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Pad — Development Guide

What This Is

Pad is a project management tool for developers and AI agents. Single Go binary with embedded SvelteKit web UI, SQLite storage, and multi-agent skill support (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, OpenCode, Copilot, Amazon Q, Junie).

Related repo: The marketing website (getpad.dev) lives at ../pad-web — a separate SvelteKit site deployed to Vercel.

Architecture

  • Backend: Go (cmd/pad/main.go) → REST API (internal/server/) → SQLite (internal/store/)
  • Frontend: SvelteKit 2 + Svelte 5 (web/src/) → static build embedded in Go binary
  • Data model: Workspaces → Collections (typed with JSON schemas) → Items (structured fields + rich content)
  • CLI: Cobra commands in cmd/pad/main.go, HTTP client in internal/cli/
  • Agent skill: Single natural-language /pad skill in skills/pad/SKILL.md

Build & Install

make build      # Build web UI + Go binary (./pad)
make install    # Build, kill server, install to ~/.local/bin/pad, restart
make build-go   # Build Go only (skip web — faster when only backend changes)
make test       # Run Go tests
make web        # Build web UI only
make dev-web    # Run SvelteKit dev server (hot reload on :5173)

After making changes, always run make install to rebuild the binary, install it, and restart the server. The web UI at http://localhost:7777 will reflect the changes.

Quick iteration loop

  • Backend only: make install (skips web rebuild if no frontend changes — edit Makefile to use build-go instead of build in the install target)
  • Frontend only: make web && make install or use make dev-web for hot reload during development
  • Full rebuild: make install

Key Directories

cmd/pad/main.go          — CLI entry point, all Cobra commands
internal/
  server/                — HTTP API handlers, SSE, middleware
  store/                 — SQLite CRUD, migrations, FTS
  models/                — Go types (Collection, Item, View, etc.)
  items/                 — Field validation against schemas
  collections/           — Default definitions, workspace templates
  cli/                   — HTTP client, formatting helpers
  events/                — EventBus for real-time SSE
  config/                — Workspace detection, .pad.toml
  diff/                  — Version diff storage
  webhooks/              — Webhook dispatcher with HMAC signing
  email/                 — Transactional email via Maileroo
  links/                 — Wiki-link parsing
web/src/
  routes/                — SvelteKit pages
  lib/api/client.ts      — TypeScript API client
  lib/types/index.ts     — TypeScript types
  lib/stores/            — Svelte 5 rune stores
  lib/components/        — Reusable UI components
skills/pad/SKILL.md      — Claude Code skill (embedded in binary)

API

REST API at /api/v1/. Key endpoints:

  • GET/POST /workspaces/{ws}/collections — collection CRUD
  • GET/POST /workspaces/{ws}/collections/{coll}/items — item CRUD
  • GET/PATCH/DELETE /workspaces/{ws}/items/{slug} — item by slug
  • POST /workspaces/{ws}/items/{slug}/copy/preflight — cross-workspace copy dry run: what would carry / drop / need a value, plus the full warning set. Read-only and safe to call repeatedly (PLAN-2357)
  • POST /workspaces/{ws}/items/{slug}/copy — cross-workspace copy; with archive_source it is the move. Same request shape as the preflight. Never retry it automatically — there is no idempotency key, so a retry duplicates the item
  • GET /workspaces/{ws}/dashboard — computed project overview (active items, plans, attention, blockers)
  • GET /workspaces/{ws}/activity — workspace activity feed (enriched with item titles + change details)
  • GET/POST/DELETE /workspaces/{ws}/webhooks — webhook management
  • GET /workspaces/{ws}/items/{slug}/children — child items linked to a parent
  • GET /workspaces/{ws}/items/{slug}/progress — child item completion progress
  • GET/POST /workspaces/{ws}/items/{slug}/links — item relationships (blocks/blocked-by, parent/child)
  • GET /search?q=query&workspace=slug — full-text search
  • GET /api/v1/events?workspace=slug — SSE real-time events
  • GET /api/v1/collab/{itemID}?schema_version=N — WebSocket upgrade for real-time collaborative editing (Yjs binary protocol; client must announce schema version)
  • GET /workspaces/{ws}/members — list members + pending invitations
  • POST /workspaces/{ws}/members/invite — invite user to workspace
  • GET /api/v1/auth/session — auth status (setup_required, setup_method, auth_method, authenticated, email_configured, user)
  • POST /api/v1/auth/bootstrap — create the first admin account from localhost on a fresh instance
  • POST /api/v1/auth/register — create account (admin-created or invitation-based after setup)
  • POST /api/v1/auth/login — email/password login (returns session token)
  • POST /api/v1/auth/logout — destroy session
  • GET/PATCH /api/v1/auth/me — current user profile (GET) and update name/password (PATCH)
  • POST /api/v1/auth/forgot-password — request password reset email
  • POST /api/v1/auth/reset-password — reset password with token
  • POST /api/v1/auth/local-reset — localhost-only account recovery (self-host, non-cloud). Loopback-gated, no auth — the bootstrap trust model. Returns a single-use reset link, or a temp password with {"temp_password": true}. Backs pad auth reset-password.
  • GET/POST/DELETE /api/v1/auth/tokens — user-scoped API tokens
  • GET/PATCH /api/v1/admin/settings — platform settings (admin-only)
  • POST /api/v1/admin/test-email — send test email (admin-only)
  • POST /api/v1/invitations/{code}/accept — accept workspace invitation
  • GET /api/v1/workspaces/{ws}/agent/bootstrap — one-round-trip agent context (workspace + user + collections + always-on conventions + roles + playbook metadata + dashboard + needs_onboarding flag). Same payload as the MCP pad://workspace/{ws}/bootstrap resource and the pad_set_workspace embed.

