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Kanera TL;DR

Kanera helps a team organize work without making the process complicated. If you only read one page, read this one.

The Kanera hierarchy​

Organisation: Alex's Kanera
├── Workspace: Freelance Clients
│   ├── Shared lists: Intake -> Active -> Waiting -> Done
│   ├── Board: Acme Website
│   │   └── Cards: Book kickoff, Draft homepage, Publish site
│   └── Board: Brightlane Retainer
│       └── Cards: Plan campaign, Review creative, Send report
└── Standalone board: Personal Projects
    ├── Its own lists: To do -> In progress -> Complete
    └── Cards: Plan holiday, Organize home office
  • An organisation is the top-level Kanera space. It can be one person's personal space or a space for a team, company, community, or other group. It contains its members, plan and billing settings where applicable, workspaces, and standalone boards.
  • A workspace is a team or area of related work inside the organisation. Its lists, labels, custom fields, templates, automations, and member roster are shared by every board inside it.
  • A board is one project, client, campaign, queue, or other stream of work. It either belongs to a workspace or is standalone.
  • A standalone board is an independent board inside the organisation. Its lists, labels, custom fields, automations, and access apply only to that board.
  • A list is a workflow stage, such as To do, In progress, or Done. Each card is on one board and in one list; moving it between lists updates its status. Workspace boards all use the workspace's shared list set, while a standalone board owns its lists.
  • A card is a piece of work. Add a description, assignees, due date, checklist, files, comments, labels, or custom fields when they are useful. Checklist items can act as mini-subtasks with their own description, owner, due date, and one level of sub-checklists.

The organisation answers “which Kanera space owns this?” A workspace answers “which related boards should share one operating model?” A board answers “which stream of work is this?” A list answers “what stage is the card in?”

One account can create or join several organisations. Use the user menu to switch the active organisation without signing out. Your role, work, settings, plan, and billing context can differ in each organisation, while Global Work can show permitted cards across all of them.

Choose a standalone board when one board should have its own setup. Put boards in a workspace when they should follow the same workflow and use consistent cross-board fields and reporting. You can use both models in one organisation.

Views across your work​

Cards always live on one board, in one list. Views are lenses over those same cards: they gather, order, or report on work without copying or moving it.

Home, My Cards, Team Cards, Portfolio   <- across every board you can access
├── Board: Acme Website          -> Kanban, Table, Calendar, Work Done
├── Board: Brightlane Retainer   -> Kanban, Table, Calendar, Work Done
└── Board: Personal Projects     -> Kanban, Table, Calendar, Work Done
  • Home is your personal starting point: your Up next queue, overdue and upcoming work, recent boards, and progress.
  • Global Work gathers cards from every organisation, workspace, standalone board, and guest board you can access. My Cards shows work assigned to you; Team Cards shows what the visible team, or one teammate, is carrying, with a Team overview of what each person is busy with and what is next.
  • Up next is one person's ranked queue of active assigned cards across boards. It is separate from due dates and priority.
  • Portfolio is the Global Work rollup. It reports overdue, due-soon, unassigned, and completed work from organisation down to board, and each metric opens its cards in Table.
  • Work Done is a timeline of created, moved, completed, and checked-off work. It answers “what changed?” rather than “what is open?”
  • Table reporting uses filters, grouping, aggregates, and breakdowns in Table, then exports the result to Excel or JSON.
  • Scratchpad holds private pages only you can open, one set per organisation. Notes hold durable personal or shared pages that belong to a workspace or board.
  • A guest is an external person with access to selected boards only. Guests are not organisation members and do not join a workspace roster.

Card relationships and readiness​

Use Blocked by or Blocks to connect prerequisites across boards in the same workspace, and Relates to for context without an order. A card stays Blocked until every active blocker is completed, archived, or unlinked. Find waiting work with the Blocked filter, and hand it off through notifications and Card blocked / Card unblocked automations. Open the Dependencies view for a Map, due-week Timeline, or numbered Steps, including critical-path highlighting and direct link editing with undo/redo. See Card Relationships and Blocking and Dependencies View.

AI agents in Kanera​

  • An agent is an AI tool that reads and updates Kanera, such as an MCP client like Claude or ChatGPT, or a script using the CLI or SDK. It can only do what its connection's access allows.
  • Connection types decide who the agent acts as. OAuth connects it as you after a consent screen, with no key to store. An unattended service connection gives CI, cron, or server-side agents a workspace identity capped at Read, Write, or Admin. An API key suits clients that cannot use OAuth.
  • A run is in-flight agent work opened on a card. The card shows a live chip naming the agent, which turns amber when it is blocked on a person, and the outcome lands in the card's activity when the run ends.
  • Attribution keeps agent work distinct from yours. Changes an OAuth-connected agent makes for you carry a via <agent> badge in activity, notifications, and Work Done. A personal API key used by your own script acts as you.

Get started in five steps​

  1. Choose Create a board for an independent workflow, or Create a workspace for related boards that share one setup.
  2. Choose the template closest to how you work.
  3. Name the standalone board, or finish the workspace setup and create its first board.
  4. Add a few cards, then assign an owner and due date where needed.
  5. Move cards through the lists as work progresses, and mark them complete when they are finished.

That is enough to start. Add labels, custom fields, automations, and more boards only when you have a clear need for them.

Day-to-day​

  • Open a board to plan and update one stream of work.
  • Start on Home to triage overdue work, the coming week, recent boards, and personal progress.
  • Open My Cards to see all of your assigned work across every board you can access.
  • Use Kanban for a visual workflow, Table for editing and reporting, Calendar for due dates, and Work Done to review recent progress.
  • Open Team Cards for cross-board team execution and Portfolio for organisation-to-board delivery rollups.
  • Assign a card when someone owns the outcome. Assign a checklist item when someone owns a smaller part, then add a description or sub-checklist when that item needs more detail.
  • Use comments and @mentions to keep decisions with the work. Watch a card or board when you want updates without being assigned.
  • Open Scratchpad for private work in progress, meeting prep, reminders, and rough drafts. Move durable context into a personal or shared Note.

Four useful rules​

  1. Use a standalone board when one board needs its own workflow and settings.
  2. Use a board inside a workspace when work needs its own surface but should share the workspace's workflow.
  3. Use a new workspace when several related boards need a different shared process, people, or reporting context.
  4. Start simple. A few clear lists and consistently assigned cards are more useful than a detailed setup nobody maintains.

Go deeper when you need to​

  • Getting Started: choose a standalone board or workspace and complete onboarding.
  • Standalone Boards: understand the independent board model.
  • Workspaces: decide how to organize teams and related work.
  • Boards: create boards and manage their access.
  • Home: focus on your day and the coming week.
  • Global Work: review assignments in My Cards and Team Cards, then track delivery across Portfolio.
  • Checklists: break a card into owned mini-subtasks and smaller steps.
  • Scratchpad: keep private work in progress beside the app.
  • Notes: organize durable personal or shared documentation.
  • Views: choose Kanban, Table, Calendar, or Work Done.
  • Automations: automate repeatable card updates and housekeeping.
  • Notifications: control assignments, mentions, and delivery by email, push, ntfy, Gotify, or webhook.
  • Chat Destinations: post card activity into Slack, Discord, Telegram, or Zulip.