The Problem

Teams using Markdown for task tracking face a trade-off: plain text is versionable and diffable, but reading and updating a Kanban board in a text editor is slow and error-prone. MarkdownTaskManager solves this by turning local Markdown files into an interactive Kanban board in the browser, with no database, server, or build step.

What This Does

task-manager.html is a standalone web application that reads and writes kanban.md and archive.md directly from your disk via the browser's File System Access API. It supports multiple projects, column-based task organization, filters, and archiving—all stored as plain text. The repo also includes per-AI-assistant configuration templates (CLAUDE.md.exemple, GEMINI.md.exemple, etc.) so an LLM can interact with the same task files consistently.

The project is a fork of ioniks/MarkdownTaskManager (532 stars). Documentation is extensive: README.md, readmeFR.md, AI_WORKFLOW.md, and docs/images/ contain screenshots of the UI.

How It Is Wired

There is no build, no server, and no package manifest. Execution starts when a user opens task-manager.html in Chrome, Edge, or Opera. The HTML file contains the entire application—UI, logic, and File System Access API calls. On first launch, it requests folder access and creates kanban.md and archive.md if absent. All task operations (create, move, archive) parse and rewrite those two files.

The wiring has not been mapped for this repository—no internal call graph or entry-point analysis was produced. The only traceable flow is: task-manager.html → File System Access API → local kanban.md / archive.md. The .claude/skills/markdown-task-manager/SKILL.md file suggests this repo is also intended to be used as a skill definition for Claude, letting an AI assistant operate the same files.

How To Use It

Setup: No installation. Download task-manager.html and open it in a Chromium-based browser (Chrome 86+, Edge 86+, Opera 72+). Firefox and Safari are not supported.

Configuration: Create kanban.md and archive.md in a project folder using the templates in README.md. The configuration block in kanban.md defines columns, categories, users, and tags.

Running it:

# 1. Download the file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/moses-y/MarkdownTaskManager/main/task-manager.html

# 2. Open it in your browser
open task-manager.html

# 3. Select a folder when prompted

Real-World Use

A distributed team keeps kanban.md and archive.md in their git repo. Each member opens task-manager.html, selects the repo folder, and works on the board. Changes are written back to Markdown, committed, and pushed. An AI assistant configured via CLAUDE.md.exemple can read the same files, propose task updates, and have a human approve the diff before commit.

Code Health & Issues

Static analysis produced the following findings:

  • Medium/SDLC – No test files detected – untested code paths – repository-wide. The entire application is a single HTML file with no automated coverage.
  • Medium/SDLC – No CI/CD pipeline detected – no automated build or test gate – .github/ or CI config absent.

Beyond the measured findings: the repo has no lockfile, no Dockerfile, and no committed secrets. A LICENSE file is present. The lack of tests is the main risk—the core logic lives in one large HTML file, so a regression in task parsing or file writing would be caught only by manual use.

The Bottom Line

A practical, zero-dependency tool for teams that want a visual Kanban board without abandoning Markdown or standing up a service. The single-file design is elegant for distribution but concentrates all risk—there is no test suite, no CI, and no modularity to isolate failures. Use it for small, Git-versioned task tracking; avoid it if you need multi-user sync or audit trails beyond what Git provides.