Leantime

What it does

Leantime is a project planner for people who don't think of themselves as project managers. A "My Work" home page shows today's to-dos and calendar, and each project has boards, lists, a timeline, goals, idea boards, documents and timesheets. It was designed with ADHD, dyslexia and autism in mind, with a readable font option and gentle nudges. Use it for a house move, a small business or a volunteer group, on your own server.

• A "My Work" home with today's to-dos, calendar and progress
• Boards, lists, tables, timeline and calendar views of the same to-dos
• Goals, idea boards, docs and wikis, retrospectives and timesheets
• Designed with ADHD, dyslexia and autism in mind, in over 20 languages

Great for: Small teams, volunteers, freelancers and anyone who finds big project tools overwhelming, especially neurodivergent people.

Make it yours: ideas

Pick an idea to start from, or describe your own.

• Settings, no code Plan a house move “We're moving house in March. Set up a project with milestones for packing, utilities, schools and the move day, and a to-do list for each, shared with my partner.” Start with this idea
• Settings, no code Make it calmer and easier to read “I have ADHD and dyslexia. Set Leantime up so it's as calm and readable as possible: easy font, fewer colours, and only my own to-dos on the home page.” Start with this idea
• Settings, no code Our club's name, logo and colours “Call it 'Riverside Scouts Planner', use our green and yellow colours and our logo, and switch off anything that sends data to Leantime.” Start with this idea
• Extend: themes, plugins, API Project updates in our Discord “When someone finishes a to-do in our café project, post it in our team Discord channel.” Start with this idea
• Extend: themes, plugins, API A Monday email of this week's to-dos “Every Monday at 8am, email each person a short list of their to-dos due this week, using Leantime's API.” Start with this idea
• Code changes Plain words instead of project jargon “Rename 'Milestones' to 'Big steps', 'Sprints' to 'This fortnight' and hide the business canvases from the menu, because my volunteers find them confusing.” Start with this idea

How easy is it to adapt?

Site name, logo, colours, themes, fonts, to-do statuses and chat notifications are settings. Code is organised by feature in app/Domain/<Feature>/ (controllers, services, repositories, templates), but it is mid-migration: old .tpl.php and newer Blade templates, jQuery and HTMX sit side by side, and the JavaScript needs a webpack build. CLAUDE.md explains the patterns. Your AI always tries the gentlest step first, so your version stays easy to update.

1. 1

   Settings 4 options

   No code. Change it in the app or its config.

   • Your site name, logo and brand colours, plus the telemetry switch.
   • Each person picks a theme, light or dark mode, a colour scheme and a font, including the very readable Atkinson Hyperlegible.
   • Name your board columns and their colours, e.g. Ideas, This week, Waiting on someone, Done.
   • Interface language and time zone per person; defaults with LEAN_LANGUAGE and LEAN_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE.
2. 2

   Extend 4 options

   Themes, plugins, webhooks and the API. Still no fork.

   • Send project updates to a Slack, Mattermost, Discord or Zulip channel.
   • Bring in tasks from a spreadsheet or another tool.
   • Create and read to-dos, projects, goals and more from scripts or other apps.
   • Add new pages, menu items and event listeners in a plugin that survives updates.
3. 3

   Code 2 options

   Your AI edits the source for anything else.

   • Change or add screens. New partials should use Blade and HTMX, as CLAUDE.md describes.
   • Change wording, e.g. call "To-Dos" "Jobs".

Can I trust it?

• AGPL-3.0-only. Free to use and change. If you run a changed version that other people use over the internet (not just you or your household), you must offer them your source code under the same licence. Private use has no extra obligations. Plugins in app/Plugins/ can carry other licences, including Leantime's paid ones.
• Your data: stores personal data, on your own device or server. A MySQL or MariaDB database for projects, to-dos, comments, goals and timesheets; uploaded files in userfiles/ (or S3); plugins in app/Plugins/.
• Other services: Email (SMTP) (optional, free with most providers); Slack, Mattermost, Discord or Zulip (optional, free); S3 or compatible storage (optional, pay-per-use); Leantime telemetry and news (optional, free); Leantime marketplace plugins (optional, paid licences)
• Pinned version 8464a2e. Every handover uses exactly this code, which we've reviewed.
• Telemetry and the news feed are on by default. Set LEAN_ALLOW_TELEMETRY=false and LEAN_NEWS_ENABLED=false if you want nothing sent to Leantime.
• Replace the sample LEAN_SESSION_PASSWORD and database passwords, set LEAN_APP_URL, and use HTTPS if it is on the internet.
• Only install plugins from sources you trust. They run with full access to your data.
• Never paste database, email, S3 passwords or API keys into an AI chat.

Did it work for people?

Tell us how it went

For your AI

The project pack has the pinned version, how to run it, and where to customise it. Your prompt links to it automatically.

https://handoff.bespokeai.software/p/leantime/8464a2e/pack.md

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