Aist

AI-assisted project management for software developers and AI agents.

Aist is a lightweight project management tool designed for the AI era. It bridges the gap between human project managers and AI developer agents through a simple CLI interface and REST API.

Features

• Project Management: Create and manage projects
• Job Tracking: Track features, fixes, refactors, chores, formatting, and documentation tasks
• User Stories: Convert jobs into actionable user stories with acceptance criteria
• Progress Logging: Keep track of development progress
• AI-Native: Built for both human developers and AI agents
• Native Performance: Distributed as Native AOT binaries for fast startup and minimal dependencies

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│   Aist CLI      │────▶│  Aist Backend    │────▶│  SQLite DB  │
│  (This repo)    │     │   (REST API)     │     │  (aist/)    │
└─────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └─────────────┘

• Aist.Cli: Command-line interface for interacting with the system
• Aist.Backend: ASP.NET Core Web API
• Database: SQLite for zero-configuration setup

Installation

Quick Install

macOS / Linux

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rodd-oss/aist/main/install.sh | bash

Or with a specific version:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rodd-oss/aist/main/install.sh | bash -s v1.0.0

Windows

PowerShell:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rodd-oss/aist/main/install.ps1 | iex

Or download and run:

# Download the installer
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rodd-oss/aist/main/install.ps1 -OutFile install.ps1

# Run it
.\install.ps1

# Or with a specific version
.\install.ps1 -Version v1.0.0

Manual Installation

Download the appropriate binary for your platform from the Releases page:

Platform	Architecture	Download
Linux	x64	aist-linux-x64.tar.gz
Linux	ARM64	aist-linux-arm64.tar.gz
macOS	x64	aist-osx-x64.tar.gz
macOS	ARM64 (Apple Silicon)	aist-osx-arm64.tar.gz
Windows	x64	aist-win-x64.zip
Windows	ARM64	aist-win-arm64.zip

Extract and place the binary in a directory in your PATH.

Usage

Setup Backend

Before using the CLI, you need to run the backend server:

# Using Docker
docker-compose up -d

# Or run locally
cd src/Aist.Backend
dotnet run

The backend will be available at http://localhost:5192/api by default.

CLI Commands

# Show help
aist --help

# Project management
aist project list
aist project create --title "My New Project"
aist project delete --id <project-id>

# Job management
aist job list
aist job list --project-id <project-id>
aist job create --project-id <id> --type feature --title "Add login" --description "..." --slug add-login
aist job pull --job-id <id>
aist job done --job-id <id> --pr-title "..." --pr-description "..."

# User stories
aist story list --job-id <id>
aist story create --job-id <id> --title "..." --who "..." --what "..." --why "..." --priority 1
aist story complete --story-id <id>

# Acceptance criteria
aist criteria list --story-id <id>
aist criteria create --story-id <id> --description "..."
aist criteria check --criteria-id <id>
aist criteria uncheck --criteria-id <id>

# Progress logs
aist log list --story-id <id>
aist log add --story-id <id> --text "..."

Environment Variables

# Backend URL (default: http://localhost:5192/api)
export AIST_API_URL=http://localhost:5192/api

# Database path for backend (relative to backend working directory)
export ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection="Data Source=aist/main.db"

Development

Prerequisites

• .NET 10 SDK

Building

# Build entire solution
dotnet build Aist.slnx

# Build CLI only
dotnet build src/Aist.Cli/Aist.Cli.csproj

# Build Backend only
dotnet build src/Aist.Backend/Aist.Backend.csproj

Running

# Run backend
cd src/Aist.Backend
dotnet run

# Run CLI
cd src/Aist.Cli
dotnet run -- <command>

Publishing Native AOT

# Publish for current platform
dotnet publish src/Aist.Cli/Aist.Cli.csproj \
  -c Release \
  -p:PublishAot=true \
  -p:PublishSingleFile=true \
  --self-contained \
  -o ./publish

# Publish for specific platform
dotnet publish src/Aist.Cli/Aist.Cli.csproj \
  -c Release \
  -r linux-x64 \
  -p:PublishAot=true \
  -p:PublishSingleFile=true \
  --self-contained \
  -o ./publish/linux-x64

Running Tests

dotnet test

Docker

# Build and run with Docker Compose
docker-compose up -d

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f

# Stop
docker-compose down

Workflow

Aist is designed around a simple but powerful workflow:

1. Planning Phase

# Create a project
aist project create --title "Website Redesign"

# Create jobs with detailed descriptions
aist job create \
  --project-id <id> \
  --type feature \
  --title "Implement dark mode" \
  --description "Add dark mode toggle and theme support" \
  --slug dark-mode

# Break down into user stories
aist story create \
  --job-id <id> \
  --title "Theme toggle component" \
  --who "user" \
  --what "toggle between light and dark themes" \
  --why "reduce eye strain in low light" \
  --priority 1

# Add acceptance criteria
aist criteria create \
  --story-id <id> \
  --description "Toggle button visible in header"

aist criteria create \
  --story-id <id> \
  --description "Theme preference persists across sessions"

2. Development Phase

# Pull the job (creates git branch)
aist job pull --job-id <id>

# Work through stories, logging progress
aist log add --story-id <id> --text "Created ThemeContext provider"
aist criteria check --criteria-id <id>

# Mark story complete when all criteria met
aist story complete --story-id <id>

3. Completion Phase

# Create PR and mark job done
aist job done \
  --job-id <id> \
  --pr-title "feat: implement dark mode" \
  --pr-description "Implements theme toggle..."

API

The backend exposes a REST API. See src/Aist.Backend/Controllers/ for endpoints.

Default base URL: http://localhost:5192

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT

Support

For issues and feature requests, please use the GitHub Issues page.