tkmd

Deterministic Program Engine for Developers and AI Agents
Local Markdown cards • Mathematical CPM & DSM • Universal Stdio MCP

What is tkmd?

tkmd (CLI: tk / tkmd) is a deterministic program engine and multi-agent governance harness.

It stores every task as a plain Markdown card (.md) with YAML frontmatter in tasks/tk-XXX-*.md. It uses mathematical graph algorithms (Critical Path Method and Design Structure Matrices) to schedule work, calculate schedule buffers, and surface circular deadlocks.

When you pair with AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, OpenCode), tkmd prevents agents from falsely claiming work is finished. Agents must pass automated shell verification gates (eval) and submit work for human sign-off (pending-close) before a task can transition to done.

Why Use tkmd?

• 100% Local & Offline: No cloud accounts, no subscriptions, and zero background daemons. Single Rust binary with POSIX advisory file locking.
• AI Agent Guardrails: Subagents cannot skip straight to done. They must pass automated shell tests and submit work to pending-close. Humans sign off directly or instruct an agent as proxy.
• Mathematical Scheduling: Calculates early start, early finish, schedule buffers, and the Critical Path (tk dep --cpm) deterministically.
• Blocker & Loop Detection: View dependency trees (tk tree) and circular deadlocks (tk dep --dsm) in terminal colors.
• One-Command Session Resume: Reopen the exact AI terminal session attached to any task (tk u <id>).
• Flexible Storage: Manage repository-level tasks (tk init -L) or central Obsidian Kanban boards (bases/tasks.base).
  It supports two first-class local setups:

1. Obsidian + CLI Mode (Recommended) — Syncs 1:1 with an Obsidian .base Kanban board (bases/tasks.base), updates .obsidian/types.json, and logs completed tasks under ## Task List in your Daily Note.
2. Standalone CLI Mode — Pure plain-text Markdown cards in a local directory (~/.local/share/tkmd/tasks or ~/tasks), opening directly in $EDITOR (hx, nvim, micro, vim) with zero Obsidian dependency.

100% Local & Offline Privacy

• Zero Network: tkmd makes zero network/HTTP requests and has zero telemetry beacons. No accounts, no cloud sync, no tracking.
• Plain-Text Data Ownership: Every task is an open .md file; every event is an open .jsonl record on your local disk.
• Self-Contained Telemetry: tk st computes Little's Law, MTTC, and TPM90 directly in Rust. DuckDB is not required to run tkmd, but because the event log is standard .jsonl, users can optionally run instant SQL queries with DuckDB (duckdb -c "SELECT * FROM 'tasks/.events.jsonl'").

Autonomous Multi-Agent Planning & Orchestration

tkmd acts as a deterministic scheduling and governance harness for teams of AI subagents. It solves the three hardest problems in multi-agent execution: deadlocks, uncoordinated parallel writes, and premature completion claims.

flowchart TD
    subgraph Phase1["1. Autonomous Planning & Decomp"]
        Lead["Lead Architect / Human"] -->|"Decomposes spec"| T1["Task 1: Core API\n(Status: ready)"]
        Lead -->|"Declares dependency"| T2["Task 2: Frontend\n(Status: blocked by Task 1)"]
        T1 -.->|"Mathematical CPM\n(tk dep --cpm)"| Critical["Critical Path: Task 1 → Task 2\nZero Buffer"]
    end

    subgraph Phase2["2. Guarded Subagent Execution"]
        T1 -->|"Claimed (tk c 1)"| Agent1["Backend Subagent\n(Attaches session ID)"]
        Agent1 -->|"Shell eval passes ✅"| Gate["Review Gate: pending-close\n(tk r 1)"]
        Gate -->|"Human Sign-Off (tk d 1)"| Done["Task 1: done"]
    end

    subgraph Phase3["3. Automatic Blocker Cascade"]
        Done ==>|"Auto-unblocks"| T2Ready["Task 2: promoted to ready"]
        T2Ready -->|"Claimed (tk c 2)"| Agent2["Frontend Subagent\n(Attaches session ID)"]
    end

    style Critical fill:#1e293b,stroke:#ef4444,stroke-width:2px,color:#f87171
    style Done fill:#1e293b,stroke:#10b981,stroke-width:2px,color:#4ade80
    style Gate fill:#1e293b,stroke:#f59e0b,stroke-width:2px,color:#fbbf24

How the Multi-Agent Lifecycle Works

1. Topological Planning (No Circular Loops):
   A lead architect agent decomposes an epic into tasks. Running tk dep --dsm runs cycle detection across the dependency matrix, catching circular deadlocks before coding starts.
2. Mathematical CPM Allocation:
   tk dep --cpm computes early start (ES), late finish (LF), and schedule buffers. The orchestrator prioritizes subagents on zero-buffer Critical Path tasks.
3. Collision-Free Concurrent Execution:
   Multiple subagents running concurrently across separate terminal panes or CLI processes claim independent tasks (tk c <id>). POSIX advisory file locking prevents write collisions without a database server.
4. Automated Verification Gates (eval):
   Subagents running autonomously cannot skip pending-close. A subagent must run automated verification (tk eval <id>) and submit work for review (tk r <id>). Only human sign-off (entered directly or instructed as a proxy) marks a task done.
5. Cascade Unblocking & Session Resumption:
   When human sign-off marks a blocker done (tk d <id>), tkmd automatically promotes downstream blocked tasks to ready. If any subagent stalls, tk u <id> immediately resumes its conversation session.

