The open protocol for machine-readable work in Git
Tickets are Markdown. State is YAML. History is Git. Agents use the CLI. Humans use a fast dashboard overlay.
Git is authoritative. Everything else is derived and disposable.
Agents need durable state, not chat memory.
Orchestrators execute well, but they do not reliably preserve backlog state across runs. Ticket turns work into a durable system of record that agents can read and write deterministically.
No lost context
Between runs, machines, or sessions.
Inspectable and diffable
Work is reviewable in any Git tool.
Git history is the audit trail
Every state change is a commit.
A simple standard any tool can implement.
The Ticket Protocol is CC0. Your repo remains the source of truth. Any CLI, dashboard, IDE plugin, or agent can interoperate by reading and writing the same format.
config.yml and index.json.---
id: 01ARZ3NDEKTSV4RRFFQ69G5FAV
title: Add paywall experiment
state: ready
priority: p1
labels: []
---
## Problem
…
## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] …ticket init
ticket new "Add paywall experiment" --priority p1 --ci
ticket move TK-01ARZ3ND in_progress --ci
ticket validate --json --ciDeterministic CLI, designed for automation.
Ticket provides a strict CLI contract for agents. Use --ci mode for exact ID matching and structured output for reliable orchestration.
- ✓Collision-free IDs (ULID filenames)
- ✓Strict parsing and validation
- ✓Machine-readable JSON output
- ✓Works offline, commits changes atomically
A clean view over what's already in Git.
The dashboard reads .tickets/index.json generated by the CLI, then loads individual ticket files on demand. No separate source of truth.
- ✓Dashboard views
- ✓Filters by state, priority, labels, repo
- ✓PR linking by convention (branch and title)
- ✓Read-only in v1, edit via git and CLI
Pay for coordination, not seats.
The protocol is free. The CLI is open source. Upgrade for multi-repo portfolio views, saved filters, and team coordination features.
Free
CLI + Protocol + single-repo dashboard
Paid
Multi-repo portfolio + saved views + faster refresh