Kaneo

What Kaneo does

Kaneo is a project management tool that aims to stay small. A workspace holds projects, and each project’s tasks can be laid out as a board, a list, a calendar or a Gantt chart, with search and filters applied to all of them. Unscheduled ideas go into a backlog until they are ready for the board. Tasks have descriptions, attachments, subtasks, dependencies, labels, comments and time tracking.

Each project sets its own columns, and you decide which column counts as done. Custom fields add structured data such as a number, date, dropdown or checkbox, and can be required. Workspace members get roles, updates appear live, and a project can be made public with a read-only view. Projects can also publish secret calendar feeds of their dated tasks.

Integrations and migration

Kaneo leans toward software teams. A GitHub, Gitea or GitLab repository can be connected to a project, and each repository event can move a task: a branch push to “In Progress”, a merged pull request to “Done”. The GitHub integration also syncs issues and comments. Notifications can go to email, ntfy, Gotify or a personal webhook, and project activity can be posted to Slack, Discord, Mattermost or Telegram. There is a REST API with API keys, an official command-line client and an MCP server for AI assistants.

The documentation includes importers for Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center (columns, issues, priorities, labels, sub-tasks, links, comments), Trello (lists, cards, checklists, labels, members, comments), Linear, Plane and PLANKA. Projects can also be copied between Kaneo Cloud and a self-hosted instance in either direction.

Self-hosting Kaneo

Kaneo runs as a single container holding the web app and API, next to PostgreSQL. The official guide uses Docker Compose with a pinned image tag and two generated secrets; there are also guides for the drim CLI, Coolify, Railway and a Helm chart. For a small installation the docs suggest at least 2 GB of memory and 10 GB of disk. Attachments need S3-compatible storage, and Redis is only needed if you run several API instances. The first person to sign up becomes the instance administrator, so create that account before opening registration. Sign-in can use email, GitHub, Google, Discord or your own OpenID Connect provider.

Hosted version

Kaneo Cloud is run by the developers, with a 14-day trial and paid plans. The website says the cloud and self-hosted versions use the same MIT-licensed code, and the importer between instances makes moving off the cloud straightforward.

Limitations

Kaneo is young: the repository’s license dates from 2024, and releases come often, so pin versions and read release notes before upgrading. Its documentation does not describe sprints, story points or reporting such as burndown charts, so it is lighter than Jira for Scrum teams. There is no portfolio level above projects comparable to Asana’s portfolios. File attachments need extra setup.

Who it suits

Kaneo suits small teams, especially developers, who want a clean board-and-list tool with Git integration and a permissive license, and want to bring work over from Trello, Jira or Linear. For sprints, cycles and a wiki, compare Plane; for a minimal kanban board, see Kanboard.