1. Install tkmd

Option A: Standalone Binary (No Rust Required)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ktreharrison/tkmd/main/install.sh | sh

Option B: Build from Source with Cargo (Rust)

# Install directly from crates.io (or git):
cargo install tkmd

# Or build locally from cloned repository:
cargo install --path .

Cargo.toml declares two binary targets: tkmd and tk. Running cargo install tkmd installs both binaries to ~/.cargo/bin/:

tkmd --help
# Or use the ergonomic 2-letter alias:
tk --help

Binary Naming & Collision Avoidance (wedow/ticket and Grafana Tanka)

The short command tk is also claimed by:

1. wedow/ticket: A Git-backed markdown issue tracker that installs a binary named tk.
2. Grafana Tanka (grafana/tanka): The Kubernetes Jsonnet configuration tool whose official Homebrew package installs /opt/homebrew/bin/tk.

To eliminate silent namespace collisions and PATH clobbering, the crate and primary binary is named tkmd, with tk provided as a first-class co-installed binary. Every command, flag, and MCP capability functions identically under both tkmd and tk. If your workstation already has Grafana Tanka or wedow/ticket installed, you can invoke tkmd directly or set a customized shell alias (alias tkm="tkmd").

Shell Auto-Completion

tkmd generates native completion scripts for Zsh, Bash, Fish, PowerShell, and Elvish. In Zsh, a single script enables tab-completion for both tkmd and tk:

# Zsh (add to ~/.zshrc for instant completion):
eval "$(tkmd completions zsh)"

# Or persist to your Zsh completion directory:
tkmd completions zsh > ~/.zfunc/_tkmd

# Bash:
source <(tkmd completions bash)

# Fish:
tkmd completions fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/tkmd.fish

2. Local Setup (tk init)

You can run the interactive setup wizard at any time:

tk init

Or initialize non-interactively with flags:

Option A: Obsidian 1.14 + CLI (Recommended)

tk init --obsidian --path ~/Vault --base bases/tasks.base --daily journals/daily

What this configures automatically:

• Creates <vault>/tasks/ (e.g. ~/Vault/tasks/) for atomic Markdown task cards (tk-001-*.md).
• Creates <vault>/bases/tasks.base with 5 pre-configured Obsidian 1.14 Base views:
  1. Kanban Board (grouped by status: ready, in-progress, pending-close, blocked, done)
  2. Pending Close (Sign-Off Queue) (status == "pending-close")
  3. Your Personal Queue (owner == "<you>")
  4. Agent Queues (owner != "<you>")
  5. Completed Tasks (status == "done")
• Safely merges task property types (id, status, priority, owner, project, due, dod, eval, eval_status) into .obsidian/types.json without overwriting your existing vault properties.
• Writes ~/.config/tkmd/config.toml so tk o opens bases/tasks.base directly in Obsidian.

Option B: Standalone CLI Mode (No Obsidian Required)

tk init --cli --path ~/.local/share/tkmd

What this configures automatically:

• Creates ~/.local/share/tkmd/tasks/ for Markdown task cards and .events.jsonl.
• Disables Obsidian URI calls and Daily Note mutations (mode = "cli").
• Routes tk o (tk open) and tk e <id> (tk edit) directly to your $EDITOR (defaults to Helix hx).

Option C: Local Repository / Project Backlog (tk init -L)

tk init -L

What this configures automatically:

• Writes .tkmd.toml in your current repository root.
• Creates ./tasks/ and ./tasks/.events.jsonl local to the project.
• Automatically detected by tk commands in that directory or its subdirectories.
• Retains instant access to the central global vault via -G or merged view via -A.

3. Scope Control (Local Project vs. Global Vault)

tkmd seamlessly manages both local project-level backlogs and central global backlogs:

In merged view (tk -A), task IDs display distinct scope indicators (tk-001L for local, tk-001G for global) without column drift. Mutative commands (tk d, tk c, tk r) target the exact card on disk regardless of active working directory.

4. Daily Ergonomics (1-Letter Shortcuts)

5. Connect AI Agents via MCP (tkmd mcp or tk mcp)

tkmd mcp runs a dual-framing JSON-RPC 2.0 MCP server over stdio (auto-detecting both newline-delimited JSON and Content-Length headers for universal compatibility across Claude Desktop, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, Zed, OpenCode, and Pi).

Add this to your agent's MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tkmd": {
      "command": "tkmd",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Bundled Agent Skill (skills/tkmd)

tkmd ships with a pre-configured agent skill in skills/tkmd/SKILL.md (and skills/tkmd/agents/openai.yaml).

Install it into your agent workspace:

# For Codex, Claude, Antigravity, OpenCode, Pi:
mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills
cp -r skills/tkmd ~/.agents/skills/

This enforces the task governance harness across all your agents:

• Automatic session registration (-s <session_id>) for instant resumption (tk u <id>).
• Mandatory review gate: agents must submit completed tasks to pending-close (tk r) instead of done.
• Automated eval assertion passes before review submission (tk eval).
• DoD deliverable note links ([[wikilinks]]).

5. Event Stream (tasks/.events.jsonl) & Optional DuckDB Queries

tk records every state transition, eval verification, and agent session in an append-only, newline-delimited JSON stream (tasks/.events.jsonl).

tk st and tk h parse this file natively without any external database. However, because it is standard .jsonl, users with duckdb installed can run instant SQL analytics with zero setup or database importing:

# Recent event transitions
duckdb -c "SELECT timestamp, id, action, actor, from_status, to_status, eval_passed FROM read_json_auto('~/Documents/tasks/.events.jsonl') ORDER BY timestamp DESC;"

# Agent review yield
duckdb -c "SELECT actor, count(*) as reviews, count(CASE WHEN eval_passed THEN 1 END) as passed FROM read_json_auto('~/Documents/tasks/.events.jsonl') WHERE action = 'pending-close' GROUP BY actor;"

6. License

tkmd is dual-licensed under:

• MIT License (LICENSE-MIT)
• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE)

You may choose either license at your option. Copyright © 2026 Ken Harrison.