Authentication

User-based authentication with email/password. When no users exist (fresh install), everything works without auth until the instance is initialized with pad auth setup. Once the first admin exists, all API requests require authentication.

# First-time setup
pad auth setup         # Create the first admin account on the server host

# Subsequent logins
pad auth login         # Email + password prompt
pad auth whoami        # Show current user
pad auth logout        # Sign out
pad auth reset-password user@example.com  # Recover a locked-out account (run ON THE SERVER HOST)
pad auth reset-password user@example.com --temp-password  # ...set a temp password instead of a reset link

# Credentials stored in ~/.pad/credentials.json (0600 permissions)
# CLI auto-attaches auth token to all API requests

Locked-out account recovery (self-host, no email)

When a self-hosted instance has no email provider, a forgotten password can't be reset by email. Two host-side recovery paths (both require shell access to the server — the same trust boundary as pad auth setup):

  • pad auth reset-password <email> — run it on the server host. It calls the loopback-only /api/v1/auth/local-reset endpoint (no login required — that's the point) and prints a single-use reset link. Add --temp-password to instead set a random temporary password printed to the terminal (headless boxes with no browser). The endpoint refuses proxied/remote requests and is disabled in cloud mode.
  • Server log — if a user submits the web /forgot-password form on a non-cloud instance with no email, the server logs the reset path (slog.Info ... reset_path=/reset-password/<token>). Paste it after the instance's base URL to finish the reset by hand.

The web /forgot-password page detects email_configured == false (from the session payload) and shows the pad auth reset-password recovery instructions instead of a dead "we emailed you a link" message.

Code: internal/server/handlers_auth.go::handleLocalReset (loopback + non-cloud gates), cmd/pad/main.go::resetPasswordCmd, web/src/routes/forgot-password/+page.svelte.

After any workspace is created (via pad init or pad workspace init — note that pad auth setup only creates the admin account, not a workspace), the success output points new users at the canonical onboarding entry point. Open a fresh agent session in the workspace's directory and say:

/pad onboard

Every new workspace ships with the onboard playbook auto-activated (PLAN-1496 / TASK-1499 / TASK-1500). The playbook walks the agent through an interview that adapts the workspace's collections, conventions, roles, and seeded playbooks to match the actual project. Works regardless of which template the user picked (or no template — see the blank template).

The pre-PLAN-1496 design seeded IDEA-1 / PLAN-2 / TASK-3 / DOC-4 (and BACK-1 / FEAT-1 siblings for scrum/product) as first-person-future-self notes; that pattern was retired in TASK-1501 / TASK-1502 in favor of the playbook-driven flow.

Workspace membership

pad workspace members                         # List workspace members
pad workspace invite user@example.com         # Invite (adds directly if user exists, creates join code if not)
pad workspace invite user@example.com --role viewer  # Invite with specific role
pad workspace join <code>                     # Accept a workspace invitation

Roles: owner (full access), editor (CRUD items), viewer (read-only).

Email (optional)

Transactional email via Maileroo. When configured, workspace invitations are sent by email. Without it, everything works via CLI-based join codes.

# Environment variables (or ~/.pad/config.toml)
PAD_MAILEROO_API_KEY=your-sending-key   # Required to enable email
PAD_EMAIL_FROM=noreply@yourdomain.com   # Sender address (default: noreply@getpad.dev)
PAD_EMAIL_FROM_NAME=Pad                 # Sender display name (default: Pad)

CLI

Items are referenced by issue ID (e.g. TASK-5, BUG-8) wherever a <ref> argument appears. Slugs also work but issue IDs are preferred.

