Getting Started

Install Lovelace, open your first project, and let your agent in.

Lovelace is a desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux. It is free, runs entirely on your machine, and stores everything as plain files in your repository. There is no account to create and nothing to sync.

1. Install

Download the build for your platform from the download page and open it like any other desktop app. On first launch Lovelace respects your OS color theme; you can flip between dark and light at any time.

2. Open a project

Point Lovelace at a folder: a brand-new directory or an existing repository. If the folder has no .lovelace/ directory yet, Lovelace offers to initialize one. Initialization scaffolds:

  • manifest.yaml: project identity and the spec version it conforms to
  • schema.yaml: a default set of ticket types, statuses and priorities
  • actors.yaml: you, plus any named agent identities
  • templates/: scaffolds for new tickets, ADRs and sessions
  • documentation/: your project’s knowledge tree, scaffolded with an index.md to start from

Generated, machine-local paths (index/index.json, state/) are added to your .gitignore. The board (index/BOARD.md) is committed so it renders on GitHub. Initialization can also install the agent integration.

You can open more than one project at once: each gets its own tab.

3. Work the board

The Board groups tickets by status, with columns drawn from your schema.yaml. Drag a card to any column to change its status. The List gives you the same tickets in a dense, filterable table: Board and List are the Work views. Documentation is your navigable knowledge tree, and Graph shows how it connects: together they’re Knowledge. Open any ticket and its comments, session records and commits appear together on a timeline. A Settings area covers the rest of your project configuration. The Views covers each in more depth.

4. Let your agent in

During init, Lovelace can install the agent integration: an MCP server, a digest that orients each new session, and a pointer in your CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, depending on your agent. From then on, a fresh agent session starts already oriented, and can move tickets across the board through tools, while you watch it happen live.

Everything you do is just files. Close the app and you lose nothing; open the Markdown by hand and the app catches up.