kanwas-cli

Kanwas CLI

Install as a Claude Code skill: copy this file to ~/.claude/skills/kanwas-cli/SKILL.md (user-wide) or .claude/skills/kanwas-cli/SKILL.md (per-project).

kanwas is a CLI for syncing a Kanwas workspace with the local filesystem. Workspaces live as trees of canvases (directories) and nodes (files); markdown notes are .md files inside canvas directories.

When to use

• The user references "my Kanwas workspace" and wants its content available as files in the repo.
• The user has a spec/PRD/notes in Kanwas and wants you to read it before implementing.
• The user has local markdown notes they want bulk-imported into a workspace.
• The user wants you to write notes/output back to Kanwas.

When NOT to use

• The user is asking how Kanwas works conceptually — answer directly, don't shell out.
• The task is fully local with no Kanwas content involved.

Setup checks

Before any sync command:

which kanwas || echo "not installed"
test -f ~/.kanwas/config.json || echo "not authenticated"

If not installed: npm install -g @kanwas/cli (Node 22+).

If not authenticated: ask the user to run kanwas login themselves — it's an interactive browser flow that you can't complete from a non-interactive shell.

Pick a workspace non-interactively

The interactive picker hangs in non-interactive shells. Always use --id or --name:

kanwas workspaces --json    # discover IDs and names
kanwas pull --id <uuid>     # pin by UUID (preferred — names can repeat)
kanwas pull --name "<name>" # pin by exact name

If multiple workspaces share the same name, --name exits with an error listing the IDs — fall back to --id.

Common flows

Pull a workspace to read its content

mkdir kanwas-workspace && cd kanwas-workspace
kanwas pull --id <uuid>

Files appear under the current directory. A .kanwas.json is written that binds the directory to the workspace; subsequent pull / push reuse it.

Push local edits back

cd <directory bound by an earlier pull>
kanwas push

push is a three-way diff against the snapshot from the last pull. Conflicts (file changed both locally and remotely) trigger an interactive prompt — avoid running push non-interactively when conflicts are likely; pull first, resolve, then push.

Import markdown from disk into a workspace

kanwas import ./notes --id <uuid>                # all .md under ./notes
kanwas import ./intro.md --id <uuid>             # single file
kanwas import ./notes --id <uuid> --dest research # place under a subfolder
kanwas import ./notes --id <uuid> --overwrite    # replace existing files

Only .md files are imported; other file types are silently skipped and counted in the summary. Existing files are skipped unless --overwrite is set.

import is a one-shot — it does not create .kanwas.json and does not track imported files for later sync. To start tracking after an import, run kanwas pull --id <uuid> in a fresh directory.

Hand workspace content to another coding agent

mkdir spec && cd spec
kanwas pull --id <uuid>
# Now ./spec contains the workspace as files. Hand the path to Claude Code, Codex, etc.

Pitfalls

• Don't run kanwas login from an automated context. It opens a browser and waits for callback. Surface the instruction to the user instead.
• Don't kanwas clean without explicit user confirmation. It deletes all remote files in the bound workspace.
• Don't pull into a non-empty directory without checking. pull warns interactively if the cwd is non-empty on first use; in non-interactive shells, prefer a fresh directory.
• Don't assume --name resolves uniquely. Workspace names can collide. Prefer --id when scripting.
• import does not bind the directory. If the user expects to keep editing the imported files locally and syncing back, they need a separate pull afterward.
• Filenames must be lower-kebab-case. Imports preserve filenames as-is — warn the user before importing files like My Notes.md (will land as a different shape than the workspace's other content).

Quick reference

Full option list: kanwas <command> --help.