xarmian 2cb5e0aab0 fix(web): surface swallowed sync failures; defer a mid-sync sync_required (BUG-2508) (#1084)
* fix(web): stop losing sync changes when a consumer fails to apply them (BUG-2508)

Three defects on the incremental-sync path, all reproduced before any fix. The
reproduction IS the regression test (syncCursor.svelte.test.ts) rather than a
throwaway, because what proves the loss and what pins it are the same artifact.

1. THE CURSOR ADVANCED BEFORE CONSUMERS APPLIED. `triggerSync` set
   `lastSyncTime = changes.server_time` and then notified, so a consumer whose
   refetch failed left the cursor past changes nobody had applied — and since
   `/changes` is asked FROM that cursor, the server could never re-deliver them.
   Silent and permanent. The `full_refresh` arm three lines below already had
   the right discipline ("don't advance until pages confirm success"), so the
   file disagreed with itself; the incremental arm now shares it via `deliver`.

2. ASYNC CONSUMERS' REJECTIONS WERE NEVER OBSERVED AT ALL. `notify` wrapped
   `cb(result)` in try/catch, which catches synchronous throws only, and two of
   the five consumers are async. Their rejections did not reach that catch —
   they surfaced as unhandled rejections while the service went on believing
   the sync had been applied. Callbacks are now awaited, so "caught and ignored"
   and "not caught at all" collapse into one honest answer, and the failure is
   logged instead of dropped.

3. A `sync_required` ARRIVING MID-SYNC WAS DROPPED, not deferred. The in-flight
   request was issued before that signal, so its window cannot cover it, and
   nothing re-announces the gap. `triggerSync` now records it and runs one more
   pass; the flag is cleared before each request so a signal arriving during one
   is not swallowed by the pass that predates it.

Plus the second half of the report: the timeline's SSE-driven refresh caught its
failures and did nothing at all with them, leaving the panel quietly missing a
comment somebody else had just posted, with no indication and no retry — the
next refresh only comes with the next relevant SSE event, which may never
arrive. It now logs and retries ONCE on a backoff. Not a banner (this is a
background refresh, and a modal-weight failure surface would be worse than the
bug) and not unbounded retries (the debounce exists because SSE replay can
hammer that endpoint).

Scope held to the triage: `doIncrementalOrFull`'s fallback behaviour is
untouched.

The tests assert the `since` ARGUMENT OF THE NEXT REQUEST, never an end state
(team CONVE-12): "changes lost", "changes never made" and "refetch succeeded
with nothing to do" are indistinguishable by end state, and what separates them
is whether the server can still be asked. A control leg pins that a clean sync
still DOES advance the cursor, so a fix that simply never advances it fails.
Three mutants, each failing only its own tests. The rig itself nearly produced a
false green — the service is a module singleton whose `setWorkspace` issues its
own `/changes` call, and the first version counted it and leaked cursor state
between tests, which made one leg pass on another leg's calls.

* test(web): cover the timeline's SSE-refresh retry, and make its SSE mock fan out (BUG-2508)

The retry added in the previous commit had no test. Adding one required fixing
the harness first: this file's `sseService` mock returned a disposer and dropped
the callback, so the component was subscribed to nothing and any test of how it
REACTS to an event would have passed vacuously. It now fans out, which is the
same mock defect BUG-2509 hit on the attachment bus.

Both legs assert on the REQUESTS issued, not on rendered entries: a timeline that
never refreshed and one that refreshed successfully with nothing new look
identical on screen (CONVE-12). The control leg — a successful refresh must NOT
retry — is what stops a fix that simply retries unconditionally from passing,
which would double every successful refresh on an endpoint the debounce exists to
protect.

Two mutants: removing the retry and dropping the once-only guard each fail only
this test.

