# Beads

> MIT issue-tracker memory for coding agents, on Dolt

**Category:** AI Agents  
**Pricing:** open-source  
**URL:** https://beads.gascity.com/  
**GitHub:** https://github.com/gastownhall/beads  
**Added:** 2026-10-16

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## The Hook

Beads (the bd CLI) replaces the markdown TODO and plan files your coding agent loses track of with a dependency-aware graph of issues it can query, claim and close — so long tasks survive across sessions and across agents.

## What's Good

MIT (gastownhall/beads), release v1.3.1, installs with brew install beads or npm install -g @beads/bd, plus a beads-mcp package on PyPI. bd ready lists work with no open blockers, bd update --claim takes a task atomically, and hash-based IDs (bd-a1b2) avoid merge collisions when several agents or branches write at once. Old closed tasks are compacted into summaries to save context, and bd remember stores project facts that bd prime feeds back to the agent. bd setup wires it into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Factory and others. ★~27.9k with hundreds of contributors.

## The Catch

It runs on Dolt, a version-controlled SQL database: the default embedded mode allows a single writer, and several concurrent writers need a separate dolt sql-server. bd init edits AGENTS.md and installs Claude Code, Codex and Cursor integrations by default — pass --stealth or --skip-agents on shared repos. Upgrades that cross a schema migration need one clone to migrate and the rest to bootstrap, and the HTTP backend is still experimental. Stars have grown fast (about 530 a week since the repo opened in Oct 2025), so judge it on a trial run, not the count.

## Verdict

The task memory to give a coding agent once its plans outgrow a markdown file — try --stealth first on repos you share.