How it works
How Kanban Planner works
On first launch, the app creates a plan called “My Tasks”, where you add your first cards with Pro, no account with us required. If you like, connect Claude Code to the same board afterwards.
First steps
Your first board in three steps
Kanban Planner has three levels: plan, bucket and card.
Create a plan
A plan stands for a project or an area, such as “Projects”, “Household” or “Taxes 2026”.
Set up and color your buckets
Buckets are your columns. Whether To Do → In Progress → Done or Monday to Friday is up to you. New cards take on their bucket’s color, so the board stays readable at a glance.
Fill the cards
A title is enough. Add a checklist, dates, priority, labels, attachments or a goal when you need them. Drag the card to “Done” later and it’s marked complete.
Day to day
Planning your day and week
Morning: fill My Day
Each morning you pick what you want to get done today; anything due today is already there. Everything else stays on the board. The next morning your selection starts over.
In between: check off from the widget
On the Home Screen and in Notification Center, you can check off checklist items right in the widget, without opening the app.
Sunday: let the app plan your week
Week planning spreads your open cards across the week by due date, goal, priority and size, guided by your daily capacity. You can adjust the result by hand afterwards.
Claude integration
Set up Claude Code
The MCP server is a small add-on program for the Mac. It uses the same data store as the Mac app and doesn’t send anything to a server itself. The Mac app syncs Claude’s changes to your other devices through iCloud.
Install the Mac app and open it once
On first launch the app creates its data store and connects to iCloud. Only then does the MCP server have anything to read.
Run the command in Terminal
This command in Terminal downloads the MCP server, verifies it and registers it with Claude Code. For Claude Desktop and other MCP clients, add the path the command prints at the end to their configuration.
You can also download the MCP server manually. It’s notarized by Apple and requires macOS 15 or later.
On macOS 15, the app that starts the MCP server (Terminal or Claude Desktop) needs your permission once: in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Files & Folders, turn on “Data shared by Kanban Planner and affiliated apps” for that app. Then restart it.
Working with Claude
From now on Claude reads and changes your plans directly. Tell Claude in the chat what you need, and it creates cards or checks them off.
Claude deletes only when you ask. The MCP server does have a delete tool, but in every session it instructs Claude never to delete or archive a card unless you explicitly ask.
Data storage
Where your data is stored
On your device and, if you use sync, in your own private iCloud database. We don’t run a server that your cards pass through.
Get Kanban Planner, try Pro for 14 days
You don’t need an account with us. Without Pro, the app is read-only; with Pro, which you can try free for 14 days, you create your first board.