* fix(web): fence the timeline's SSE refresh against teardown (BUG-2508)

The retry added earlier in this branch could fire after unmount: a rejected
request schedules it from its own catch, and the identity fence there
(reqSlug/reqWs) is not a teardown fence — a remounted panel can legitimately
carry the same identity, so "same item" never meant "still alive". `onDestroy`
only unsubscribed SSE and left both timers running.

Now `onDestroy` clears the shared timer and latches `destroyed`, which every
continuation that can outlive the mount checks: entry, the success path before
it writes state, and the failure path before it schedules the retry.

Found by an independent review pass on this branch — the leak was mine, introduced
with the retry.

* fix(web): revert the cursor gate; keep the failures observable (BUG-2508)

Scope call after review: keep this bug narrow, and revert the coordinator change
rather than ship it.

The gate ("advance the cursor only if every consumer applied") was correct at the
service boundary and INERT in production, because no consumer reports failure —
verified at four sites, and confirmed by a live leg that behaved identically on
gated and ungated builds. Shipping it would have read as a fix for the reported
bug while changing nothing, which is worse than the open bug: the next person
cites it as handled. Reverting an inert change loses nothing users ever had.
The design half — consumer contract, the poison-consumer case that would pin the
cursor for everyone against an unbounded /changes window, and the
markSynced/onTabResume inconsistencies — is filed as IDEA-2535.

What ships here, all within "surface the failures":

- FAILURES ARE OBSERVABLE. The old try/catch caught synchronous throws only, and
  two of the five consumers are async with their promise discarded — those
  rejections were not "caught and ignored" but unobserved entirely, surfacing as
  unhandled rejections with nothing tying them to the sync that caused them. A
  rejection handler is now attached to whatever a callback returns, and both arms
  log. Deliberately NOT awaited: consumers keep running concurrently and delivery
  stays synchronous, so observability does not smuggle in an ordering change.
- A `sync_required` ARRIVING MID-SYNC IS DEFERRED, not dropped. The in-flight
  request was issued before that signal, so its window cannot cover it, and
  nothing re-announces the gap.
- Cursor semantics are UNCHANGED, and a test pins that deliberately: if someone
  reinstates the gate, it fails and sends them to IDEA-2535 rather than letting an
  inert contract ship quietly a second time.

Three mutants (drop the async observer, drop the sync log, drop the deferral
flag), each failing only its own test, plus a control that a sync with nothing
pending runs exactly one pass.
2026-08-12 21:38:44 -04:00
2026-03-26 01:52:36 +00:00
2026-08-11 17:37:53 +00:00
2026-03-26 01:52:36 +00:00

Pad

Project Management for the agent era.

CI Release Go Report Card Container image on GHCR License GitHub Sponsors

Website  ·  Docs  ·  Blog  ·  Changelog  ·  X  ·  Bluesky


One binary. Local-first. No accounts required. Pad gives you a CLI, a web UI, and an AI agent skill — all backed by SQLite, all running on your machine. Your project data stays on your laptop — unless you take it to Pad Cloud.

Pad dashboard showing collection summaries, active work, an active plan with progress, and a recent activity feed

Quick Start

brew install PerpetualSoftware/tap/pad
cd your-project
pad init                    # configure, auth, workspace, AI skill — all in one
pad server open             # opens the web UI at localhost:7777

pad init is the smart entry point — it auto-detects what's needed, walks you through each step, and is safe to re-run anytime (it skips finished steps and prints a status summary).

Then, in a fresh agent session in your project, say:

/pad onboard

Your new workspace ships with the canonical onboard playbook auto-activated. The agent walks an interview, inspects your codebase if it has shell access, and adapts your workspace's collections, conventions, roles, and playbooks to match the project. It's the fastest way to go from empty workspace to "okay, this is mine."

Why Pad?

Tools like Linear, Jira, and Notion are built for teams on the cloud. Pad is built for developers on their machine — and for the AI agents working alongside them. When you do want your projects on every device or a teammate on the board, Pad Cloud hosts the same product with sync, workspace invites, and role-based access.

