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Cairn Cli

Project management for AI agents using markdown files.

Rating: 4.2 (204 reviews)
Downloads: 3,942 downloads
Version: 1.0.0

Overview

Project management for AI agents using markdown files.

Complete Documentation

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Cairn — AI-Native Project Management

Cairn gives you and your AI agent a shared workspace of markdown files for managing projects and tasks. Statuses are the shared language. Any AI that can read files is ready to go.

Installation

bash

npm install -g cairn-work
cairn onboard

cairn onboard creates ~/cairn/ with auto-generated context files (AGENTS.md and .cairn/planning.md) that agents read automatically.

Community

Core Commands

Workspace

cairn status — Overview with task counts
cairn my — Your assigned tasks
cairn active — All in-progress tasks
cairn doctor — Diagnose workspace health

Projects & Tasks

cairn create project "Name" --description "..." --objective "..." — Create a project with charter
cairn create task "Name" --project --description "..." --objective "..." — Create a task
cairn list tasks [--status pending,in_progress] [--project slug] — List tasks with filters
cairn search "keyword" — Find tasks by content

Task Workflow

cairn start — Begin work (sets in_progress)
cairn note "Progress update" — Add a status note
cairn artifact "Artifact Name" — Create a linked deliverable
cairn done — Finish work (moves to review or completed)
cairn block "Reason" — Mark as blocked

Maintenance

cairn update-skill — Refresh context files after CLI updates
cairn upgrade — Update CLI to latest version

Workspace Structure

text

~/cairn/
  AGENTS.md                  # Agent context (auto-generated)
  .cairn/planning.md         # Planning guide (auto-generated)
  projects/
    project-slug/
      charter.md             # Why, success criteria, context
      artifacts/             # Deliverables (design docs, proposals, etc.)
      tasks/                 # Individual task markdown files
  inbox/                     # Ideas to triage
  memory/                    # Workspace memory

Statuses

pending → next_up → in_progress → review → completed (or blocked at any point)

Autonomy Levels

Set per-task to control how much the agent can do:

propose — Agent plans only, finishes in review
draft — Agent does work, you approve before shipping
execute — Full autonomy, finishes as completed

Tips

Run cairn onboard first — it sets up everything the agent needs.
Use cairn my to see your current workload at a glance.
Artifacts (cairn artifact) create linked deliverables stored with the project.
All data is plain markdown with YAML frontmatter — version control friendly.

Installation

Terminal bash


openclaw install cairn-cli

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💻Code Examples

cairn onboard

cairn-onboard.txt

`cairn onboard` creates `~/cairn/` with auto-generated context files (`AGENTS.md` and `.cairn/planning.md`) that agents read automatically.

## Community

- Follow [@letcairnwork](https://x.com/letcairnwork) on X
- Visit [letcairn.work](https://letcairn.work/)
- [Submit issues](https://github.com/letcairnwork/cairn-cli/issues)
- [Join the discussion](https://github.com/letcairnwork/cairn-cli/discussions)

## Core Commands

### Workspace

- `cairn status` — Overview with task counts
- `cairn my` — Your assigned tasks
- `cairn active` — All in-progress tasks
- `cairn doctor` — Diagnose workspace health

### Projects & Tasks

- `cairn create project "Name" --description "..." --objective "..."` — Create a project with charter
- `cairn create task "Name" --project <slug> --description "..." --objective "..."` — Create a task
- `cairn list tasks [--status pending,in_progress] [--project slug]` — List tasks with filters
- `cairn search "keyword"` — Find tasks by content

### Task Workflow

- `cairn start <task-slug>` — Begin work (sets `in_progress`)
- `cairn note <task-slug> "Progress update"` — Add a status note
- `cairn artifact <task-slug> "Artifact Name"` — Create a linked deliverable
- `cairn done <task-slug>` — Finish work (moves to `review` or `completed`)
- `cairn block <task-slug> "Reason"` — Mark as blocked

### Maintenance

- `cairn update-skill` — Refresh context files after CLI updates
- `cairn upgrade` — Update CLI to latest version

## Workspace Structure

example.txt

~/cairn/
  AGENTS.md                  # Agent context (auto-generated)
  .cairn/planning.md         # Planning guide (auto-generated)
  projects/
    project-slug/
      charter.md             # Why, success criteria, context
      artifacts/             # Deliverables (design docs, proposals, etc.)
      tasks/                 # Individual task markdown files
  inbox/                     # Ideas to triage
  memory/                    # Workspace memory