This matrix compares the four task managers profiled in this section, feature by feature, so choosing between them does not require reading four notes.
Files versus database is the row that decides everything else: it determines whether your board survives multiple agents racing on it, and the planning layer the newest column adds sits above that choice rather than replacing it.
Legend: ✓ supported, ✗ not supported, ~ partial or conditional, ? not verified. Each column links to the full research note; every cell below traces to a source cited there or in the references.
The matrix #
| Feature | Backlog.md | beads | Ordewell | Task Master |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kind | CLI, terminal and web kanban | Go CLI plus Dolt database | planner-plus-runners CLI, TUI, and VS Code extension | CLI plus MCP server |
| Storage | markdown task files in the repo | Dolt SQL in .beads/, JSONL export |
typed plan JSON per session, conversation persisted | files under .taskmaster/ (tasks, config, state) |
| License | ✓ MIT | ✓ MIT | ✓ Apache-2.0 | ~ MIT with Commons Clause |
| Task structure | tasks with acceptance criteria, DoD, milestones | hash IDs, epics, sub-tasks, message type | ordered tasks, each with runner, model, thinking effort, mode, dependencies | tasks with subtasks and dependency chains |
| Dependency graph | ~ milestones, no claim graph | ✓ graph plus auto-ready queue | ✓ ordered plan, dependencies respected | ✓ dependency chains, move with them |
| Multi-agent concurrency | ✗ no atomic claims | ✓ atomic claim, hash IDs | ~ independent tasks run in parallel, no shared claims | ? not verified |
| PRD ingestion | ✗ manual task creation | ✗ manual task creation | ~ opt-in PRD artifact inside the planner conversation | ✓ parse-prd pipeline |
| Agent integrations | Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Kiro, Cursor, MCP | bd init for Codex, Claude, Factory, Cursor, plus AGENTS.md and MCP |
runners Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode built in, plugins beyond; planner can be a coding agent or one of 25 API providers | MCP server and CLI, documented for Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, VS Code, Q CLI |
| Pricing | free | free | free | CLI free, Hamster $40 per creator per month |
| Current status | active, about 6.9k stars | active, about 27.6k stars, 1,320 open issues, v1.3.1 stable 2026-09-30 | active, 183 stars, v0.6.1 (2026-10-02) | repo quiet since April 2026, product alive at Hamster |
Reading the matrix #
The storage row is the architecture decision: markdown files are diffable and agent-readable but race under concurrency, while Dolt gives beads cell-level merge and atomic claims at the cost of a database in your repo. Task Master’s file storage sits between the two but its concurrency story is unverified, which is the cell I would resolve first before adopting it for shared queues.
Ordewell is the category’s planner layer: where the other three track work, it decomposes a goal into an editable plan with per-task model assignment and refuses to take the agent’s word for done, completing tasks on markers instead. Its 183 stars and v0.6.x release line make it the least proven column, and its note records the launch thread’s AI-written-replies episode as a transparency caution.
PRD ingestion is the pipeline feature, and its provenance is the warning: the only tool with a full PRD pipeline is the one whose license stopped being OSI open source and whose repo went quiet as the method moved into a paid product, while Ordewell treats the PRD as an optional conversational artifact instead.
All three converge on meeting agents where they already are, MCP or AGENTS.md or editor config, so the integration row is nearly a tie and should not drive the choice.
Choosing from the matrix #
- Multiple agents sharing one queue: beads, for the atomic claims.
- Human review as the bottleneck: Backlog.md, for the three review gates.
- Want the PRD pipeline and accept the vendor: Task Master, pinned to a version you control.
- Want a planner that assigns the model per task and verifies by marker: Ordewell, newest and least proven, Apache-2.0.
Changes #
- 2026-08-27 - Created with three columns (Backlog.md, beads, Task Master) and ten rows, tracing every cell to the member notes.
- 2026-09-16 - Extended from three to four columns with Ordewell (inserted alphabetically), every row gaining a cell traced to the new note, and the reading and choosing prose extended to the planner layer.
- 2026-09-21 - Refreshed the beads status cell (new v1.3.1-rc.1 prerelease and issue count).
- 2026-09-24 - Removed the verification preamble line on owner request.
- 2026-09-25 - Refreshed the Ordewell status cell (144 stars, v0.4.23 of 2026-09-23).
- 2026-09-27 - Refreshed the Backlog.md, beads, and Ordewell status cells (about 6.9k stars; about 27.5k stars and 1,270 open issues; 162 stars and v0.5.4 of 2026-09-26).
- 2026-09-29 - Refreshed the Ordewell status cell (179 stars, v0.5.5 of 2026-09-28); all other cells re-verified unchanged.
- 2026-10-02 - Refreshed the beads status cell (v1.3.1 stable of 2026-09-30, about 27.6k stars, 1,266 open issues) and the Ordewell status cell (183 stars, v0.5.6 of 2026-09-30), plus the matching prose figure.
- 2026-10-03 - Refreshed the beads status cell (1,299 open issues) and the Ordewell status cell (v0.6.1 of 2026-10-02), plus the matching prose release-line figure.
See also #
- Spec Driven Development Feature Matrix - the process layer that fills these boards
- Control Planes Feature Matrix - what runs the agents once the queue exists
- Orchestration Feature Matrix - the parallel-session layer these trackers feed
- Agentic Coding Tools Landscape - the map these categories sit in
References #
https://github.com/MrLesk/Backlog.md - storage model, integrations, milestones for the Backlog.md column
https://tryhamster.com/pricing - the commercial tier behind the Task Master method
https://api.github.com/repos/ordewell/ordewell - stars, dates, Apache-2.0 as of 2026-09-21
https://ordewell.ai - surfaces and the plan-execute-verify loop for the Ordewell column
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49712276 - the launch thread grounding the Ordewell caution cell