Pad Linear / Jira Notion
Setup pad init Create account, invite team, configure Create account, pick template
AI agents Native /pad skill for 7+ tools Third-party integrations Third-party integrations
Data Local SQLite you own — or opt-in Pad Cloud Their cloud Their cloud
Offline Full functionality Read-only cache at best Limited
CLI First-class Afterthought None
Price Free, open source Per-seat pricing Per-seat pricing

Features

For Developers

CLI that doesn't get in your way. Create tasks, search items, check status — without leaving the terminal.

pad item create task "Fix OAuth redirect" --priority high
pad item create idea "Real-time collaboration" --category infrastructure
pad item list tasks --status in-progress
pad item search "authentication"
pad project dashboard                   # Project dashboard
pad project next                        # What should I work on?
pad server info                         # How this client is connected to Pad

Web UI that stays out of your way. A clean, dark-themed interface at localhost:7777 with:

  • Board, list, and table views — drag-and-drop between status columns
  • Keyboard navigationj/k to move, Enter to open, Esc to go back, Cmd+K to search
  • Rich text editor — Tiptap-based with markdown, formatting toolbar, and auto-save
  • Wiki-links — type [[Title]] to link between items
  • Real-time updates — agent creates a task in the terminal, it appears in the browser instantly (via SSE)
  • Dashboard — collection overview, active work, plan tracking, activity feed

Pad tasks board view: kanban columns for Open, In-Progress, Done, Cancelled with task cards in each

For AI Agents

Your agent becomes a project partner. Install the /pad skill once, and your AI coding tool can read, create, and update project items through natural language.

pad agent install        # Auto-detects your tools and installs the skill

Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, OpenCode, GitHub Copilot, Amazon Q, and JetBrains Junie.

Then just talk to your project:

> /pad what should I work on next?
> /pad I finished the OAuth fix
> /pad create a task to add rate limiting
> /pad let's brainstorm about the API redesign

Conventions and playbooks teach agents how your project works:

  • Conventions — trigger-based rules like "run tests before marking a task done" or "use conventional commits"
  • Playbooks — multi-step workflows like "when implementing a feature: read the spec, create a branch, write tests first, then implement". Playbooks can declare a kebab-case invocation_slug so users can invoke them directly: /pad ship PLAN-42, /pad release 0.5.0. Fresh startup workspaces ship a generic ship playbook out of the box.
pad item create convention "Run tests before completing tasks" \
  --field trigger=on-task-complete \
  --field scope=all \
  --field priority=must

Agents load relevant conventions automatically. All agent actions are attributed in the activity feed, so you always know what the AI changed.

Onboard agents to a new codebase:

Open an agent session in the workspace directory and run /pad onboard. The agent walks an interview, detects your build/test/CI tooling, and adapts your workspace's collections, conventions, roles, and playbooks to match the project. Works for any agent that speaks Pad — Claude Code, MCP-only agents, etc.

Collections & Custom Fields

Pad organizes work into collections — typed containers with structured fields.

Built-in collections:

Collection Purpose
Tasks Work items with status, priority, assignee, effort, due date
Ideas Feature ideas with impact and category
Plans Project milestones with progress tracking
Docs Documentation, decisions, reference material
Conventions Project rules that guide agent behavior
Playbooks Multi-step workflows for agents to follow

Create your own with typed fields — select, text, date, number, url, relation, checkbox:

pad collection create "Bug Reports" \
  --fields "severity:select:low,medium,high,critical; browser:text; reproducible:checkbox"

Items get reference numbers automatically (TASK-5, BUG-12) and can be moved between collections with field migration.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS and Linux)

brew install PerpetualSoftware/tap/pad

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad
cd pad
make build
cp pad ~/.local/bin/   # or /usr/local/bin/

Requires Go 1.26+ and Node.js 22+. Alternatively, nix develop provides a shell with the exact Go and Node versions pinned — see the Nix section below.

The go install github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad/cmd/pad@latest path is not supported for the full Pad binary, because the web UI must be built and embedded during the source build.

