Kanban Bowl drops straight into VS Code with zero friction—no signups, no cloud sync, just task management that respects your machine and nothing else. Developer Yannick Boog built this extension as a privacy-first alternative to web-based project trackers, storing everything locally in VS Code's built-in extension storage. No telemetry pings home, no network requests get made at runtime, and you don't need to hand over anything to some SaaS platform just to track what you're working on.

Local-Only Architecture

The extension taps into VS Code's native storage system to keep all board data on-disk without any outbound traffic or third-party dependencies. It operates completely offline once installed, maintaining a strict no-telemetry policy that you can actually verify by watching your network tab during use. Workspace isolation comes standard—each project folder maintains its own independent boards through the kanban-bowl.workspaceBoards setting (enabled by default). Disable it if you'd rather run a single global board across all your workspaces.

Keyboard-First Workflow

The interface prioritizes staying in-flow: launch via Cmd+Shift+K on Mac or Ctrl+Shift+K on Windows and Linux, click the activity bar icon, or use N to create new cards without ever touching your mouse. The default column setup (To Do, Doing, Done) works out of the box, but you can customize everything through VS Code Settings under Extensions → Kanban Bowl. The configuration format lets you define column names and colors as a JSON array—here's the example from the docs showing how you'd set up Backlog, In Progress, Review, and Done with distinct color coding.

Security Considerations Worth Knowing

Here's where things get real: board data is stored as plain text on disk because VS Code doesn't encrypt extension storage by default. The project documentation explicitly warns against storing passwords, secret keys, or critical credentials in Kanban Bowl. For day-to-day task tracking and workflow notes? Totally fine. For anything sensitive? Keep it out of here—this tool was designed for lightweight project visibility, not credential management.

Getting Started

Building from source takes the standard Node.js route: npm install followed by npm run build. If you want to run in debug mode, open the project in VS Code and press F5—it spins up an Extension Development Host window with everything loaded. For manual installation, package it yourself with vsce package then install via code --install-extension kanban-bowl-1.0.0.vsix. The whole project carries an Apache License 2.0.

Key Takeaways

  • Fully offline Kanban board that never phones home—no telemetry, no cloud dependencies
  • Keyboard-driven workflow keeps you in the zone: Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+K to open, N for new cards
  • Workspace-level isolation by default—each project gets its own boards automatically
  • Data lives as plain text on disk—don't store secrets or credentials here
  • Open source under Apache 2.0, built purely with VS Code's native APIs

The Bottom Line

Kanban Bowl fills a gap that bigger tools miss: sometimes you just need to visualize your work queue without signing up for another service or syncing sensitive project data to someone else's servers. It's not trying to replace Jira or Linear—it's targeting the solo dev who wants task tracking that stays on their machine and out of their way.