tests first, then implement". Playbooks can declare a kebab-case invocation_slug so users can invoke them directly: /pad ship PLAN-42, /pad release 0.5.0. Fresh startup workspaces ship a generic ship playbook out of the box.

pad item create convention "Run tests before completing tasks" \
  --field trigger=on-task-complete \
  --field scope=all \
  --field priority=must

Agents load relevant conventions automatically. All agent actions are attributed in the activity feed, so you always know what the AI changed.

Onboard agents to a new codebase:

Open an agent session in the workspace directory and run /pad onboard. The agent walks an interview, detects your build/test/CI tooling, and adapts your workspace's collections, conventions, roles, and playbooks to match the project. Works for any agent that speaks Pad — Claude Code, MCP-only agents, etc.

Collections & Custom Fields

Pad organizes work into collections — typed containers with structured fields.

Built-in collections:

Create your own with typed fields — select, text, date, number, url, relation, checkbox:

pad collection create "Bug Reports" \
  --fields "severity:select:low,medium,high,critical; browser:text; reproducible:checkbox"

Items get reference numbers automatically (TASK-5, BUG-12) and can be moved between collections with field migration.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS and Linux)

brew install PerpetualSoftware/tap/pad

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad
cd pad
make build
cp pad ~/.local/bin/   # or /usr/local/bin/

Requires Go 1.26+ and Node.js 22+.

The go install github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad/cmd/pad@latest path is not supported for the full Pad binary, because the web UI must be built and embedded during the source build.

Docker

docker run -p 127.0.0.1:7777:7777 -v pad-data:/data ghcr.io/perpetualsoftware/pad

This publishes Pad to localhost:7777 on the host machine, which is the recommended default for local use.

First run — create the first admin. Open http://localhost:7777 and you'll hit a setup page asking for a bootstrap token. On first start with no users, Pad logs a one-time setup URL to stderr (captured by docker logs) — grep it and open the printed link:

docker logs <container> 2>&1 | grep -A6 'Pad first-run setup'
# → http://<your-host>:7777/setup#token=<one-time-token>

Open that URL, create your admin account, and the token is consumed (the banner stops appearing). If you'd rather stay on the CLI, docker exec -it <container> pad auth setup works too — running inside the container counts as loopback, which the bootstrap gate allows. On a network you already trust, set PAD_BYPASS_SETUP_TOKEN=true to skip the token and create the admin straight from http://<your-host>:7777/setup (only safe when the port isn't reachable from the open internet).

Single user, more than one device? Publish to all interfaces so you can reach Pad from your phone, tablet, or another machine on the same LAN, Tailscale network, or home VPN:

docker run -p 7777:7777 -v pad-data:/data ghcr.io/perpetualsoftware/pad

For multi-instance deployments, Pad supports Postgres + Redis via docker-compose.yml — see docs/deployment.md for the full setup.

Binary Download

Pre-built binaries for macOS, Linux, and Windows are available on the releases page.

Pad Cloud (hosted)

Don't want to run anything? Pad Cloud is the managed option — same product, same CLI, same /pad skill, free during beta. Sign up on the web, then connect a project directory:

pad init --url https://app.getpad.dev --workspace my-workspace

Self-hosting stays first-class: the binary is unchanged and no features are Cloud-only.

Upgrading Pad

Pad ships a new binary on a roughly weekly cadence. Upgrades are designed to be boring: install the new binary and restart. Database migrations run automatically at startup, only the ones your database is missing are applied, and each migration commits atomically (a failed migration rolls back cleanly and is retried next boot).

The one rule: only ever move forward. Newer binaries know how to migrate an older database; older binaries do not understand a newer schema. Since Pad added its schema-ahead guard, a downgraded binary that finds a database newer than itself refuses to start rather than silently running old code against a newer schema (which can corrupt data):

database schema is newer than this pad binary: ... This almost always means the
binary was DOWNGRADED (e.g. brew/docker rollback) ... Upgrade pad back to a build
that includes those migrations, or re-run with `pad start --force`.

To recover, reinstall the newer binary (brew upgrade pad, pull the newer Docker tag, etc.). If you have intentionally downgraded and accept the risk, start with pad start --force (or set PAD_ALLOW_SCHEMA_AHEAD=1) to override the guard.

Automatic pre-migration snapshot (SQLite). Whenever a SQLite-backed instance has pending migrations to apply, Pad first copies the database file to pad.db.pre-<version> next to it. If an upgrade ever goes wrong, stop the server and copy that snapshot back over pad.db. This is a convenience net, not a backup strategy — keep your own backups (see docs/backup.md). PostgreSQL instances are skipped here; use pg_dump or a provider snapshot before upgrading.

Recommended upgrade flow:

# 1. Back up first (SQLite shown; see docs/backup.md for Postgres)
pad db backup -o pad-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).db

# 2. Stop the server, install the new binary, restart
#    (migrations + the pre-migration snapshot run automatically on start)
brew upgrade pad        # or: docker pull, binary download, make install

# 3. Confirm it's healthy
pad --version
curl -s localhost:7777/api/v1/health

Getting Started

1. Set up Pad

cd ~/projects/myapp
pad init "My App"

pad init is the smart entry point that handles everything in one command:

• Configures this client's connection (local server, remote, or Docker)
• Auto-starts the local server
• Creates the first admin account on a fresh local install (Docker / remote hosts run pad auth setup on the server instead)
• Logs you in if needed
• Creates or links a workspace for the current directory (writes .pad.toml)
• Installs the /pad skill for any AI tools detected in the project

Run from your project root. Safe to re-run anytime — it skips finished steps and prints a status summary if nothing's needed.

Choose a template with --template, or omit it for an interactive picker grouped by category (Software / People / …):

pad workspace init --list-templates                   # See the full catalog grouped by category
pad init "My App" --template scrum                    # Scrum-style with sprints
pad init "My App" --template product                  # Product management focused
pad init "My Hiring" --template hiring                # Company-side: requisitions, candidates, interview loops, feedback
pad init "Job Search" --template interviewing         # Candidate-side: applications, interviews, companies, contacts
pad init "My App" --template blank                    # Custom: system collections only — let /pad onboard build the rest

Pad ships templates for software (startu