Andon brings ANDON signal light thinking to personal project management — instant status visibility through color, with the complete story always preserved.
🐓 Organic, free-range and open sourced.
Yes, you can read every line. We insist.
Every attempt — success or failure — stays visible. Status bubbles up automatically from the most recently touched task.
Built for solo use. Fully local. Fast.
Color-coded projects and tasks tell you exactly where things stand — no reading required. Status propagates up from sub-tasks automatically via database triggers.
Full TipTap-based rich text editor per task — tables, code blocks, images. Every change is auto-saved with a version snapshot you can browse and restore.
Tasks contain sub-tasks, which contain sub-tasks. No depth limit. Model your work exactly as it actually is, not how a tool forces you to flatten it.
Search across all projects, tasks, and notes — including archived ones. Nothing is ever truly gone, just out of the way.
Attach any file directly to a task. Stored as BLOBs in SQLite — fully portable, no separate file management, no broken links.
Completed projects move to an archive database — still searchable, still readable, just out of the active view. The complete record is always there.
ANDON color palette designed for both dark and light environments. Theme switching is live — no restart required.
No account. No server. No telemetry. Your data lives in SQLite files on your machine — you own it entirely.
Powered by Velopack. Check for updates from Preferences → Updates. Delta patches keep downloads tiny. No reinstall needed.
Turn any task into a Kanban board. Each card carries a per-stage Definition of Done checklist — a card can't advance until its exit criteria are met.
Create a Kanban board inside any project. Cards move through custom stages — and can only advance when their Definition of Done is satisfied.
Define your own pipeline: Backlog → Ready → In Progress → Review → Done, or anything that fits your workflow. Built-in profile templates for software, bugs, content, sprints, and more.
Each card carries a checklist of exit criteria tied to a specific stage. Blocker items lock the card until they're checked. No more silently skipping quality steps.
Set a maximum number of cards per stage. The board enforces limits visually — keeping flow smooth and preventing overload.
Card status is derived from its DoD completion and stage position — white, orange, green — and propagates up to the project automatically.
Traditional project management tools encourage you to delete or hide failed tasks. Andon does the opposite — it treats every attempt, every block, every false start as valuable data.
"In Andon, red is not shame — it's wisdom. Orange is not failure — it's patience. Green is not the only valid state — it's just one part of the story."
Inspired by industrial ANDON signal lights (used in Toyota's lean manufacturing), and the Chinese concept of 經 (jīng — "to go through, to experience"), Andon is designed around one core belief: the journey matters as much as the destination.
A red task documents what was tried, why it didn't work, and what would need to change for it to succeed. Six months later, when a similar problem comes up, that red task is institutional memory — not garbage to delete.
Most PM tools optimize for the success path. Andon optimizes for the complete story.
| Aspect | Traditional PM tools | Andon |
|---|---|---|
| Failed tasks | Deleted or hidden | Kept as red — preserved learning |
| Project status | Manually maintained | Auto-computed from most recent task |
| Data storage | Cloud server (vendor-controlled) | Local SQLite files — you own them |
| History | Activity log (shallow) | Full note version snapshots per task |
| Archived projects | Often inaccessible or deleted | Always searchable in archive.db |
| Privacy | Terms of service, data on servers | Zero telemetry, fully offline |
| Task depth | Usually 2–3 levels max | Unlimited nesting |
Cross-platform desktop application. No runtime dependencies — ships with everything bundled.
UI & App
Data
Self-contained installer — no .NET runtime required. Everything is bundled.
Installer — run AndonSetup.exe, updates via Preferences → Check for Updates.
Portable — extract the ZIP anywhere and run Andon.UI.exe, no installation needed.
AppImage — chmod +x Andon*.AppImage && ./Andon*.AppImage. Requires libfuse2 (Ubuntu/Debian: apt install libfuse2).
tar.gz — extract and run ./Andon.UI directly, no FUSE needed.
Requires: libgtk-3-0 libnss3 libatk1.0-0 libgbm1 (Ubuntu/Debian: apt install libgtk-3-0 libnss3 libatk1.0-0 libgbm1). Chromium is bundled.
Community plugins add new tabs, hooks, and integrations. The recommended way to install and update plugins is directly from Preferences → Plugins inside Andon app.
Manual install: create a subfolder in %AppData%/Andon/plugins/, place the .dll inside, and restart Andon app. Or use Preferences → Plugins for one-click install.