Inspect plan progress with ak:plans-kanban

Use ak:plans-kanban to open AgentKit's visual plans view for multi-plan status, timelines, progress, and quick navigation into plan files. The Skill is a thin launcher: the live ak plan --help surface, not the dashboard launcher, remains authoritative for dependency, status, and mutation operations.

Choose ak:plans-kanban for visual inspection

Use ak:plans-kanban when

• You want kanban or grid views across several plans.
• You need a timeline or progress overview before choosing the next work.
• You want to navigate quickly into plan.md or phase-*.md files.
• You need to distinguish active and completed work visually.

Choose another workflow when

• You need to create or update a plan. Use ak:plan and check its live help.
• You need to reconcile verified runtime work back to durable phase files. Use ak:project-management.
• You need a custom dashboard host or port. Start ak config directly.
• You expect a separate legacy plans server; that implementation has been retired.

Prepare the local dashboard

Before you start:

• Complete Onboarding, and confirm Engineer Kit is installed for the runtime and scope you are using.
• Install a compatible AgentKit CLI and confirm ak --version works, or set AGENTKIT_CLI to the intended local binary.
• Run from the project or global context whose plan scope you intend to view.
• Have Node.js and a supported browser-opening command available.

See Runtime adapters for delivery and component-level differences.

Open the dashboard

The normal Skill request opens the plans route. State your scope and say whether the run may start a background local dashboard or open a browser.

/ak:plans-kanban "Open this project's plans dashboard for inspection only; do not change plan state."

/ak:plans-kanban "Open this project's plans dashboard for inspection only; do not change plan state."

$ak:plans-kanban "Open this project's plans dashboard for inspection only; do not change plan state."

The underlying launcher supports these current control paths:

For custom startup options, use live ak config --help. For plan mutations, use live ak plan --help; do not infer current syntax from the launcher.

Understand what happens during a run

1. The launcher checks existing dashboard state. It asks ak config status --json for a running URL and otherwise probes the default loopback port.
2. It verifies plans capability. It accepts either a health response that advertises plans-dashboard or a successful /api/plans response.
3. It starts the dashboard when needed. It launches ak config start --port 8766 --no-open --no-interactive as a detached local process.
4. It waits for readiness. Each readiness window is bounded to about ten seconds. A missing dashboard can require one window before startup and a second after startup.
5. It opens or reports the route. The normal result targets /plans on the URL reported by the CLI and prints JSON containing success, URL, open state, and platform.
6. The dashboard reads plan state. Project dashboards should show only project-scoped plans; global dashboards should show only global-scoped plans.

The generic /plans route defaults to a plans directory unless a dir query is already present. Scope-aware roots come from the surrounding project or global dashboard context, not deprecated launcher flags.

Keep plan authority and process control clear

• The launcher can spawn a detached ak config process and open another local application. Approve those process effects before running it.
• Probes use loopback HTTP endpoints. The Skill does not specify a remote provider or paid service, but the local dashboard inherits the CLI's own environment and access.
• The launcher does not claim authority to edit plan.md or phase-*.md.
• Stop a launcher-started dashboard with --stop or ak config stop when you no longer need the background process.
• Commit, push, external task-system changes, publication, and deployment remain separate actions and approvals.

Verify the result

A successful launch should give you:

• A JSON result with success: true, the selected local URL, whether a browser was opened, and the detected platform.
• A dashboard URL ending in /plans.
• A capability probe that passed before the browser opened.
• Plan cards, progress, timeline information, and links derived from the selected project or global scope.

If capability detection fails, the launcher exits with code 1 without opening the browser. The package defines no dedicated test command; verify the JSON result, local route, displayed scope, and the live CLI help used for any follow-up operation.

Troubleshoot or continue

Continue with ak:project-management when the visual inspection reveals durable state that needs evidence-backed reconciliation.

Know the current limits

• The launcher is intentionally opinionated around the integrated local dashboard and does not provide custom host or port control.
• Dashboard accuracy depends on parseable, current plan files and correct scope.
• A migration note named by the Skill is not included in either exact release; rely on the current integrated-dashboard behavior and live CLI help.
• The current stable and beta packages contain identical ak:plans-kanban files and invocation behavior.