pad item create <collection> "title" [--status X] [--priority X] [--parent REF]
pad item list [collection] [--status X] [--parent REF] [--all]
pad item show <ref>           # e.g. pad item show TASK-5
pad item update <ref> [--status X] [--priority X]
pad item delete <ref>
pad item move <ref> <target-collection>
pad item copy <ref> --to-workspace <slug> --collection <slug> [--dry-run] [--archive-source] [--field k=v]
                              # Cross-workspace copy; --archive-source makes it a move.
                              # --dry-run previews the field mapping + warnings.
                              # Refuses rather than guessing when a destination field needs a value,
                              # and NEVER retries the mutating call (no idempotency key — PLAN-2357 DR-13).
                              # Content semantics: markdown is copied verbatim except `pad-attachment:`
                              # refs that resolve to a LIVE attachment in the SOURCE workspace — those are
                              # repointed at the clones (+ variants). Foreign / soft-deleted / dangling ids
                              # are left literal and counted as unresolvable, never cloned.
                              # `[[wiki-links]]` are NOT rewritten — they re-resolve in the DESTINATION,
                              # so a link can silently retarget to a different item or break;
                              # `[[workspace::REF]]` stays a genuine cross-workspace reference.
                              # The web dialog (item pane ⋯ → "Copy or move to workspace…") says the same.
pad item search "query"
pad project dashboard         # Project dashboard
pad project next              # Recommended next task
pad project standup [--days N]  # Daily standup report
pad project changelog [--days N] [--parent REF]  # Release notes from completed items
pad item block <source> <target>  # e.g. pad item block TASK-5 TASK-8
pad item blocked-by <item> <blocker>
pad item deps <ref>           # Show dependencies
pad item unblock <source> <target>
pad collection list           # List collections
pad collection create "Name" --fields "key:type[:opts]; ..."  # compact DSL for simple schemas
pad collection create "Name" --schema '<json>'                # full CollectionSchema (terminal_options, defaults, computed, relations)
pad item edit <ref>           # Open in $EDITOR
pad workspace init [--template X]  # Create workspace
pad agent install [tool]      # Install /pad skill for AI tools
# Workspace onboarding: run `/pad onboard` from an agent session inside the
# workspace (Claude Code, MCP, etc.). The /pad onboard playbook is
# auto-seeded into every new workspace.
pad server open               # Open web UI in browser
pad project watch             # Real-time activity stream
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 item bulk-update --status done TASK-5 TASK-8  # Batch operations
pad webhook list/create/delete/test               # Webhook management
pad auth setup                # Initialize a fresh instance with the first admin
pad auth login                # Log in
pad auth logout               # Sign out
pad auth whoami               # Show current user
pad workspace members         # List workspace members
pad workspace invite <email> [--role X] # Invite user to workspace
pad workspace join <code>     # Accept workspace invitation

Collection names accept singular forms: task→tasks, idea→ideas, doc→docs.

MCP server

Pad runs as a local Model Context Protocol server so Claude Desktop / Cursor / Windsurf can call non-interactive pad commands as tools. The tool surface is a hand-curated catalog (currently v0.15) in internal/mcp/catalog_*.go — one ToolDef per resource (pad_item, pad_workspace, pad_collection, pad_project, pad_role, pad_search, pad_meta, pad_playbook, pad_library, pad_attachment) with an action enum dispatching to underlying CLI commands. v0.15 adds the pad_item.list unparented boolean, mutually exclusive with parent, for items with no parent or implements relationship (TASK-2096). v0.2 introduced the catalog (PLAN-969 / TASK-981); v0.3 added pad_playbook, pad_meta.action: bootstrap, pad_set_workspace's embedded-bootstrap response, and the pad://workspace/{ws}/bootstrap resource (PLAN-1377 / TASK-1380); v0.4 trimmed the bootstrap payload by ~40% (PLAN-1410) — slim BootstrapCollection + BootstrapRole projections (no UUIDs/timestamps/settings; nested schema object; redundant labels omitted), removed top-level recent_activity duplicate, dropped convention slug, and added a BootstrapDashboard wrapper that caps five sub-arrays (attention, recent_activity, active_items, active_plans, by_role) at 5 entries each with parallel *_overflow_count fields. The pre-catalog v0.1 cmdhelp leaf walker is retired.

cmdhelp is still consumed at dispatch time — BuildCLIArgs reads individual command schemas to translate the catalog's snake_case input map into CLI args. cmdhelp no longer drives tool naming or count.

When adding a new pad command, decide whether it belongs on the MCP surface. If yes, add an action to the appropriate pad_<resource> ToolDef in internal/mcp/catalog_<resource>.go. The action's handler — usually passThrough([]string{"resource", "subcommand"}) — wires it through to dispatch. Don't expose interactive (prompts the user), destructive (mutates auth / filesystem state), long-running (streaming watcher), or recursive (would spawn another MCP server) commands.

pad mcp serve                 # JSON-RPC over stdio (called by clients)
pad mcp install <client>      # Write the client's mcp.json entry
pad mcp uninstall <client>    # Remove the entry
pad mcp status                # Install state across supported clients

Surface:

