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AI-native. Free. Lightweight. Open-source. The fully customizable alternative to Jira, Trello, ClickUp, and Monday.

Getting Started · MCP Server · Claude Code Skill · Architecture · Contributing · Roadmap

What is Paca?

Paca is a self-hosted project management platform where AI agents and humans collaborate as equal teammates inside a Scrum team — not as chatbots bolted on the side.

Jira gives you a backlog. ClickUp gives you automations. Monday gives you dashboards. Paca gives your AI agents a seat at the table. They join sprint planning, pick up tasks from the board, write BDD specs, and adapt alongside humans in real time.

Everything about Paca — its workflow, its data model, its UI — is configurable and extendable via plugins.

Why Paca?

Jira / Trello / ClickUp / Monday Paca

AI integration Chatbot add-ons, peripheral automation AI agents as first-class Scrum teammates

Collaboration model Human-only by default Human + AI, side by side on the same board

Hosting Vendor cloud (your data, their servers) Self-hosted, you own everything

Cost $8–$20+ per seat/month Free forever

Customization Limited; locked behind enterprise tiers Fully open: configuration + plugins

Weight Bloated feature sprawl Lightweight core; extend only what you need

Source Closed / proprietary 100% open-source (Apache 2.0)

Core Idea: Humans and AI Agents, One Scrum Team

The central insight behind Paca is that AI agents should participate in the Scrum process, not just generate output in isolation.

In Paca, AI agents:

• Are assigned to sprints and appear on the Scrumban board alongside human teammates

• Pick up tasks from the backlog and update their status in real time

• Collaborate on BDD specs — helping Product Owners and BAs write Gherkin scenarios

• Contribute to System Design Documents — keeping the architecture visible to the whole team

• Probe, sense, and respond to emerging complexity, just like a human would

This is not automation. It is genuine collaboration — rooted in the Cynefin / Stacey framework’s recognition that complex domains require teams, not pipelines.

Fully Customizable — Configuration and Plugins

Paca ships as a small, focused core. Everything else is optional.

Configuration-driven: workflows, statuses, field definitions, board layouts, sprint rules, and agent behavior are all driven by project-level configuration files. No code needed to adapt Paca to your team’s process.

Plugin system: extend or replace any part of Paca via plugins. Plugins are compiled to WebAssembly (WASM) for the backend (write in Go, Rust, AssemblyScript — anything with a WASM target) and standard module bundles for the frontend. Plugins run in a sandboxed environment with a capability-based permission model; they declare exactly what host functions they need, and nothing more.

plugins/
├── backend/        # WASM modules — add custom routes, logic, data models
└── frontend/       # UI modules — add custom pages, board views, widgets

Browse and install community plugins directly from the Plugin Marketplace inside the Paca UI — no command line required. Go to Settings → Plugins → Marketplace, find a plugin, and click Install.

For local development or custom plugins, you can also install from the filesystem:

”>./scripts/install-local-plugin.sh ./my-plugin —api-key

The P-A-C-A Cycle

Paca structures team collaboration around four phases that mirror both Scrum and the scientific method:

Plan  →  Act  →  Check  →  Adapt
  ↑                             |
  └─────────────────────────────┘

Phase What happens

Plan POs, BAs, and AI agents collaboratively refine the backlog. BDD scenarios and SDD designs are written together.

Act Sprint is live. Humans and AI agents pull tasks from the board, execute, and post updates.

Check QA agents run automated verification. Humans review AI output. The board reflects reality.

Adapt Data from the sprint informs the next cycle. The team — human and AI — retrospects together.

What’s New in v0.4.0

• In-app AI chat — chat with AI agents at the project level to plan work, create or update epics, stories, tasks, and documentation — all in plain English without leaving Paca

  

• Activity diff & revert — every field change in the activity pane now shows a before/after diff; one click reverts a change to its previous value

  

Key Features

• Unified Scrumban Board — humans and AI agents share a single real-time board; no separate “AI workspace”

• In-app AI chat — chat with AI agents at the project level to plan work, create or update epics, stories, tasks, and documentation in plain English

• Activity diff & revert — see a visual diff for every field change in the activity pane and revert any change with one click

• BDD Collaboration — Gherkin scenario editor co-authored by POs, BAs, and AI agents

