On April 10, 2026, bloop announced it was shutting down. Vibe Kanban lives on as community-maintained open source, but its cloud features (kanban issues, comments, projects and organisations) were removed, and only local workspaces remain. If you want a board for coding agents that a maintainer is still shipping, here is how Alchemist Coder compares.
What carries over
- A board by phase: backlog, planning, implementing, validating and done. Conversations move on their own as their agents work, and you hand a card to an agent with one click.
- Agents in their own git worktrees: the Arena runs up to four agents on the same task, each in its own worktree, and you merge the winner. Agents in your organization can work in their own copy too.
- Everything stays on your computer: no account and no telemetry, so there is no cloud to shut down.
- Export: any conversation to Markdown, HTML or JSON, plus a versioned backup in git.
What is different
- It is a desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, not a web page you start with npx.
- It runs Claude Code and Codex over the Agent Client Protocol, with a live tree of every agent and subagent.
- A coordinator can plan your assignments and hand the cards to your agents, and Autopilot refuses anything that can’t be undone.
- It has no shared cloud board for a team.
What the free edition does not do
The free Community edition runs Claude Code and Codex on local models only, through Ollama or LM Studio. Running agents on your Claude or ChatGPT subscription, or on API keys, belongs to Pro, which is not on sale yet. Searching and reading your history works whichever plan you use.
The builds are not signed by Apple or Microsoft yet, so macOS and Windows warn you the first time. The download section explains the two clicks it takes.
Questions
Is Vibe Kanban discontinued?
The company behind it, bloop, shut down on April 10, 2026. The project continues as community-maintained open source with local workspaces; its cloud features were removed within 30 days of the announcement.
Is Alchemist Coder free?
Yes. The Community edition is free and open source (AGPL-3.0), with no account. Its agents run on local models through Ollama or LM Studio.
More guides
Facts about other tools were checked on October 28, 2026, at the links in the text. Alchemist Coder’s source is on GitHub.