  • Tools: the v0.15 catalog — ten resource × action tools (pad_item, pad_workspace, pad_collection, pad_project, pad_role, pad_search, pad_meta, pad_playbook, pad_library, pad_attachment) plus pad_set_workspace (takes a workspace slug only — no action enum). The ten resource × action tools take action: <verb> to choose what they do. pad_item (v0.15) adds the unparented list parameter; v0.14 added history + expected_updated_at. pad_project (v0.13) adds ready (actionable backlog) + stale (items needing attention); pad_project.activity (v0.12) is the non-streaming, bounded activity feed — catch up on what other agents/users changed since you last worked. pad_attachment is the read-only attachment-metadata surface — list/show (upload/download/view stay CLI-only). pad_library is the convention+playbook library surface — list/get/activate. pad_playbook is the playbook surface from PLAN-1377 — list/get/run mirror the CLI's pad playbook subcommands; run is side-effect-free and returns the body + bound args for the agent to execute. v0.4 (PLAN-1410) didn't change the tool/action surface; it trimmed the bootstrap JSON those tools/resources return — see the Stability contract subsection below for details.
  • Resources: pad://workspace/{ws}/items/{ref}, pad://workspace/{ws}/items, pad://workspace/{ws}/dashboard, pad://workspace/{ws}/collections, pad://workspace/{ws}/attachments/{id} (bounded base64 image via thumb-md; non-images and image bytes over 1 MiB (pre-base64) rejected), pad://workspace/{ws}/bootstrap (one-shot workspace overview — user + collections + always-on conventions + roles + playbook metadata + dashboard + recent activity), plus the server-wide pad://_meta/version.
  • Prompts: pad_plan, pad_ideate, pad_retro, pad_onboard — multi-step workflows lifted from skills/pad/SKILL.md.

pad_set_workspace pins the session default workspace; its response embeds the bootstrap blob so agents pin + load workspace context in one round-trip. The same payload is available on demand via pad_meta.action: bootstrap and the pad://workspace/{ws}/bootstrap resource.

Stability contract. Two version constants live in internal/mcp/version.go, advertised in the handshake under capabilities.experimental.padCmdhelp and capabilities.experimental.padToolSurface:

  • CmdhelpVersion (currently "0.1") — the cmdhelp CLI help-tree contract. Bump when CLI flag/arg schemas change incompatibly.
  • ToolSurfaceVersion (currently "0.15") — the MCP tool catalog contract. Bump when tool names, action enums, or parameter shapes change incompatibly. v0.15 adds the unparented boolean to pad_item.list, mutually exclusive with parent, for structural loose-item filtering (TASK-2096). v0.14 added a history action to pad_item (read-only item version history — newest-first metadata; content body omitted for token thrift) and an expected_updated_at param for optimistic concurrency on update (round-trip the updated_at you last read; a stale value fails with a structured 409 code=update_conflict). The update action's field writes are now a server-side field-level MERGE (only the keys you set change) rather than a full-blob replace, closing the concurrent-update lost-write race (IDEA-1480 / TASK-2022) — pure addition to the action enum + param vocabulary; existing pad_item actions/params are unchanged and backwards-compatible. v0.13 adds ready + stale actions to pad_project, mirroring the existing CLI pad project ready / pad project stale (TASK-2019): ready (read-only) returns the actionable backlog — the query-oriented counterpart to next, reusing the dashboard's suggested-next logic; stale (read-only) lists items needing attention (stalled, blocked, overdue, or out of the active workflow). Both HTTP dispatchers already existed (dispatch_http_project.go); this just wires them onto the catalog. pad project reconcile stays CLI-only (shells out to gh for live PR state — a local-git dependency MCP agents lack). Pure addition of two read-only actions — existing actions unchanged; backwards-compatible for v0.12 consumers that don't enumerate the new actions. v0.12 adds an activity action to pad_project, mirroring the new CLI pad project activity [--limit N] [--actor user|agent] [--since DATE] (TASK-2018) — the non-streaming, bounded query counterpart to the CLI-only pad project watch SSE stream. Read-only snapshot of the workspace's enriched activity feed (item refs, titles, field-level change details) backed by the existing GET /workspaces/{ws}/activity endpoint (previously web-UI-only, now extended with a server-side since date filter so limit/actor/since behave identically across CLI, stdio MCP, and cloud HTTP), so agents can catch up on what other agents/users did since they last worked. Adds actor + limit params to the pad_project vocabulary (since already existed for changelog); pure addition — existing actions unchanged; backwards-compatible for v0.11 consumers that don't enumerate the new action. v0.11 adds the read-only pad_attachment tool (the tenth resource × action tool) with list + show actions, mirroring the CLI pad attachment list / pad attachment show (TASK-2017): list enumerates a workspace's attachments (optional filters: item / category / collection / attached / unattached / sort / limit / offset); show returns one attachment's metadata (MIME, size, filename, ETag, last-modified) via a HEAD request without transferring bytes. Both HTTP dispatchers already existed (dispatch_http_attachments.go); this just wires them onto the catalog. Upload / download / view stay CLI-only (filesystem-bound, excluded per the catalog's exclusion rules). Pure addition — existing tools/actions unchanged; backwards-compatible for v0.10 consumers that don't enumerate the new tool. The base64 image RESOURCE for multimodal agents (pad://workspace/{ws}/attachments/{id}) shipped later in TASK-2077 (PR #930) as a bounded, image-only resource; TASK-2101 brought it — and the full read-only resource set — to the remote /mcp transport via the in-process HTTPResourceFetcher, so resources are no longer local-stdio-only. v0.10 enforces the draft-playbook gate server-side: pad_playbook.run (and the underlying POST /playbooks/{ref}/run) now refuses a playbook whose status isn't active with a structured playbook_not_active error, adds an allow_draft boolean param (bareword --allow-draft on the CLI) as the escape hatch, and echoes the playbook status on both the run and get responses (BUG-2020). v0.9 makes pad_item.list summary-shaped by default (drops item content, adds a default result limit of 50 / hard max 300 on MCP; CLI --full restores the complete shape) — a behavior change to the tool's return shape, hence the bump, though tool names, action enums, and parameter shapes are unchanged (TASK-2000). v0.8 adds restore + deleted actions to pad_workspace, mirroring the CLI pad workspace restore / pad workspace deleted (TASK-1972): deleted (read-only) lists the caller's soft-deleted workspaces still inside the 30-day restore window; restore (mutating, not destructive, owner-only) un-soft-deletes a workspace by slug while it's still restorable. Both reuse the existing slug param — no new params; pure addition. v0.7 adds export + import actions to pad_item, mirroring the CLI pad item export / pad item import (covers playbooks AND conventions). export (read-only) takes ref and returns the portable artifact text — it forces the CLI's stdout sink (-o -) so the bytes come back as the result instead of a file. import (mutating, not destructive) takes a new artifact param (the full artifact text) and returns {ref, slug, warnings}; the ExecDispatcher can't pipe stdin, so it spills the artifact to a temp file and dispatches item import <tmpfile>. v0.6 added the pad_item.backlinks action; v0.5 added pad_library. v0.3 (PLAN-1377 / TASK-1380) introduced pad_meta.action: bootstrap, pad_set_workspace's embedded-bootstrap response, and the pad://workspace/{ws}/bootstrap resource. v0.4 (PLAN-1410) is a comprehensive bootstrap-payload trim — same tool catalog, slimmer JSON shape inside bootstrap responses: BootstrapCollection projection drops id/workspace_id/timestamps/settings and emits schema as a nested object; BootstrapRole projection drops UUIDs/timestamps/tools; convention slug dropped; top-level recent_activity (a duplicate of dashboard.recent_activity) removed; new BootstrapDashboard wrapper caps five sub-arrays (attention, recent_activity, active_items, active_plans, by_role) at 5 entries each with parallel *_overflow_count fields; redundant schema labels omitted when label == TitleCase(key). Cumulative size reduction: ~40% on a representative workspace, ~54% on the fixture (see PLAN-1410's Result section for per-section deltas). Compatibility: most changes are subtractive (dropped fields) or additive (overflow counts), but one type change is breaking: collections[].schema went from a JSON-encoded string to a nested JSON object — clients that JSON.parse()'d the string need to consume it directly as an object now. The dropped fields (UUIDs, timestamps, settings, duplicate recent_activity, convention slug) have canonical alternatives (slugs for addressing; pad collection list / pad role list for the full models when needed).

