Claude Task Viewer
A real-time Kanban board for observing Claude Code tasks. See what Claude is working on, track dependencies between tasks, and manage task cleanup and priority.
Why Use This?
When Claude Code breaks down complex work into tasks, you get visibility into its thinking — but only in the terminal. Claude Task Viewer gives you a persistent, visual dashboard to:
- See the big picture — All your sessions and tasks in one place
- Know what's happening now — Live Updates show exactly what Claude is doing across all sessions
- Understand task dependencies — See which tasks are blocked and what's holding them up
- Get notified — Desktop notifications and sound chime when tasks complete
- Visualise timing — Timeline view shows task durations as a Gantt-style chart
- Stay organised — Stale sessions auto-archive to keep the sidebar clean
- Clean up completed work — Delete tasks when no longer needed (with dependency checking)
Key Features
Observation-Focused Design
Claude Code controls task state — the viewer shows you what's happening:
- Real-time status — See tasks move through Pending → In Progress → Completed as Claude works
- Active session detection — Indicators show which sessions have in-progress tasks
- Task dependencies — Visualise blockedBy/blocks relationships to understand the critical path
- Live activity feed — Real-time stream of all in-progress tasks across every session
Desktop & Sound Notifications
- Bell icon in the header toggles notifications on/off (persisted across sessions)
- Desktop notifications fire when a task moves from In Progress → Completed — click to jump to it
- Audio chime plays a short two-tone sound (C5→E5) alongside the desktop notification
- Requires browser notification permission on first enable
Session Timeline
- Kanban/Timeline toggle in the header switches between the board and a Gantt-style chart
- Tasks displayed as horizontal bars from creation to last update, colour-coded by status
- Time axis auto-scales — seconds, minutes, hours, or days depending on the session span
- Hover for exact timestamps and duration; click to open the detail panel
- View preference persists in localStorage
Auto-archive Stale Sessions
- Sessions with no in-progress tasks and unmodified for over 7 days collapse into an Archived section
- Collapsed by default — click to expand. Expand/collapse state persists across reloads
- Archived sessions still appear when searching or using "Active Only" filter
Cleanup Operations
- Delete tasks — Remove tasks with the delete button or press
D(includes safety checks for dependencies) - Bulk delete — Delete all tasks in a session at once
Session Management
View and organise your Claude Code sessions:
- Session discovery — Automatically finds all sessions in
~/.claude/tasks/and~/.claude/projects/ - View project paths — See the full filesystem path for each project
- Fuzzy search — Search across session names, task descriptions, and project paths with instant filtering
- Session limits — Filter to show only active sessions or a specific number of recent sessions
Keyboard Shortcuts
?— Show help with all keyboard shortcutsD— Delete the currently selected task (with confirmation and dependency checking)Esc— Close detail panel or modals
Installation
Quick start
npx claude-task-viewer
From source
git clone https://github.com/L1AD/claude-task-viewer.git
cd claude-task-viewer
npm install
npm start
How It Works
Claude Code stores tasks in ~/.claude/tasks/. Each session has its own folder:
~/.claude/tasks/
└── {session-uuid}/
├── 1.json
├── 2.json
└── ...
The viewer watches this directory and pushes updates via Server-Sent Events. Changes appear instantly — no polling, no refresh needed.
Task Structure
{
"id": "1",
"subject": "Implement user authentication",
"description": "Add JWT-based auth with refresh tokens",
"activeForm": "Setting up auth middleware",
"status": "in_progress",
"blocks": ["2", "3"],
"blockedBy": []
}
activeForm— What Claude is doing right now (shown in Live Updates)blocks/blockedBy— Task dependency relationships
Configuration
# Custom port
PORT=8080 npx claude-task-viewer
# Open browser automatically
npx claude-task-viewer --open
# Use a different Claude config directory (for multiple accounts)
npx claude-task-viewer --dir=~/.claude-work
API
| Endpoint | Method | Description |
|---|---|---|
/api/sessions | GET | List all sessions with task counts |
/api/sessions/:id | GET | Get all tasks for a session |
/api/tasks/all | GET | Get all tasks across all sessions |
/api/tasks/:session/:task | DELETE | Delete a task (checks dependencies) |
/api/tasks/:session/:task/note | POST | Add a note to a task |
/api/events | GET | SSE stream for live updates |
Design Philosophy
Observation over Control: Claude Code owns task state. The task viewer's job is to show you what Claude is doing, not to direct it. This keeps the viewer in sync with reality and prevents confusion about whether a task's status reflects what Claude is actually doing or just human intent.
Limited interaction: You can delete tasks and add notes, but task status, subject, and description reflect Claude's actual work and can only be changed by Claude Code itself.
Roadmap
✅ Completed
- Real-time observation — Live updates feed showing what Claude is doing across all sessions
- Task dependencies — Visualise blockedBy/blocks relationships
- Task deletion — Delete tasks with dependency checking
- Keyboard shortcuts — ?, D, Esc for quick actions
- Session discovery — Automatic detection of all Claude Code sessions
- Search — Search across sessions and tasks
- Desktop notifications — Notifications and audio chime when tasks complete
- Task timeline — Gantt-style view showing task creation and completion times
- Session archiving — Stale sessions auto-collapse into an archived section
🚧 Planned
- Enhanced search & filter — Filter by status, dependencies, date ranges
- Export — Export session data for analysis or reporting
Open an issue with ideas or feedback.
License
MIT