PortBayvsKanbots
These two are the closest cousins in the agent-board space: both put your AI coding agents on a Kanban board and let a card dispatch the work. Kanbots is a cross-platform Electron app that runs 11 agent CLIs, isolates every run in a git worktree, syncs with GitHub Issues and can import Sentry errors straight onto the board. PortBay is a native macOS app where the card runs inside a full local dev environment — managed PHP and Node, a per-project database, trusted HTTPS on a real .test domain and a one-click public tunnel — so the agent builds against a running app.
Which one is right for you
You want the full stack, open source.
You want the agent working in a real environment — a database it can query, a site it can load over HTTPS, email capture, a shareable tunnel — provisioned by the same app that runs the board. You want a native macOS tool that is also your everyday local dev environment, not a board that assumes your stack is already running.
It already fits your workflow.
You run Windows or Linux, you want the widest agent roster (11 CLIs plus anything ACP-compatible), or your workflow is GitHub-Issues-first — Kanbots mirrors card moves as issue labels and pulls Sentry errors onto the board. Its per-run worktrees, pre-push guard and explicit promote step are a careful containment model if agents touching the repo directly worries you.
Feature by feature
Every row sourced from the live product page. We mark partial support honestly — including where the other side wins.
Already trying Kanbots?
There's no board import between the two — but there doesn't need to be. Point PortBay at the same repository Kanbots has been branching worktrees from, press play, and the runtime, database and HTTPS come up around it. Dispatch the same Claude Code or Codex from a PortBay card and the agent works against the running app instead of a bare worktree. If you rely on Kanbots' GitHub Issues sync or Sentry triage, you can keep it for that flow and use PortBay where the agent needs a live environment.
- Install PortBay and add the project folder you've been dispatching Kanbots agents at.
- Press play — PortBay provisions the runtime, database and HTTPS for that project.
- Create a card, assign Claude Code or Codex, move it to Todo, and the agent works against the running app.
PortBay vs Kanbots, in plain terms
What does PortBay do that Kanbots doesn't?
PortBay runs the environment the card executes in. The same app that dispatches Claude Code or Codex also provisions managed PHP/Node runtimes, a per-project MySQL or PostgreSQL database, trusted HTTPS on a real .test domain, email capture and a one-click Cloudflare tunnel. Kanbots' branch preview can start your existing dev script inside a worktree, but it provisions nothing — no runtimes, no database, no HTTPS, no tunnels.
Isn't Kanbots basically the same kind of board?
The board concept is similar — both put agent tasks on Kanban cards with live activity. The difference is what sits underneath. Kanbots assumes your stack already runs and isolates agents in git worktrees; PortBay is also the local dev environment, so a card has a running application — database, HTTPS URL, email capture — behind it from the moment you press play.
Does Kanbots support more agents than PortBay?
Yes. Kanbots dispatches 11 agent CLIs — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Cursor CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Amp, OpenCode, Droid, CCR and Qwen — plus any ACP-compatible CLI. PortBay focuses on Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cursor and Antigravity, detecting whichever you have installed.
How mature is Kanbots?
It's very new — launched around May 22, 2026 by a solo developer, MIT-licensed, with roughly 450 GitHub stars as of early June 2026. Its macOS and Windows builds are currently unsigned, so installation needs a Gatekeeper or SmartScreen workaround (documented in their README). The containment design — per-run worktrees, a pre-push hook, explicit promote — is thoughtful; the project simply hasn't had time to prove its maintenance cadence yet.
Which should I choose?
Choose PortBay when the agent needs a real running environment and you want one macOS app that's also your daily local dev tool. Choose Kanbots when you're on Windows or Linux, you want the widest agent roster, or your triage flow lives in GitHub Issues and Sentry and you want the board to mirror it.
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