Both are also returned by pad://_meta/version and pad_meta.action: version.

Dispatchers. Two ship in internal/mcp/:

  • ExecDispatcher — shells out to the pad binary; subprocess inherits credentials from ~/.pad/credentials.json. Used by pad mcp serve for local stdio MCP.
  • HTTPHandlerDispatcher — calls pad-cloud's HTTP handlers in-process with the requesting user attached via server.WithCurrentUser. Backs the live remote MCP server on the dedicated mcp.getpad.dev vhost (PLAN-943), where the dispatcher serves multiple OAuth users from a single process. The Streamable HTTP transport is mounted by Server.SetMCPTransport / registerMCPRoutes (cloud-mode-gated; self-hosted binaries leave it unmounted) — see internal/server/handlers_mcp.go. Tools are wired into the route table at internal/mcp/dispatch_http.go (routeTable); add a RouteMapper per command — mapItemCreate is the seed entry from TASK-965.

Resource fetchers. The read-only resource templates (RegisterResources in internal/mcp/resources.go) are transport-agnostic — they parse the pad CLI's --format json output, and a ResourceFetcher supplies those bytes. Two implementations mirror the dispatchers:

  • ExecResourceFetcher — shells out to pad (stdio MCP), same credential model as ExecDispatcher.
  • HTTPResourceFetcher (internal/mcp/resources_http.go, TASK-2101) — the in-process equivalent for remote /mcp. It translates each resource's fixed CLI-arg vector into an in-process HTTP read through the same handler chain (reusing HTTPHandlerDispatcher's user resolution + buildAuthedRequest auth/scope/consent perimeter), reproducing the CLI shape the handlers expect (e.g. item list → cli.ToItemSummaries, workspace list → {slug,name,updated_at}, attachment show → HEAD-header synthesis). Attachment bytes flow through a cappedResponseWriter that preserves PR #933's 1 MiB download bound. Because it satisfies ResourceFetcher+BinaryResourceFetcher, all resource handlers register unchanged on both transports.

Code lives in internal/mcp/ (built on github.com/mark3labs/mcp-go). Public docs at getpad.dev/mcp/local.

