Beads is a distributed graph issue tracker for AI coding agents that stores persistent, structured memory powered by Dolt.
The tool solves the problem of coding agents losing context during long-horizon tasks by replacing unstructured markdown plans with a dependency-aware graph database. It uses Dolt's version-controlled SQL backend to provide cell-level merge capabilities, native branching, and built-in sync. Tasks are tracked with hash-based IDs that prevent merge collisions in multi-agent workflows, and the system includes dependency tracking, semantic memory compaction to summarize closed tasks, and graph links like relates-to, duplicates, and supersedes. Agents interact through a CLI that outputs JSON and can discover the workflow via an AGENTS.md file.
Beads suits teams running multiple coding agents on shared projects who need coordinated task tracking without context loss. It works across macOS, Linux, Windows, and FreeBSD as a standalone CLI tool. The tool includes agent-specific setup for Claude, Codex, Factory, Mux, and Cursor, though manual integration is possible for unsupported agents. A stealth mode allows local-only usage without committing files to the main repository, and a contributor mode routes planning to a separate repository to keep experimental work out of pull requests. The README does not compare Beads to alternative approaches.
Almost all open issues are raised by outside users rather than the core team, indicating a substantial base of adopters reporting real-world use. Maintainers typically respond to new issues and pull requests within a day. Work in the issue tracker is dominated by triaged, bug, and enhancement labels.
