AnyTool
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How do I use the Kanban board?

Open AnyTool Kanban Board and you get three starter columns — To Do, In Progress and Done — that you can rename, reorder, delete or add to. Click the + in a column header (or “Add card”) to create a card, then open it to set a description, a colour label, a due date, a High / Medium / Low priority and an optional checklist count. Drag a card to reorder it within a list or drop it into another column; a thin line shows exactly where it will land. Give a column an optional WIP limit and its count turns amber with a banner when you go over. The whole board is saved automatically in this browser’s localStorage, and you can Export it to a JSON file as a backup or to move it to another device, then Import it back.

  • Columns (lists): default To Do / In Progress / Done — add, rename, reorder and delete them
  • Cards: title, description, colour label, due date, priority and an optional checklist count
  • Native drag-and-drop to reorder cards and move them between columns, with a live drop indicator
  • Optional WIP limit per column warns (soft, never blocks) when a stage is over capacity
  • Saved locally in your browser; export / import the whole board as JSON — 100% client-side

What is

Kanban board

A Kanban board is a visual workflow tool that organises work as cards moving left to right through a series of columns (lists), where each column represents a stage of the process — classically To Do, In Progress and Done. Each card is a task and carries details such as a title, description, labels, a due date and a priority. Cards are pulled from one column to the next as work progresses, and columns can carry a work-in-progress (WIP) limit that caps how many cards a stage may hold, which exposes bottlenecks and keeps flow steady. AnyTool’s Kanban Board is a Trello-style, drag-and-drop board that runs entirely in your browser and saves to localStorage, with JSON export/import for backups.

Generators

Related terms

KanbanWIP limitCardColumn / listTrello alternativeWorkflowTask board

Frequently Asked Questions

It is saved only in your browser’s localStorage and never uploaded — there is no account, server or tracking, so it stays completely private to this browser.

AnyTool Kanban Board is 100% client-side. The entire board — every column, card, label, due date, priority and WIP limit — is stored in your browser’s localStorage and is never sent to any server. There is no sign-up, no login and no analytics, and the tool keeps working offline once the page is cached. Because the data lives only in your browser, clearing your browsing data or switching to a different browser or device removes it, so use Export to download a JSON backup you can re-import any time.

Drag a card and drop it into another column, or use the left/right arrows on a card; a drop line shows where it will land and you can also drag a card up or down to reorder it.

The board uses native HTML5 drag-and-drop with no external library. Pick up any card and drag it within its column to reorder it, or drop it into another column to move it forward or back in your workflow; a thin accent-coloured line previews the exact insertion point as you hover. You can also drag a whole column by the grip in its header to reorder your lists. On touch devices, or when a fine pointer is awkward, each card has left/right arrow buttons that move it to the previous or next column and a column menu that can move the list itself, so everything works without dragging.

A WIP limit caps how many cards a column should hold; here it is soft — the count turns amber and a banner warns you, but it never stops you adding more cards.

A work-in-progress (WIP) limit is the maximum number of cards a column is meant to hold at once. Capping a stage such as “In Progress” forces you to finish existing work before pulling in more, which exposes bottlenecks and keeps work flowing. In AnyTool you can set an optional WIP limit per column from its options menu; when a column exceeds it, the card count turns amber and a banner appears at the top of the board. The limit is deliberately soft — it warns you but never blocks you from adding cards — so you stay in control while still seeing when a stage is overloaded.

Yes — use Export to download the whole board as a JSON file, then Import that file on another browser or device to restore it exactly.

Because the board is a personal, single-device tool with no cloud sync, Export and Import are how you move or back it up. Export downloads the entire board — name, columns, cards and settings — as a formatted JSON file; Import reads such a file and replaces the current board with it, validating and migrating the data so an older or hand-edited file still loads safely. Keep an exported backup so a cleared cache or a switched browser never loses your work, and use the same files to carry a snapshot of your board to another device or to hand it to someone else.