Data Model

  • Collections have JSON schemas defining typed fields (select, text, date, number, etc.)
  • Items have structured fields JSON + optional rich content (markdown)
  • Parent/child links: Any item can be a parent of child items (--parent REF). Children get progress tracking, burndown charts, and nested rendering. Plans are the most common parent, but Ideas, Docs, or Tasks can also have children.
  • Wiki-links [[Title]] resolve across all items, rendered as clickable links
  • Default collections: Tasks, Ideas, Plans, Docs (software / startup template)
  • Templates are grouped by category so Pad supports more than just software workflows:
    • Software: startup (default), scrum, product
    • People: hiring (company-side: Requisitions → Candidates → Loops → Feedback), interviewing (candidate-side: Applications, Interviews, Companies, Contacts)
    • Custom: blank — system collections only (Conventions, Playbooks), no user-facing seeds. Designed as the entry point for the /pad onboard agent-driven flow (see Onboarding below). PLAN-1496 / TASK-1498.
    • Research / Content / Operations / Personal are reserved categories awaiting their first templates.
  • Each non-blank template ships a curated starter pack (conventions + playbooks) appropriate to its domain — trigger vocabularies vary (on-commit vs on-candidate-advance vs on-interview-scheduled).
  • The IDEA-1 / BACK-1 / FEAT-1 first-person seed-item pattern was retired in PLAN-1496 (TASK-1501 / TASK-1502). Templates no longer seed sample items; the /pad onboard playbook (auto-seeded into every workspace, TASK-1500) drives setup conversationally instead.
  • Set the template via pad workspace init --template <name>. Running pad init with no flag in a TTY opens an interactive picker grouped by category. Run pad workspace init --list-templates to see the current catalog.
  • See PLAN-609 and IDEA-583 for original design history; PLAN-1496 for the onboarding refactor.

Playbooks

Playbooks are first-class invokable procedures. They live in the playbooks collection (typed item, just like Tasks/Ideas/Plans) but carry two extra fields that make them user-callable:

  • invocation_slug — optional, workspace-unique, kebab-case (regex ^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]$, 2+ chars). When set, the playbook is invokable by intent (NL is canonical) and via the per-surface slug shortcut — /pad <slug> in Claude Code, $pad <slug> in Codex, pad_playbook action=run ref=<slug> via MCP ("slug routing"). Leave blank for trigger-only playbooks (e.g. trigger=on-release that auto-load on intent match).
  • arguments — JSON array of {name, type, required, default, description, enum} entries. Types: ref, string, flag, enum, number. Mirrors the playbook body's ## Arguments section; the structured field is the queryable form (used by pad playbook run's strict parser) and the markdown is the human-readable mirror.

Invocation model. Three surfaces, one playbook:

  • Claude Code (agent NL): /pad ship PLAN-1377 stop-after-each — the /pad skill matches the first token against the bootstrap's playbook slug list and binds the rest with flexible NL parsing.
  • CLI (strict positional): pad playbook run ship TASK-10,TASK-11 merge-strategy=rebase — the server applies strict positional + bareword-flag + key=value parsing.
  • MCP: pad_playbook tool with action: list | get | run. run accepts either a pre-parsed args map or raw CLI tokens via raw_args.

Bootstrap returns metadata at startup. pad bootstrap (CLI + GET /api/v1/workspaces/{ws}/agent/bootstrap + pad://workspace/{ws}/bootstrap resource + pad_set_workspace response embed) returns the workspace's playbook metadata in one round-trip — ref, title, slug, invocation_slug, trigger, scope, status, has_arguments, summary per entry. No bodies in the bootstrap blob; the agent loads the full body via pad playbook show <slug> only when invoking. Keeps context light while still letting the agent route /pad ship without a tool call.

Seeded ship playbook. The startup template ships a generic ship playbook (invocation_slug=ship) derived from the personal /ship-tasks slash command. Fresh pad workspace init --template startup workspaces get it as PLAYB-N out of the box. See internal/collections/templates_startup_ship.go for the body + de-personalization choices.

Library — discovery surface for invokable playbooks. Per PLAN-1397's invokable-first overhaul, the playbook library (web UI: /[username]/[workspace]/library?tab=playbooks; JSON: GET /api/v1/playbook-library) carries the three canonical invokable workflow playbooks — ship, plan, decompose (invokable by intent; /pad <slug> · $pad <slug> · the pad_playbook MCP form are per-surface shortcuts) — under a single agent-workflows category. Each library card surfaces a ▶ <slug> invoke chip (with an NL-canonical tooltip listing the per-surface shortcuts) and an N args badge so the invocation model is visible before activation. Software templates auto-seed plan + decompose via softwareStarterPlaybookTitles; startup separately prepends ship so all three land together at workspace init. The pre-PLAN-1377 trigger-only checklist entries (Implementation Workflow, Code Review Process, Plan Creation, Bug Triage, Retrospective, Onboarding to a Project, Release Process, Deployment, Incident Response) are stashed in playbook_library_archive.go::archivedPlaybooks() — compiled but not surfaced; per-entry "convert / promote to convention / retire" decisions tracked in IDEA-1396.