Docker

docker run -p 127.0.0.1:7777:7777 -v pad-data:/data ghcr.io/perpetualsoftware/pad

This publishes Pad to localhost:7777 on the host machine, which is the recommended default for local use.

First run — create the first admin. Open http://localhost:7777 and you'll hit a setup page asking for a bootstrap token. On first start with no users, Pad logs a one-time setup URL to stderr (captured by docker logs) — grep it and open the printed link:

docker logs <container> 2>&1 | grep -A6 'Pad first-run setup'
# → http://<your-host>:7777/setup#token=<one-time-token>

Open that URL, create your admin account, and the token is consumed (the banner stops appearing). If you'd rather stay on the CLI, docker exec -it <container> pad auth setup works too — running inside the container counts as loopback, which the bootstrap gate allows. On a network you already trust, set PAD_BYPASS_SETUP_TOKEN=true to skip the token and create the admin straight from http://<your-host>:7777/setup (only safe when the port isn't reachable from the open internet).

Single user, more than one device? Publish to all interfaces so you can reach Pad from your phone, tablet, or another machine on the same LAN, Tailscale network, or home VPN:

docker run -p 7777:7777 -v pad-data:/data ghcr.io/perpetualsoftware/pad

For multi-instance deployments, Pad supports Postgres + Redis via docker-compose.yml — see docs/deployment.md for the full setup.

Nix

Run without installing:

nix run github:PerpetualSoftware/pad

Or install into your profile:

nix profile install github:PerpetualSoftware/pad

A flake devShell (Go, Node, and friends, pinned to the same versions CI uses) is also available for contributors:

nix develop

A nixpkgs package (nix-shell -p pad / environment.systemPackages) is planned but not yet merged upstream. Until then, use the github:PerpetualSoftware/pad flake reference above.

Binary Download

Pre-built binaries for macOS, Linux, and Windows are available on the releases page.

Pad Cloud (hosted)

Don't want to run anything? Pad Cloud is the managed option — same product, same CLI, same /pad skill, free during beta. Sign up on the web, then connect a project directory:

pad init --url https://app.getpad.dev --workspace my-workspace

Self-hosting stays first-class: the binary is unchanged and no features are Cloud-only.

Upgrading Pad

Pad ships a new binary on a roughly weekly cadence. Upgrades are designed to be boring: install the new binary and restart. Database migrations run automatically at startup, only the ones your database is missing are applied, and each migration commits atomically (a failed migration rolls back cleanly and is retried next boot).

The one rule: only ever move forward. Newer binaries know how to migrate an older database; older binaries do not understand a newer schema. Since Pad added its schema-ahead guard, a downgraded binary that finds a database newer than itself refuses to start rather than silently running old code against a newer schema (which can corrupt data):

database schema is newer than this pad binary: ... This almost always means the
binary was DOWNGRADED (e.g. brew/docker rollback) ... Upgrade pad back to a build
that includes those migrations, or re-run with `pad start --force`.

To recover, reinstall the newer binary (brew upgrade pad, pull the newer Docker tag, etc.). If you have intentionally downgraded and accept the risk, start with pad start --force (or set PAD_ALLOW_SCHEMA_AHEAD=1) to override the guard.

Automatic pre-migration snapshot (SQLite). Whenever a SQLite-backed instance has pending migrations to apply, Pad first copies the database file to pad.db.pre-<version> next to it. If an upgrade ever goes wrong, stop the server and copy that snapshot back over pad.db. This is a convenience net, not a backup strategy — keep your own backups (see docs/backup.md). PostgreSQL instances are skipped here; use pg_dump or a provider snapshot before upgrading.

