Vibe Kanban: Orchestrating Multiple AI Coding Agents
Vibe Kanban is an open-source tool that lets you orchestrate multiple AI coding agents from a visual Kanban board, treating coding tasks as asynchronous jobs rather than blocking conversations.
Key Takeaways
- Managing multiple AI tools (Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Cursor) creates chaos: lost context, forgotten tasks, constant terminal waiting
- Vibe Kanban treats AI agents as co-workers you assign tasks to, not co-pilots sitting beside you
- The killer feature is parallel task execution: queue up multiple tasks and run them simultaneously without blocking
- Each task card isolates context, so agent A working on database schema won't be confused by agent B's CSS changes
- Centralized configuration means you set up MCP servers and project rules once, then every spawned agent inherits them
How It Works
Run a simple npx command to spin up a local web interface. Instead of a chat box, you get a Kanban board (like Trello or Jira). Create cards for tasks, assign specific agents to each card, and watch them execute in parallel.
Each task card shows:
- Terminal output
- Proposed changes and diffs
- A contained environment for that unit of work
Critical Analysis
Friction cost: For quick tasks like fixing a typo, creating a card and managing a board is overkill. The speed of Cmd+K in Cursor or typing in a terminal is hard to beat.
Context fragmentation: Running agents in parallel sounds great, but code is interdependent. One agent refactoring API responses while another builds UI consuming that API will clash. The tool gives you parallel execution but doesn't solve merge conflicts or architectural drift.
Orchestration, not intelligence: Vibe Kanban is a layer on top of agents like Claude Code. If those tools hallucinate or loop, Vibe Kanban can't fix them—it just gives you a better seat to watch the crash.
The Bigger Picture
We're shifting from co-pilots (AI helps you type) to co-workers (AI goes off and does jobs while you do something else). Vibe Kanban argues that for complex multi-agent work, we need structure and visibility instead of staring at blinking cursors.
References
Relates to patterns discussed in agentic-design-patterns and ai-agents-guide.