tix

Keyboard-driven terminal ticket explorer for a tree of markdown briefs. Linear-like TUI, zero deps beyond the Python stdlib + an optional markdown pager.

LANES                         STATE              CTX
◐ P1 teams-error-mapping      active              74K
○ P0 oauth-rotation-plan      open                —
●    audit-logs-rollout       done                —

Why

• The filesystem is the database. A ticket is a markdown file. grep, git log, and ls all keep working.
• No SaaS, no auth, no network. Runs entirely against a local tree.
• Linear-like keys. j/k, / to filter, Enter to open, p to pick up into a wt lane.
• Pure reader. tix never writes status: for you. If you want auto-status derivation, wire up your own preload hook (see below).

Install

pipx install tix-cli
# or, in a venv:
pip install tix-cli

Installs one console script: tix.

From source

git clone https://github.com/gitpancake/tix
cd tix
pipx install --editable .

Quickstart

mkdir -p ~/.pi/agent/tickets/spikes
cp $(python -c 'import tix, pathlib; print(pathlib.Path(tix.__file__).parent / "templates" / "_TEMPLATE.md")') \
   ~/.pi/agent/tickets/spikes/my-first-ticket.md
tix

Or point at a project tree:

tix my-project           # browses ~/.pi/agent/tickets/my-project plus
                         # ~/.claude/tickets/my-project when both exist, and
                         # chdirs into ~/Documents/code/my-project so pickup
                         # (p) runs against the right repo
TIX_CODE_DIR=~/src tix my-project   # override the code-repo lookup root
TICKETS_DIR=./docs/tickets tix

For zsh users who want per-project TICKETS_DIR to follow cd, add this chpwd hook to ~/.zshrc:

autoload -U add-zsh-hook
_tix_tickets_dir() {
  local root base
  root=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null) || { unset TICKETS_DIR; return; }
  base=${root:t}
  if [[ -d "$HOME/.pi/agent/tickets/$base" ]]; then
    export TICKETS_DIR="$HOME/.pi/agent/tickets/$base"
  else
    unset TICKETS_DIR
  fi
}
add-zsh-hook chpwd _tix_tickets_dir
_tix_tickets_dir

Mini reader

For narrow sidecars (think tmux pane next to an editor):

tix --mini              # flat reverse-chrono list, ≥20 cols
tix my-project --mini   # same project resolution as `tix <project>`

Mini surfaces a single signal — what was filed recently, can I pick one up — and gets out of the way. Done/cancelled hidden; ↑/↓ move, Enter opens in glow/$PAGER, p spawns wt, l sets/clears label:, q quits. No filters, no groups, no rescope — use plain tix for that.

Keys

Key	Action
↑ ↓ / j k	Move
Ctrl-U Ctrl-D	Half page
g G	Top / bottom
Enter →	Open in glow (or $PAGER)
Esc ← h	Collapse / back
/	Filter
e	Edit in $EDITOR
p	Pickup → wt <slug>
i	Pin status active
d	Pin status done
x	Pin status cancelled
l	Set/clear label:
m	Move ticket to area
y	Copy slug to clipboard
o	Open Linear URL (if linear: set)
r	Reload (re-runs preload hook if set)
?	Help
q	Quit

Schema

A ticket is a markdown file with YAML-ish line-based frontmatter:

---
status: open
priority: P1
label: backend
area: integrations
linear: PROJ-123
---

# teams-error-mapping

## Context
…

## Acceptance criteria
- [ ] …

Full contract: docs/ticket-schema.md.

• Filename is the slug. teams-error-mapping.md, never PROJ-123.md.
• Epic = folder. A directory containing _epic.md is an epic; numbered children (01-foo.md, 02-bar.md) are its stories.
• Status vocab is pinned: active, open, draft, done, cancelled.

Configuration

Env	Default	Purpose
TICKETS_DIR	~/.pi/agent/tickets	Primary ticket tree / write root
TIX_EXTRA_TICKETS_DIRS	(unset)	Extra read roots, separated by : on macOS/Linux
TIX_PICKUP_AGENTS	(unset)	Per-root agent launcher for p: <root>=<cmd> pairs, separated by :. When a picked-up ticket lives under <root>, wt runs with WT_AGENT_CMD=<cmd>. No match → wt's own default. Longest-ancestor root wins. An explicit WT_AGENT_CMD in the environment overrides the map.
TIX_CODE_DIR	~/Documents/code	Lookup root for tix <project> — the repo it chdirs into so pickup works
ACTIVE_LANES_FILE	~/.claude/active-lanes.json	Optional sidecar map: slug → {path, branch, repo, last_commit}. Read by the TUI; tix never writes it.
LINEAR_WORKSPACE	(unset)	Slug used to derive linear: URLs (o key)
TIX_PRELOAD_HOOK	(unset)	Shell command run before launch. See below.
EDITOR	vi	Used by e
PAGER	less	Fallback when glow is absent

TICKETS_DIR resolves in this order: explicit env var → ~/.pi/agent/tickets. When TICKETS_DIR points at a project under either ~/.pi/agent/tickets/<project> or ~/.claude/tickets/<project>, tix also reads the matching other-side project tree if it exists, so Pi-created and Claude-created tickets both surface. tix <project> resolves the primary write root (centralized ~/.pi/agent/tickets/<project>/ first, legacy centralized ~/.claude/tickets/<project>/ second, then $TIX_CODE_DIR/<project>/.claude/tickets/, then ./<project>/.claude/tickets/ for legacy trees), adds any other existing project roots as extra read roots, and chdirs into the project's git repo under $TIX_CODE_DIR (default ~/Documents/code) so the pickup key (p) runs wt against the right repo. Or set TICKETS_DIR explicitly (e.g. via the chpwd hook above).

Preload hook

tix doesn't write status: — that's deliberate. If you want statuses derived from external signals (live worktrees, feature branches, merged PRs, calendar events, anything), put a script on disk and point at it:

export TIX_PRELOAD_HOOK=~/bin/my-status-sync
tix

The hook runs once before the TUI is drawn. Its stdout/stderr are discarded — curses is about to claim the screen, so the next render is the feedback, not the printed diff. The hook is best-effort: a missing or failing command never blocks launch.

The r key in the TUI re-runs the hook and reloads.

A reference implementation (filesystem + git + gh) lives in gitpancake/.dotfiles as claude/scripts/ticket-status-sync.py — it derives active from live worktrees and done from merged PRs. Copy it, fork it, replace it.

Optional integrations

• wt — if a wt command is on PATH, the p key suspends curses, runs git fetch && git checkout main && git merge --ff-only && wt <slug>, then resumes.
• glow — preferred markdown pager for ticket preview. tix reflows hard-wrapped briefs and pipes them to glow word-wrapped at the terminal width, so authored line width never causes ragged re-wrapping. Falls back to $PAGER (default less).
• gh — used by some preload hooks (not by tix itself).

Non-goals

• No remote sync, no auth, no web UI.
• No mouse support.
• No notifications.
• No bundled status reconciler — wire your own via TIX_PRELOAD_HOOK.

License

MIT.