Web UI editor. web/src/routes/[username]/[workspace]/playbooks/[slug]/+page.svelte is the dedicated playbook editor — kebab-case slug input with debounced uniqueness check, structured arguments builder that round-trips with the body's ## Arguments section, trigger selector with custom-trigger escape, and a "Test invocation" helper that renders /pad, pad playbook run, and pad_playbook MCP JSON forms from a slug + sample inputs. The reusable component lives at web/src/lib/components/playbooks/PlaybookFormFields.svelte and the shared parser/generator at web/src/lib/playbooks/arguments.ts.

Code map:

  • internal/server/handlers_playbooks.go — pad playbook list|show|run HTTP handlers; ParsePlaybookCLIArgs, resolvePlaybook.
  • internal/server/handlers_bootstrap.go — pad bootstrap; embeds playbook metadata.
  • internal/mcp/catalog_playbook.go — pad_playbook MCP tool catalog entry.
  • internal/collections/templates.go — playbooks collection schema (invocation_slug + arguments fields); softwareStarterPlaybookTitles (auto-seed lineup for software templates).
  • internal/collections/templates_startup_ship.go — the seeded ship playbook (ShipPlaybook(), shipPlaybookBody, shipPlaybookArguments).
  • internal/collections/playbook_library.go — the invokable-first library (PlaybookLibrary(), LibraryPlaybook struct with InvocationSlug + Arguments).
  • internal/collections/playbook_library_plan.go — the plan library entry (PlanPlaybook()).
  • internal/collections/playbook_library_decompose.go — the decompose library entry (DecomposePlaybook()).
  • internal/collections/playbook_library_archive.go — retired pre-PLAN-1377 bodies; not surfaced, but compiled for future migrations (IDEA-1396).
  • web/src/lib/playbooks/arguments.ts — ## Arguments parser/generator, INVOCATION_SLUG_PATTERN, buildTestInvocation.

See PLAN-1377 (invocation model) and PLAN-1397 (library overhaul) in this workspace for the design history.

Onboarding

Workspace setup is driven by the canonical onboard invokable library playbook (PLAN-1496 / TASK-1499) — invoked by intent ("set up my workspace") or the per-surface shortcut (/pad onboard in Claude Code, $pad onboard in Codex, the pad_onboard MCP prompt). Pad does not run a baked-in CLI onboarding wizard; the playbook body IS the onboarding script, and any agent that can dispatch a playbook (Claude Code, MCP client, CLI) can run it.

Auto-seeded everywhere. pad workspace init (with any non-blank --template) seeds the onboard playbook into the new workspace as status=active, invocation_slug=onboard (TASK-1500). The blank template ships it as the workspace's ONLY user-facing content. Empty-template-name workspace creation (SeedCollectionsFromTemplate(ws, "") — used by tests and direct API callers) intentionally skips the seed; see internal/store/collections.go::SeedCollectionsFromTemplate for the gating logic.

Surface-agnostic body. The playbook body (internal/collections/playbook_library_onboard.go::onboardPlaybookBody) describes intent, not specific CLI commands. It instructs the agent to use whatever surface it has — pad_item MCP, pad item CLI, pad_collection MCP, etc. — and works for pure-MCP agents (no shell) the same as for Claude Code. The body covers four modes: build (blank workspace, build from scratch), audit (templated workspace, adapt seeded items), revisit (already-onboarded, change something specific), and defaults (escape hatch — pick sensible defaults and report).

Adaptation posture, not curation. The body explicitly tells the agent: library entries are STARTING POINTS, not finished artifacts. Read the rule, rewrite using the project's actual commands and vocabulary. Invent when the library has nothing close. If the template seeded something that doesn't fit, edit or delete it. This is the core posture PLAN-1496 codifies — software templates seed generic "run the test suite" conventions, and /pad onboard rewrites them to make test / go test ./... / whatever the project actually uses.

Mutation primitives. The adaptation posture depends on agent-facing mutation tools, exposed by TASK-1510 / TASK-1511 / TASK-1512:

  • pad collection update <slug> + pad_collection.action: update — rename collections, swap icons, reshape schemas (TASK-1510)
  • pad collection delete <slug> + pad_collection.action: delete — remove user-created collections that don't fit (TASK-1511)
  • pad role update <slug> + pad_role.action: update — rewrite role descriptions and icons (TASK-1512)

Server handlers existed pre-PLAN-1496; these tasks just wired CLI subcommands and MCP catalog actions to the existing HTTP endpoints. All three are owner-only server-side.

needs_onboarding bootstrap flag. AgentBootstrap.NeedsOnboarding (PLAN-1496 / TASK-1504) is true when the workspace has zero items with source != 'template' — i.e. nothing beyond what the template seeded. The agent skill (skills/pad/SKILL.md) and the MCP server instructions render an active, NL-canonical offer when true (PLAN-1847): "This workspace is brand new and isn't set up yet. Want me to set it up?" — an offer, not an auto-run. The flag flips to false the moment any user/agent-created item exists; the offer stops firing past that point. Computed per-request via Store.WorkspaceHasUserCreatedItems(workspaceID) (EXISTS-backed). PLAN-1496 / TASK-1505 also retired the standalone "Onboarding" workflow section from the skill — the playbook body owns that script now.

