wtf is discourse-kanban?

Discourse Kanban is a plugin that adds Kanban-style project boards to Discourse, the popular open-source forum platform. If your team already uses Discourse for discussions, this lets you turn those conversations into visual, drag-and-drop task boards without leaving the platform. The plugin works by pulling existing Discourse topics (discussion threads) onto a board as cards. You set up a search query to determine which topics appear on a particular board, and the plugin respects each user's permissions, so people only see cards for topics they can already access in the forum. Cards come in two flavors: "topic-backed" cards that link directly to full discussion threads, and lightweight "floater" cards for quick notes that don't need their own topic. The plugin also gives you flexibility in managing which cards show up, you can let them appear automatically based on your query, manually pull specific ones in, or manually exclude others. This would appeal to teams and communities that already run on Discourse and want lightweight project management without adopting a separate tool. For example, a software team could track bug reports and feature requests that start as forum posts, moving them across columns from "Backlog" to "In Progress" to "Done." A community moderator group could use it to organize initiatives or content pipelines. The appeal is keeping everything in one place rather than bouncing between a forum and a standalone project management app. One notable design choice is how it handles card placement. Rather than trying to reorder the underlying Discourse topics themselves, the plugin stores the board layout separately. This means your forum stays clean and unaffected while the board maintains its own organization. The README doesn't go into detail on the setup process or the admin interface, but it does emphasize that board access can be controlled by group, so you can restrict who can view or edit each board.