Recommended upgrade flow:

# 1. Back up first (SQLite shown; see docs/backup.md for Postgres)
pad db backup -o pad-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).db

# 2. Stop the server, install the new binary, restart
#    (migrations + the pre-migration snapshot run automatically on start)
brew upgrade pad        # or: docker pull, binary download, make install

# 3. Confirm it's healthy
pad --version
curl -s localhost:7777/api/v1/health

Getting Started

1. Set up Pad

cd ~/projects/myapp
pad init "My App"

pad init is the smart entry point that handles everything in one command:

  • Configures this client's connection (local server, remote, or Docker)
  • Auto-starts the local server
  • Creates the first admin account on a fresh local install (Docker / remote hosts run pad auth setup on the server instead)
  • Logs you in if needed
  • Creates or links a workspace for the current directory (writes .pad.toml)
  • Installs the /pad skill for any AI tools detected in the project

Run from your project root. Safe to re-run anytime — it skips finished steps and prints a status summary if nothing's needed.

Choose a template with --template, or omit it for an interactive picker grouped by category (Software / People / …):

pad workspace init --list-templates                   # See the full catalog grouped by category
pad init "My App" --template scrum                    # Scrum-style with sprints
pad init "My App" --template product                  # Product management focused
pad init "My Hiring" --template hiring                # Company-side: requisitions, candidates, interview loops, feedback
pad init "Job Search" --template interviewing         # Candidate-side: applications, interviews, companies, contacts
pad init "My App" --template blank                    # Custom: system collections only — let /pad onboard build the rest

Pad ships templates for software (startup / scrum / product), people workflows (hiring, interviewing), and a custom blank template — system collections (Conventions, Playbooks) only, with the /pad onboard playbook as its sole seeded content. blank is the entry point for the agent-driven /pad onboard flow: it walks you through shaping collections, conventions, and roles to match your actual project. Reserved categories for research, content, operations, and personal use await their first templates, so the same project-management primitives fit well beyond code projects. There's also a hidden demo template — the startup layout pre-loaded with realistic sample data — that's kept out of the picker but can be built explicitly with --template demo.

2. Start working

# From the CLI
pad item create task "Set up CI pipeline" --priority high
pad item create idea "Add WebSocket support" --category infrastructure
pad project dashboard

# From the web UI
pad server open              # Opens localhost:7777 in your browser

# From your AI agent
# Just use /pad in Claude Code, Cursor, etc.

3. Teach your agents the rules

In an agent session inside the workspace:

/pad onboard

The agent walks an interview, detects your tooling, and adapts the workspace's collections, conventions, roles, and playbooks. To browse the library directly:

pad library list --type conventions  # Pre-built conventions you can adopt
pad library list --type playbooks    # Pre-built multi-step workflows

4. Optional — connect a desktop AI app via MCP

Pad ships an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server so Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code, or Codex can manage items, plans, ideas, and dependencies as native tools, read workspace state by URL, and load multi-step workflows as prompts.

pad mcp install claude-desktop   # or: cursor, windsurf, claude-code, codex, --all
# Restart the client; pad shows up as the "pad" MCP server.

pad mcp install writes each client's native config: JSON mcpServers for Claude Desktop / Cursor / Windsurf, a project-local .mcp.json in the current directory for claude-code, and an [mcp_servers.pad] table in ~/.codex/config.toml (TOML) for codex. Because Claude Code's config is project-scoped, it's install-on-request only — --all and pad mcp status cover the per-user clients (including Codex) and skip it.

Tool catalog (v0.15) — ten resource × action tools plus pad_set_workspace (eleven total), no flat verb explosion. pad_item.list accepts unparented: true (mutually exclusive with parent) to select items with no parent or implements relationship:

Tool Actions
pad_item create, update, delete, get, list, move, restore, link, unlink, deps, star, unstar, starred, comment, list-comments, backlinks, bulk-update, note, decide, export, import, history
pad_workspace list, members, invite, storage, audit-log, create, claim, deleted, restore
pad_collection list, create, update, delete
pad_project dashboard, next, ready, stale, standup, changelog, report, activity
pad_role list, create, update, delete
pad_search query
pad_playbook list, get, run
pad_library list, get, activate
pad_attachment list, show
pad_meta server-info, version, tool-surface, bootstrap
pad_set_workspace session-default workspace pinning (response embeds the bootstrap blob)

Plus resources at pad://workspaces, pad://workspace/{ws}/dashboard, pad://workspace/{ws}/items, pad://workspace/{ws}/items/{ref}, pad://workspace/{ws}/collections, pad://workspace/{ws}/attachments/{id} (bounded image bytes), pad://workspace/{ws}/bootstrap, and pad://_meta/version.

