Task Tracker (Beads)
Command reference for the bd issue tracker. All commands support --json for programmatic parsing.
Setup
bash
bd init --stealth
Commands
Create
Title is a positional argument, not a flag.
bash
# Epic bd create "<title>" --type=epic --description="<desc>" # Task (standalone) bd create "<title>" --type=task --description="<desc>" --acceptance="<criteria>" # Task (child of epic) bd create "<title>" --type=task --parent=<epic-id> \ --description="<desc>" --acceptance="<criteria>"
Use --silent to output only the issue ID (for scripting).
Dependencies
Both arguments are positional.
bash
bd dep add <task-id> <depends-on-id>
Query
bash
# Unblocked work bd ready --json # Unblocked work under an epic bd ready --parent=<epic-id> --json # Full issue details bd show <id> --json bd list --status=<open|in_progress|closed> --json
Claim (atomic)
bash
bd update <id> --claim --json
Sets assignee + status=in_progress atomically. If already claimed, the command fails.
Close
bash
bd close <id>
Epic Closure
bash
# Close epics where all children are complete bd epic close-eligible