• System Design Documents (SDD) — living architecture docs that keep AI agents contextually grounded

• MCP Server — connect Claude, custom agents, or any MCP-compatible tool directly into Paca’s data layer

• Claude Code skill — /paca slash command for Claude Code; manage tasks, docs, and sprints in plain English without leaving your editor

• Real-time updates — Socket.IO delivery; everyone sees changes the moment they happen

• OpenHands-powered agents — AI agents run on the OpenHands SDK; each agent executes inside its own isolated sandbox container so your host environment is never touched

• WASM plugin sandbox — extend Paca safely; plugins cannot escape their declared permissions

• Self-hosted — runs on a single Docker Compose command; your data never leaves your infrastructure

• Lightweight by default — minimal core, no feature bloat; add only what your team actually needs

Getting Started

Option 1 — Interactive install script (recommended for production)

Runs on any Linux server with Docker. No repository clone required.

curl -fsSL https://github.com/Paca-AI/paca/releases/latest/download/install.sh | bash

The script walks you through configuration interactively and starts the full stack. Open http://your-server-ip when it finishes.

Option 2 — Docker Compose (manual)

.env ADMIN_PASSWORD= POSTGRES_PASSWORD= AGENT_API_KEY= INTERNAL_API_KEY= ENCRYPTION_KEY= PUBLIC_URL=http://localhost EOF

3. Start the stack

docker compose —env-file .env up -d”># 1. Create a directory and download the compose file mkdir paca && cd paca curl -fsSL https://github.com/Paca-AI/paca/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml -o docker-compose.yml mkdir -p nginx curl -fsSL https://github.com/Paca-AI/paca/releases/latest/download/gateway.conf -o nginx/gateway.conf

2. Create your environment file

cat > .env ADMIN_PASSWORD= POSTGRES_PASSWORD= AGENT_API_KEY= INTERNAL_API_KEY= ENCRYPTION_KEY= PUBLIC_URL=http://localhost EOF

3. Start the stack

docker compose —env-file .env up -d

Open http://localhost — log in with admin and the password you set.

Customizing the stack: scale down services you don’t need.

External PostgreSQL (supply DATABASE_URL in .env)

docker compose —env-file .env up -d —scale postgres=0

AWS S3 instead of MinIO (set STORAGE_PROVIDER=s3 in .env)

docker compose —env-file .env up -d —scale minio=0

Without the AI agent (reduces resource usage)

docker compose —env-file .env up -d —scale ai-agent=0

Option 3 — Local development

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Paca-AI/paca.git && cd paca

Start infrastructure dependencies (PostgreSQL + Valkey)

docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.dev.yml up -d postgres valkey

Or start the full dev stack in containers

docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.dev.yml up -d

See docs/guides/local-development.md for running services on the host for active development.

MCP Server — Connect Any AI Agent to Paca

Paca ships an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives any compatible AI agent direct, structured access to your workspace — projects, tasks, sprints, documents, members, and more. No scraping, no custom APIs to wire up.

The server is published as @paca-ai/paca-mcp on npm. You run it with npx; your MCP client handles the rest.

Claude Desktop

Open (or create) the Claude Desktop config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Add the paca entry:

{ “mcpServers”: { “paca”: { “command”: “npx”, “args”: [“-y”, “@paca-ai/paca-mcp”], “env”: { “PACA_API_KEY”: “your-api-key-here”, “PACA_API_URL”: “http://localhost:8080” } } } }

Restart Claude Desktop. Claude now has access to all Paca tools and can answer requests like:

• “List all active sprints in project X”

• “Create a task for implementing OAuth and assign it to sprint 3”

• “Add a comment to task #42 with my progress update”

Other MCP-Compatible Clients

Any client that speaks MCP works. Typical configuration:

{ “name”: “paca”, “command”: “npx”, “args”: [“-y”, “@paca-ai/paca-mcp”], “env”: { “PACA_API_KEY”: “your-api-key-here”, “PACA_API_URL”: “http://your-paca-instance:8080” } }

Environment Variables

Variable Required Default Description

PACA_API_KEY Yes — API key from your Paca instance (Settings → API Keys)

PACA_API_URL No http://localhost:8080 URL of your Paca API

Available Tools

The server exposes tools across these categories:

