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what is tbd fr?

jlevy/tbd — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

59TypeScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · moderate

tl;dr

A command-line tool that gives AI coding agents persistent task tracking, planning templates, and engineering guidelines stored in git.

vibe map

mindmap
  root((tbd))
    What it does
      Track tasks as beads
      Provide plan templates
      Inject guidelines
    Tech stack
      TypeScript
      CLI
      Git
    Use cases
      Persist tasks across sessions
      Write a spec before coding
      Load coding best practices
    Audience
      Developers using AI agents

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filefunction / class

what do people make with this?

VIBE 1

Track bugs, features, and epics as beads stored in a dedicated git branch.

VIBE 2

Have an agent write a spec document before breaking it into tasks.

VIBE 3

Use natural-language shortcuts like create a PR that map to tbd commands.

VIBE 4

Load one of 20+ built-in guideline docs on topics like TDD or error handling.

what's the stack?

TypeScriptCLIGit

how it stacks up fr

jlevy/tbddhivakarg-coder/expense-compassowlinkai/redroom
Stars595959
LanguageTypeScriptTypeScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultymoderateeasyhard
Complexity2/52/54/5
Audiencedevelopervibe coderresearcher

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

how do i run it?

Difficulty · moderate time til it works · 30min

Works alongside agent tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex, needs the CLI installed and a git repo.

in plain english

tbd is a command-line tool designed to make AI coding agents more organized and consistent. It combines task tracking, planning templates, built-in engineering guidelines, and workflow shortcuts into a single tool that an agent can install and use across coding sessions. The task tracking part is based on a concept called beads, which are individual work items (bugs, features, epics) stored as Markdown files in your git repository on a separate dedicated branch. Because they live in git, they persist between separate agent sessions and across team members. The format avoids the merge conflicts and file locking issues that can arise with database-backed issue trackers. An agent can create, update, and query beads through simple CLI commands, and the tool installs itself as a skill in Claude Code so agents find it automatically. The planning workflow encourages writing a spec document before writing code, then breaking that spec into beads for each piece of work. tbd provides templates for creating plan specs, research briefs, and architecture documents. A shortcut system lets you ask an agent in natural language to do things like "create a PR" or "review this code," and the agent translates that into the appropriate tbd commands behind the scenes. The knowledge injection feature ships with over 20 guideline documents covering topics like TypeScript and Python best practices, test-driven development, monorepo setup, error handling, and backward compatibility. When an agent needs context on one of these topics, it loads the relevant guideline document rather than relying on its training data alone. tbd is aimed at developers who use AI agents heavily for coding and want more discipline around planning and quality. It works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and other agent environments that can run a CLI tool. The full README is longer than what was shown.

prompts (copy fr)

prompt 1
Help me set up tbd as a skill in Claude Code to track my project's tasks.
prompt 2
Show me how to create a bead for a new feature using the tbd CLI.
prompt 3
Explain how tbd's beads avoid merge conflicts compared to a database issue tracker.
prompt 4
Which tbd guideline document should I load before starting a TypeScript project?

Frequently asked questions

what is tbd fr?

A command-line tool that gives AI coding agents persistent task tracking, planning templates, and engineering guidelines stored in git.

What language is tbd written in?

Mainly TypeScript. The stack also includes TypeScript, CLI, Git.

How hard is tbd to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is tbd for?

Mainly developer.

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