Retired surfaces. The pre-PLAN-1496 design had several surfaces that the playbook replaces; all retired:

  • pad onboard Cobra subcommand (was: codebase scan + convention suggestions) — TASK-1502.
  • OnboardingPrimaryRef field on WorkspaceTemplate (was: named IDEA-1 / BACK-1 / FEAT-1 per template) — TASK-1502. Dashboard banner auto-discovers seeds via item_number=1 + source='template' if a future template ever wants to reintroduce them.
  • The *OnboardingItems() generators in internal/collections/templates_onboarding*.go (deleted files) — TASK-1501.
  • The skill's standalone "Onboarding" workflow section — TASK-1505. Replaced by a one-paragraph pointer at the playbook.

Code map:

  • internal/collections/playbook_library_onboard.go — the canonical playbook body + OnboardPlaybook() library entry + OnboardSeedPlaybook() auto-seed.
  • internal/collections/templates_blank.go — minimal trigger/scope vocabularies for the blank template's seeded system collections.
  • internal/store/collections.go::SeedCollectionsFromTemplate — wires the auto-seed for every non-empty templateName.
  • internal/store/items.go::WorkspaceHasUserCreatedItems — the needs_onboarding query predicate.
  • internal/server/handlers_bootstrap.go::AgentBootstrap.NeedsOnboarding — the bootstrap field.
  • skills/pad/SKILL.md — the nudge-rendering rule in Context Loading; the routing entry under "set up my workspace".

Testing

go test ./...              # All Go tests
go test ./internal/store/  # Store tests only
cd web && npm run build    # Verify frontend compiles
cd web && npm run test     # Web unit tests (vitest, run once)

Common Tasks

Add a new API endpoint

  1. Add handler in internal/server/handlers_*.go
  2. Register route in internal/server/server.go setupRouter()
  3. Add store method in internal/store/ if needed
  4. Add CLI client method in internal/cli/client.go
  5. Add TypeScript type in web/src/lib/types/index.ts
  6. Add API method in web/src/lib/api/client.ts
  7. make install

Add a new CLI command

  1. Add the command constructor to the matching resource file under cmd/pad/ — cmd_item.go, cmd_collection.go, cmd_workspace.go, cmd_auth.go, cmd_project.go, cmd_playbook.go, cmd_role.go, cmd_tag.go, cmd_github.go, cmd_webhook.go, cmd_agent.go, cmd_server.go, cmd_attachment.go, cmd_db.go, cmd_library.go, cmd_bootstrap.go (all package main, so helpers are shared across files). Create a new cmd_<resource>.go if none fits. Keep main.go for main(), newRootCmd(), and top-level wiring only — don't grow it back into a god file.
  2. Wire it into the resource group in cmd/pad/groups.go (or rootCmd.AddCommand() in main.go for a new top-level group)
  3. make install

Modify the database schema

  1. Add migration file in internal/store/migrations/
  2. Update models in internal/models/
  3. Update store methods in internal/store/
  4. make install (migrations run automatically on server start)

Real-time collaboration (Yjs / Tiptap)

Collab is wired through /api/v1/collab/{itemID} (WebSocket, Yjs binary protocol). The relevant code lives in:

  • internal/collab/ — RoomManager, room lifecycle, dumb-relay
  • internal/store/yjs_updates.go — op-log persistence
  • web/src/lib/collab/wsProvider.svelte.ts — client provider
  • web/src/lib/collab/schemaVersion.ts — client schema-version stamp

Collab requires no additional container deps; the single Go binary remains the self-hosted shape. The dumb-relay design (server persists raw Yjs binary updates without parsing them) means there's no Yjs Go port to vendor and no separate sync-server process to run. The op-log lives in the same SQLite/Postgres as everything else, and the WebSocket relay is part of the main HTTP listener. Multi-instance Redis fanout is deliberately out of scope for v1 (single-instance everywhere); when horizontal scaling is needed it lands as a separate IDEA, not a self-host complication.

Tiptap multi-package coordinated bumps

The Y.Doc/ProseMirror schema is shared across three Tiptap packages:

  • @tiptap/core
  • @tiptap/extension-collaboration
  • @tiptap/y-tiptap

Rule: bump all three together, exact-pinned to the same version. Mixing minor versions across these can change the persisted Y.Doc shape silently — peers running mismatched bundles produce divergent ops that the relay can't reconcile. The web/package.json pins each one explicitly (e.g. "@tiptap/extension-collaboration": "3.22.5") rather than using ^ ranges so npm can't slide one out of sync.

A coordinated bump that changes the ProseMirror node-spec MUST also bump web/src/lib/collab/schemaVersion.ts::SCHEMA_VERSION AND internal/collab/manager.go::DefaultSchemaVersion in lockstep. The client announces the version on every WS connect; mismatch returns HTTP 400 and the room manager prunes the per-item op-log so the new client doesn't replay incompatible old-schema ops. items.content is canonical and untouched, so no edit history is lost.

Pure UI/CSS/behavioural changes that don't alter the persisted document shape DO NOT bump the schema version. When in doubt, load an item edited under the old version after your change and confirm the rendered tree is identical.

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