Stability contract — two version constants, both advertised in the initialize handshake under capabilities.experimental.padCmdhelp and capabilities.experimental.padToolSurface (and queryable at pad://_meta/version):

  • cmdhelp_version: "0.1" — CLI help-tree contract (used at dispatch time)
  • tool_surface_version: "0.15" — MCP tool catalog contract (v0.5 added pad_library; v0.6 pad_item.backlinks; v0.7 pad_item export/import; v0.8 pad_workspace deleted/restore; v0.9 made pad_item.list summary-shaped by default with a default+max result cap; v0.10 enforced the draft-playbook gate server-side on pad_playbook.run with an allow_draft escape hatch; v0.11 added the read-only pad_attachment tool (list/show); v0.12 added pad_project.activity (agent-accessible non-streaming activity feed); v0.13 added pad_project ready/stale (agent-oriented backlog + attention queries); v0.14 added pad_item history + optimistic concurrency (TASK-2022); v0.15 added the pad_item.list unparented parameter (TASK-2096); see internal/mcp/version.go for the full changelog)

External agents pin against these so a future rename doesn't break them silently. Errors come back as structured envelopes ({error: {code, message, hint, available_workspaces, ...}}) with a closed eight-code taxonomy.

Full guide at getpad.dev/mcp/local — install paths, action enums per tool, error taxonomy, troubleshooting.

On Pad Cloud? Skip the install: add https://mcp.getpad.dev as a remote MCP server in Claude Desktop, Claude.ai, Cursor, or Windsurf and sign in with OAuth — same tool surface, no local binary. Setup guide at getpad.dev/mcp/remote.

CLI Reference

pad auth configure                    Configure how this client connects to Pad
pad auth setup                        Initialize the first admin account
pad auth login                        Sign in
pad auth whoami                       Show current user

pad server start                      Start the Pad API server
pad server stop                       Stop the Pad server
pad server info                       Show client, connection, and local server status
pad server open                       Open web UI in browser

pad workspace init [name]             Initialize workspace in current directory
pad workspace link <workspace>        Link current directory to an existing workspace
pad workspace list                    List all workspaces
pad workspace switch <workspace>      Switch active workspace
pad workspace context                 Show structured workspace context
pad workspace context set --file X    Update structured workspace context from JSON
# Workspace onboarding: run `/pad onboard` from an agent session inside the workspace
pad workspace members                 List workspace members
pad workspace invite <email>          Invite a workspace member
pad workspace join <code>             Accept an invitation
pad workspace export                  Export workspace data
pad workspace import <file>           Import workspace data

pad project dashboard                 Project dashboard
pad project next                      Recommended next task
pad project ready                     Query actionable next items
pad project stale                     Query stalled or attention-worthy items
pad project standup [--days N]        Daily standup report
pad project changelog [--days N]      Release notes from completed items
pad project watch                     Real-time activity stream
pad project reconcile                 Reconcile item and PR state

pad item create <coll> "title"        Create item (task, idea, plan, doc, ...)
pad item list [collection]            List items (filters: --status, --priority, --all)
pad item show <ref>                   Show item detail
pad item open <ref>                   Open item in web UI
pad item update <ref>                 Update item fields
pad item delete <ref>                 Delete item
pad item move <ref> <collection>      Move item between collections
pad item edit <ref>                   Open item in $EDITOR
pad item search "query"               Full-text search across all items
pad item comment <ref> "text"         Add comment to an item
pad item comments <ref>               View item comments
pad item note <ref> "summary"         Append an implementation note to an item
pad item decide <ref> "decision"      Append a decision log entry to an item
pad item block <src> <target>         Create dependency
pad item blocked-by <item> <blk>      Mark item as blocked
pad item deps <ref>                   Show dependencies
pad item unblock <src> <target>       Remove dependency
pad item related <ref>                Show direct relationships for an item
pad item implemented-by <ref>         Show incoming implementers for an item
pad item bulk-update --status X       Batch update multiple items