Detailed Explanation

Methodology

The Board Model and Native Drag-and-Drop

AnyTool Kanban Board keeps a single board object as its source of truth: a board has a name and an ordered list of columns, each column has a title, an optional WIP limit and an ordered array of cards, and each card carries a title, description, colour label, due date, priority and an optional checklist count. Reordering a card and moving it between columns are the same operation — splice it out of its source column’s array and insert it into the target column’s array at a computed index — so the data structure stays consistent. Drag-and-drop is implemented with the browser’s native HTML5 Drag and Drop API and no external library: on dragstart the dragged card’s id and source column are stashed in a ref, cards and column bodies are drop targets whose dragover handlers call preventDefault() (which is what makes a drop possible) and compute an insertion index from the cursor position, a thin accent-coloured line previews exactly where the card will land, and drop performs the splice. Columns themselves are draggable by the grip in their header to reorder the lists. For touch and pointer-limited contexts, each card also exposes left/right arrows that move it to the adjacent column and a column menu that can move the whole list, so the board is fully usable without dragging.

  • Board → columns → cards, each an ordered array; the whole object is the source of truth
  • Reordering and cross-column moves are one splice-out / splice-in operation
  • Native HTML5 Drag and Drop API — dragover preventDefault() enables the drop; no DnD library
  • A live drop indicator line shows the exact insertion point as you hover
  • Arrow buttons and a column menu provide a no-drag fallback for touch devices
How It Works

Cards, Labels, Due Dates, Priority and WIP Limits

Cards are created from the + in a column header or the “Add card” button and edited in a modal where you set a description, one of five colour labels, a due date, a High / Medium / Low priority and an optional checklist progress count (done / total). On the card face the label shows as a coloured top bar and chip, an overdue due date turns red, the priority shows as a coloured badge and the checklist count turns green when complete. Columns model the workflow stages — the starter board ships To Do, In Progress and Done — and you can add, rename, reorder and delete them, with a guard that a board always keeps at least one column. Each column can carry an optional work-in-progress (WIP) limit; the header shows the count as cards/limit, and when a column exceeds its limit the count badge and the column turn amber and a banner appears at the top of the board listing how many columns are over capacity. The WIP limit is intentionally soft: it surfaces bottlenecks and nudges you to finish work before pulling more in, but it never prevents you from adding cards.

  • Cards have a title, description, colour label, due date, priority and a done/total checklist count
  • Overdue due dates render red; a completed checklist count renders green
  • Default columns To Do / In Progress / Done — add, rename, reorder, delete (always keep one)
  • Optional per-column WIP limit shown as cards/limit in the header
  • Over-limit columns turn amber with a board-level banner — soft warning, never a block
Privacy & Security

Local Storage, Export/Import and Honest Limits

Everything runs locally in the browser with no account, server or tracking. The whole board is serialised to localStorage on every change, so it survives a refresh, and the tool works offline once the page is cached — nothing is ever uploaded. Export downloads the entire board (name, columns, cards and settings) as a formatted JSON file, and Import reads such a file and replaces the board with it, validating and migrating the data so that an older or hand-edited file still loads safely with sensible defaults. Honestly, this is a personal, single-device board: there is no cloud sync, no shared link, no comments and no collaborator assignments pushed to other people, so moving the board to another browser or device — or handing a snapshot to someone — is done by exporting and importing the JSON. Because the data lives only in your browser, clearing your browsing data erases it, which is why keeping an exported backup is recommended. WIP limits are soft warnings rather than hard caps, and there is no built-in undo, so deletions and a board reset (which restores the starter example) ask for confirmation where they are destructive.

Kanban Board: in-browser (AnyTool) vs typical online kanban apps
CapabilityAnyToolTypical online kanban apps
Where it runs100% in your browser, nothing uploadedHosted — board stored on a server
AccountNone — open and useUsually sign-up / login required
Drag & dropNative HTML5 DnD, cards & columnsYes (library-based)
CardsLabel, due date, priority, checklist countSimilar, often gated by plan
WIP limitsOptional soft limit per columnOften paid / per-plan
Backup / moveExport & import full board as JSONCloud sync; export sometimes paid
CollaborationSingle-device, no sync (by design)Real-time multi-user
PrivacyBoard only in localStorageData held in the vendor cloud

AnyTool runs the whole board locally and uploads nothing; it is a private, single-device board with JSON export/import rather than a synced, multi-user service.