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Kanban Board

The Kanban ⚡ tab brings lightweight in-project work management to MadCap Flare. Cards are stored as Markdown files under .kanban/ in the project root, so the board lives with your content and travels through source control.

Plan the work where the work lives.

To open the board​

  1. Open a Flare project.
  2. Click the Kanban ⚡ tab on the ribbon.
  3. Click Kanban Board.

The board opens maximized with columns from .kanban/config.json (defaults: backlog, ready, developing, qa, blocked, done).

Packaging topics for a job​

The Add Topic to Card button lets you collect the set of topics that need to be modified for a particular job, without ever leaving the topic you're working on.

  1. Open a topic (or snippet) in Flare.
  2. Click Kanban ⚡ → Add Topic to Card.
  3. In the Attach current topic dialog:
    • Filter and pick an existing card → click Attach to selected, or
    • Click New card with this topic to spin up a fresh card pre-loaded with the topic.

If the Kanban Board is already open, the change appears live; if not, the card file is updated on disk and shows up next time you open the board.

What a card holds​

Each card is a Markdown file (.kanban/cards/card-XXXX.md) with YAML front-matter:

  • Title, Type, Assignee, Source (URL or free text), Column
  • Description (Markdown body, with - [ ] subtask lines surfacing as live checkboxes)
  • Attached files — project-relative paths to the topics/snippets/images/TOCs this card covers
  • Suggested files — the editor automatically suggests files referenced by your attached topics, so you can attach related content with one click
  • Work log — append-only timestamped entries

Board features​

  • Columns — manage your workflow via Manage Columns (rename, reorder, add)
  • Types — define card types with body templates via Manage Types
  • Checklists — predefined checklist snippets you can insert into any card body via Manage Checklists
  • Search — filter cards by title, body, assignee, attached file, source, or log entries (press / to focus)
  • Drag & drop — drag cards between columns
  • Annotation board — a second tab surfaces madcap:annotation notes from your topics, grouped by their UPPERCASE prefix (TODO:, FIXME:, REVIEW:, etc.)
  • Archive — move done cards to .kanban/archive/ to keep the board tidy
  • Themes — toggle light / dark mode from the window header
  • Live reload — the board watches .kanban/cards/ and refreshes automatically when files change (e.g. when teammates push new cards)

Keyboard shortcuts​

  • / — focus the search box
  • N — quick-add a card to the first column
  • Enter — open the selected card
  • Delete — delete the selected card
  • F5 — reload the board
  • ← → ↑ ↓ — move selection between cards/columns

Storage layout​

<project-root>/
  .kanban/
    config.json          ← columns, types, checklists, board settings
    cards/
      card-0001.md
      card-0002.md
      ...
    archive/             ← archived (done) cards

Everything is plain text, so it commits cleanly to Git/TFS alongside your topics.

Use cases​

  • Migration jobs — create a card per phase, attach every topic that needs a touch
  • Style sweeps — package the topics affected by a style change onto one card
  • Review packets — attach the topics a reviewer needs to read, share the card file
  • Sprint planning — backlog / ready / developing mirror your engineering board
  • Personal kanban — quick to-do list with file references that survive across days

Tips​

  • Use Source to link a card to the GitHub issue, Jira ticket, or doc that triggered the work — the board fetches the page title for you
  • Use the Suggested panel inside a card to follow snippet/image references and attach related files in one click
  • Hide the Kanban tab via Plugin Settings → Kanban Tab if you'd rather stay focused