Vibe Kanban alternatives (2026)

We make Shuriken. We tried to be fair; corrections welcome at office@shuriken.sh.

Quick answer#

You may not need an alternative. Vibe Kanban still runs on your machine as a community-maintained open-source project. If you want something actively developed by a company, Emdash is the closest in spirit (issues in, an agent per task, a built-in browser, free). Orca (free, with GitHub issues and Project boards in-app) and Superset are strong worktree-per-agent apps. Claude Squad suits terminal people. Shuriken fits if your bottleneck is usage limits or several machines, though it has no kanban board.

What happened to Vibe Kanban#

On 10 April 2026, the team behind Vibe Kanban announced they were shutting down bloop, the company that made it. Their reason was refreshingly plain: most of their thousands of daily users were on the free plan, and they couldn't find a business model they were excited about.

What they said would happen:

• The project lives on, "open source and community maintained". They planned to publish a roadmap for the community edition.
• Remote services stayed up for 30 days, then Vibe Kanban moved to a fully local setup. Kanban issues, comments, projects and organisations were among the remote pieces removed.
• Paying customers were refunded for the last 30 days, and subscriptions ended.
• Local workspaces keep working. They asked people to use the data export in the latest version before the remote services ended.

The README now says the project is sunsetting. It's Apache-2.0, so the code stays available.

We want to say this clearly: Vibe Kanban was good, and early. It launched in June 2025, and its makers say it was the first to ship multi-agent support, diff commenting, live preview, click-to-edit and remote access. A lot of tools in this space, ours included, now treat those ideas as normal. Thank you, bloop.

What people liked about it#

From their site and README, the parts worth keeping when you choose what's next:

1. Planning on a board. Issues and sub-issues on a kanban board, with status that moved by itself when an agent started or a pull request merged.
2. A workspace per task. Each with its own branch, terminal and dev server.
3. Review that talks back. Inline comments on the diff went straight to the agent.
4. A built-in browser. Preview with devtools and device emulation, and click-to-edit.
5. Many agents. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, Amp, Cursor, OpenCode, Droid, CCR and Qwen Code.
6. One command to start. npx vibe-kanban.

No single tool below does all six. Pick the two or three that matter most to you.

Should you switch at all?#

If Vibe Kanban still does what you need locally, there's no rush. The risk is slow drift: agent CLIs change their flags and output often, and a community project may take a while to catch up. If your favourite agent starts misbehaving inside it, that's your cue.

The alternatives#

All claims are from each vendor's own page, read on 22 October 2026. Prices in US dollars unless noted.

Emdash: the closest fit#

Emdash is an "open-source agentic development environment" for macOS, Windows and Linux. It pulls issues from Linear, Jira, GitHub, Notion and Asana and hands them to agents, runs tasks in parallel in separate git worktrees (each with its own branch, terminal, conversation and review state), schedules agents, and has a built-in browser for previews. It works with 25+ agents and is free.

Carries over: issues-to-agent, worktree per task, browser preview, free and open source. Missing: a kanban board isn't on their page.

Orca: free, open source, everywhere#

Orca is free, MIT-licensed, and runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, with an iOS and Android companion. Each task gets its own worktree. You can fan one prompt out to several agents, compare the results and merge the best one. You can browse GitHub pull requests, issues and Project boards in-app, open a worktree from a task, and create Linear issues. It names 27 agents, plus any other CLI, and shows Claude and Codex usage with reset times.

Carries over: worktree per task, many agents, open source, and a board view if you keep your tasks on GitHub Projects. Missing: a board of its own isn't on their page.

Superset: any agent, plus automations#

Superset gives each agent its own worktree and branch, runs automations on a schedule or on events such as issue triage, and has a CLI, SDK and an iPhone and iPad app (automations and the mobile app are on Pro). It runs on macOS, with an experimental Linux build; Windows isn't available yet. Free, or Pro at $20 per user per month. Superset says it's getting a new name soon.

Carries over: worktree per agent, event-driven agents. Missing: Windows, a board.

Conductor: polished, Mac-only#

Conductor runs Claude Code, Codex and Cursor in parallel on your Mac, with review and merge built in. Free for local work; Pro is $50 a month and adds cloud workspaces, multiplayer and the mobile app.

Carries over: workspace per task, review flow. Missing: Windows and Linux, a board.

Claude Squad: the terminal option#

Claude Squad manages several terminal agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Aider, OpenCode, Amp and custom commands), each in its own tmux session and git worktree. Free, AGPL-3.0.

Carries over: isolation, many agents, free. Missing: everything visual: no board, no browser.

Shuriken: if limits are the real problem#

Ours. A harness for coding agents on macOS, Windows, Linux and headless servers. Here's what carries over, honestly:

• A chat per task, each in its own worktree. Every chat except the Main chat gets its own branch. No cap on how many. See parallel agents.
• Point at the page. The built-in browser has a Design mode: click an element, write the change, and it reaches the agent with the element's details and a screenshot. Shuriken also finds your dev servers and can start one where a page needs it.
• Finish. One click runs your checks, then merges or opens a pull request with auto-merge.
• 67 agents, including Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, Amp, Cursor, OpenCode, Factory Droid and Qwen Code.

What doesn't carry over: there's no kanban board in Shuriken. Review does carry over: comment on lines in the Changes diff and the comments go to the agent with your next message.

What Shuriken adds: when an account hits its limit, your chats move to another of your accounts by themselves, and you can follow everything from your phone (web app today; native iOS and Android apps planned for November 2026). Free is €0 with no card; Pro is €49 a month.

At a glance#

Moving over#

Whatever you pick, the move is mostly about tasks, not code:

1. Finish or merge open task branches in Vibe Kanban first. Abandoned worktrees are easy to lose track of.
2. Export your data if you haven't (the shutdown post points to the export in the latest version).
3. Open the same repository in the new tool. Your git history and branches come with it.
4. Recreate only the tasks you'll actually do this week. A fresh board is a nice moment to delete the rest.

For a wider look at the category, see our roundup of parallel coding agent tools. If limits are what slow you down, download Shuriken and try it on one project.