kb-status

name	kb-status
description	Show the current Cline Kanban board state for a project — tasks grouped by column (in_progress, review, backlog, trash), with session state, model assignments, and dependency edges. Use when the user says "kb-status", "kanban status", "show the board", "what's on kanban", "what tasks do I have", or wants to see what's running/queued. Project-agnostic — defaults to current directory, accepts `--project <path>`.
category	execution
runtimes	["claude"]
pii_safe	true

Cline Kanban Status Skill

Show the Cline Kanban board for a project: which tasks are running, in review, queued, or trashed, plus model assignments and dependency links.

When to use

Triggers: /kb-status, "kb-status", "kanban status", "show the board", "what's on kanban", "what tasks do I have", "what's queued", "what's running".

Also invoke proactively before suggesting starting new work — knowing what's already in flight prevents over-scheduling.

Inputs

• --project <path> — project to inspect (defaults to current working directory)
• --column <col> — filter to one column (in_progress, review, backlog, trash)
• --verbose — show full prompts and session metadata, not just titles
• --ids-only — emit just task IDs, one per line (useful for scripting)

Procedure

1. Resolve project path. Use --project <path> if given, else pwd.

2. Fetch task list:

   '/usr/bin/node' '<LOCAL_PATH>/.local/bin/kanban' task list --project-path <path> [--column <col>]
   

   Returns JSON with tasks and dependencies arrays.

3. Group by column. Order: in_progress → review → backlog → trash.

4. For each task, extract:

   • ID
   • Title (or first line of prompt, truncated to ~70 chars)
   • Session state (running, awaiting_review, interrupted, none)
   • Agent (cline / claude / codex / etc.)
   • Model + reasoning effort (if cline)
   • Plan mode flag
   • Auto-review settings if enabled
   • Created/updated timestamps (relative — "2h ago")

5. Render a compact table per column. Default format:

   === IN_PROGRESS (1) ===
   [a4321] cline/sonnet/medium — Build credential extraction pipeline (running, 12m)
   
   === REVIEW (2) ===
   [b8920] cline/opus/high — Audit session token handling (awaiting_review, 3h)
   [d54ed] cline/sonnet/low — Add canonical_name to bots table (awaiting_review, 5h)
   
   === BACKLOG (3) ===
   [c526a] cline/sonnet/medium — BIN enrichment service (waits on b8920)
   ...
   

6. Show dependencies separately if any exist. Format: <dependent> waits on <prerequisite>.

7. Footer hints: Print useful next-step commands based on state:

   • If any in review: "Move to trash with kanban task trash --task-id <id>"
   • If any in backlog with no deps: "Start with kanban task start --task-id <id>"
   • If empty board: "Create your first task with /kb-do <description>"

Verbose mode

--verbose adds:

• Full prompt body (truncated to ~500 chars)
• All session fields (pid, exitCode, lastOutputAt, reviewReason)
• Linked task IDs in both directions
• Worktree path (if available)

Use sparingly — verbose output gets long fast on busy boards.

--ids-only mode

For scripting:

ids=$(kb-status --column review --ids-only --project ~/Dev/foo)
for id in $ids; do
  '/usr/bin/node' '<LOCAL_PATH>/.local/bin/kanban' task trash --task-id "$id" --project-path ~/Dev/foo
done

Outputs one task ID per line, no other text.

Implementation reference

'/usr/bin/node' '<LOCAL_PATH>/.local/bin/kanban' task list --project-path "$PROJ" 2>&1 | python3 -c "
import json, sys
d = json.load(sys.stdin)
by_col = {}
for t in d['tasks']:
    by_col.setdefault(t['column'], []).append(t)
for col in ['in_progress', 'review', 'backlog', 'trash']:
    items = by_col.get(col, [])
    if not items: continue
    print(f'=== {col.upper()} ({len(items)}) ===')
    for t in items:
        sess = t.get('session') or {}
        title = (t.get('title') or t['prompt'].split(chr(10))[0])[:70]
        state = sess.get('state', 'none')
        # cline-specific fields are nested; show only if present
        model = t.get('clineModel', '?')
        effort = t.get('clineReasoningEffort', '?')
        print(f'  [{t[\"id\"]}] {state:18s} {title}')
"

Anti-patterns

• Do NOT dump the raw JSON response — always render a compact view.
• Do NOT show trash by default — include only if user passed --column trash or board is otherwise empty.
• Do NOT poll on a loop; this is a one-shot status check. For monitoring, use /loop kb-status 5m instead.

Companion skills

• /kb-do, /kb-plan — create tickets
• /kb-trash — bulk-clean tasks
• /kb-new — create a new project
• /kb-link — wire up task dependencies