Category Tools

Projects list_projects, get_project, create_project, update_project, delete_project

Tasks list_tasks, get_task, create_task, update_task, delete_task, + more

Sprints list_sprints, create_sprint, update_sprint, complete_sprint, + more

Documents list_documents, get_document, create_document, update_document, delete_document

Members & Roles list_project_members, add_project_member, list_project_roles, + more

Task Types & Statuses list_task_types, create_task_type, list_task_statuses, + more

Views & Custom Fields list_views, create_view, list_custom_fields, create_custom_field, + more

Attachments list_task_attachments, get_attachment_download_url, delete_task_attachment

Activity & Comments list_task_activities, add_task_comment, update_task_comment, delete_task_comment

Plugin tools Installed plugins can register additional tools at runtime

For a complete reference and advanced configuration (agent-mode, plugin tools, programmatic usage), see docs/guides/mcp-server-setup.md.

Claude Code — /paca skills

If you use Claude Code, install the Paca skill set and manage your entire Paca workspace through natural-language slash commands — without leaving your editor and without creating local files. Every command reads your Paca documentation first to understand the project before acting.

Skills are defined in the skills/ directory using the Agent Skills format — one subdirectory per skill, each with a SKILL.md containing YAML frontmatter and instructions. The install script strips the frontmatter and writes the body to ~/.claude/commands/ for use as Claude Code slash commands.

Install

Run this once in your terminal to install all skills globally:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Paca-AI/paca/master/scripts/install-claude-skill.sh | bash

Then connect the Paca MCP server to Claude Code:

—env PACA_API_URL=
— npx -y @paca-ai/paca-mcp”>claude mcp add paca
—env PACA_API_KEY=
—env PACA_API_URL=
— npx -y @paca-ai/paca-mcp

Run /paca-setup inside a Claude Code session for a guided interactive walkthrough instead.

Available commands

Command What it does

/paca General task, doc, and sprint operations in plain English

/paca-epic Turn requirements into an epic with child stories and a spec doc

/paca-clarify Identify ambiguities, ask questions, and update the spec in Paca

/paca-breakdown Decompose a task into independent, estimable sub-tasks

/paca-sprint Plan a sprint from the backlog against capacity and goals

/paca-estimate Estimate story points and write them back to tasks

/paca-prioritize Score and set priorities across the backlog

/paca-do Execute a task, update its status, and keep docs current

/paca-test Derive test cases, run them, and record results as a comment

/paca-doc Write or update documentation in Paca Docs

/paca-setup Interactive MCP connection wizard

For full setup options and command reference, see docs/guides/claude-code-skill.md.

Architecture

apps/web          React + TanStack Start + shadcn/ui — user interface
apps/mcp          @paca-ai/paca-mcp — MCP server for AI agent integration
services/api      Go + Gin — core business logic and REST API
services/realtime Node.js + Socket.IO — real-time event fan-out
services/ai-agent Python + FastAPI + OpenHands SDK — AI agent orchestration
apps/e2e          Playwright — end-to-end test suite

skills/           Agent Skills — /paca slash commands for Claude Code

PostgreSQL        Persistent store
Valkey            Cache + async event streams between services

See docs/architecture/overview.md for detail.

The “Paca” Story

The name is a small pun on the Japanese word “Baka” (ばか) — “silly.”

In the early days, we jokingly called our AI assistants “silly” when they hallucinated. And building a serious project management platform as a free, open-source alternative to multi-billion-dollar tools might also seem a bit silly.

But Paca is built from conviction: human-AI collaboration in a real Scrum team should be accessible to every team, everywhere — not locked behind a vendor’s pricing model. We think that’s worth being a little foolish about. 🦙✨

Documentation

Document Description

docs/architecture/overview.md High-level system architecture

docs/guides/getting-started.md Getting started (install, Docker, local dev)

docs/guides/local-development.md Contributor dev environment setup

docs/guides/mcp-server-setup.md Connect AI agents via MCP

docs/guides/claude-code-skill.md /paca skill for Claude Code — manage Paca from your editor

docs/plugins/ Plugin system: backend (WASM) and frontend

deploy/README.md Full deployment reference

CHANGELOG.md Release history

CONTRIBUTING.md How to contribute

SECURITY.md Security policy

License

Distributed under the Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.