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MCP Kanban in Cline

A task board per project that hands off to the time tracker. It keeps tasks per project in columns with due dates, estimates, priorities and tags, shows the board, overdue items and a weekly review of planned versus done, and starts a time-tracker timer from a task with the link recorded on it.

board, task_list, overdue and project_list are reads and safe to auto-approve; leave task_add, task_move, task_delete and columns_set behind a click, since each one changes what the board says happened.

What you get in Cline

You sayTool
Add a task to the nova site board: write the launch email, due Friday, 90 minutes.task_add
What's overdue, and start the timer on the API task.overdue then task_start_timer
Weekly review.weekly_review

Two server processes on one data directory firing 40 concurrent task_add calls at the same board all persisted with unique ids and the counter landed on exactly 41, which is what the advisory lock around the id counter is there to guarantee.

Install it in Cline

The file is mcp.json, and the key inside it is mcpServers.

ScopePath
Cline CLI~/.cline/mcp.json
The editor extensionopened from the Cline panel, not by path; the documentation deliberately calls it the MCP settings JSON used by the extension
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kanban": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@theluckystrike/mcp-kanban"],
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

No full-app restart. The MCP settings actions include restarting an unresponsive server if its tools do not appear.

The npm publish of @theluckystrike/mcp-kanban is pending; until then use the .mcpb bundle or a clone and build from the latest release.

No install: the hosted endpoint

There is no hosted endpoint for this one yet. MCP Kanban runs locally over stdio with the config above, which is also the only form in which it reads and writes files on your own disk. Three of the servers in this collection are served at https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/<name> over MCP streamable HTTP: time-tracker, price-tracker and invoice.

Cline notes worth knowing first

Cline is the one client here with an unsafe transport default. `type` selects it, and omitting `type` falls back to the legacy sse transport, so a streamable HTTP endpoint needs it written in or you will debug a server that is fine. Local entries carry "disabled" and an "autoApprove" array.

Free: 3 project boards, 200 open tasks, the default five columns. Pro is $19 once, verified offline.

Questions

Where does the config live?

The CLI reads ~/.cline/mcp.json. For the extension, do not hunt for a path: MCP Servers icon, Configure tab, Configure MCP Servers. cline mcp opens a wizard, and cline config mcp --json is the non-interactive form.

The hosted endpoint will not connect.

Set the transport explicitly. Omitting type falls back to the legacy sse transport, so streamable HTTP needs "type": "streamableHttp" written in. It is the one default here that sends you debugging a server that works.

Should I auto-approve MCP Kanban's tools?

Approve the read-only ones and leave the writing ones behind a click: each entry carries an autoApprove array and a disabled flag.

Related

MCP Kanban in detail · The same server in Windsurf and Claude.ai and Claude Desktop connectors · Every server in Cline · Guides · Cline docs