pad collection list                   List collections with item counts
pad collection create <name>          Create a custom collection

pad library list                      Browse convention and playbook library
pad library activate <title>          Activate a convention or playbook

pad agent install [tool]              Install /pad skill for AI coding tools
pad agent status                      Show supported tools and installation status
pad agent update                      Update installed tool integrations

pad github link [item-ref]            Link current branch's PR to item
pad github status [item-ref]          Show PR status for linked items
pad github unlink <item-ref>          Remove PR link from item

pad webhook list             List workspace webhooks
pad webhook create <url>     Create webhook

All commands accept --format json for machine-readable output and --workspace to target a specific workspace.

Shell completion

pad ships completion scripts for bash, zsh, fish, and PowerShell:

# Bash — current session only
source <(pad completion bash)
# Bash — persistent
pad completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/pad                   # Linux
pad completion bash > $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/pad   # macOS (Homebrew)

# Zsh (make sure compinit runs in your ~/.zshrc)
pad completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_pad"

# Fish
pad completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/pad.fish

# PowerShell (append the output to your $PROFILE)
pad completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

Beyond command and flag names, completion is context-aware: collection arguments (e.g. pad item list <TAB>) complete against your workspace's collections, --workspace completes configured workspace names, and --status / --priority complete their valid values.

Authentication

Pad runs without authentication by default for frictionless local use. For local installs, pad init creates the first admin account inline. The lower-level commands are useful when you're hosting a Pad server (Docker / remote) and need to set up auth on the server host directly:

pad auth setup         # Initialize the first admin account (server host, non-local mode)
pad auth login         # Sign in
pad auth whoami        # Show current user
pad auth logout        # Sign out

Once a user exists, all API requests and web UI access require authentication. Credentials are stored in ~/.pad/credentials.json. Multiple users can be invited to workspaces with role-based access control (owner, editor, viewer).

pad workspace members               # List workspace members
pad workspace invite user@example.com
pad workspace join <code>

Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              pad (single binary)              │
│                                               │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌────────────┐  │
│  │   CLI    │  │  REST    │  │  Embedded  │  │
│  │ (Cobra)  │  │  API     │  │  Web UI    │  │
│  └────┬─────┘  └────┬─────┘  │ (SvelteKit)│  │
│       │    HTTP      │        └────────────┘  │
│       └──────────────┤                        │
│                ┌─────▼─────┐                  │
│                │  SQLite   │                  │
│                │  + FTS5   │                  │
│                └───────────┘                  │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
  • Go backend — chi router, SQLite via modernc.org/sqlite (pure Go, no CGO), FTS5 full-text search, SSE for real-time updates
  • SvelteKit frontend — Svelte 5, Tiptap editor, drag-and-drop, adapter-static, embedded via go:embed
  • Single binary — serves the API and web UI, runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows
  • Workspace-per-project — each project gets its own workspace linked by a .pad.toml file

Self-hosted, all data lives in ~/.pad/pad.db. Your data. Your machine. No telemetry, no accounts required — cloud only if you opt in.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the development guide.

make build      # Build web UI + Go binary
make test       # Run Go tests
make dev-web    # SvelteKit dev server with hot reload
make install    # Build, install to ~/.local/bin, restart server

Security

See SECURITY.md for reporting vulnerabilities.

License

Apache License 2.0

Languages
Go 67.1%
TypeScript 18.7%
Svelte 13.6%
Shell 0.3%
CSS 0.1%