# Show HN: Cairn – self-hosted Shape Up tool with a code-aware PM agent > Source: > Published: 2026-08-19 10:24:05+00:00 **The hard part of building software moved from how to what.** Cairn is the PM agent that turns a dense, scattered stream of feedback into a roadmap you can actually reason about — open, self-hosted, built on Shape Up. [ cairnpm.com](https://cairnpm.com) · [Self-host](/cairnpm/cairn/blob/main/DEPLOY.md)· [Roadmap](/cairnpm/cairn/blob/main/ROADMAP.md)· [How the agent works](/cairnpm/cairn/blob/main/docs/intake.md)· [Contributing](/cairnpm/cairn/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) AI made shipping cheap: *how* to build something is no longer the bottleneck. The scarce skill now is deciding **what** to build — and in what order — in a roadmap that fills up faster than anyone can read it. Cairn is built for that exact moment: **an agent does the sorting** (read, deduplicate, shape, route) so your judgment goes to the decision, not the pile. **🪨 An agent, not a form.** Paste a Slack thread, a bug report, or a whole meeting transcript. The intake agent extracts the distinct signals, recontextualizes each one, deduplicates against the backlog, and proposes where it belongs — you confirm. Writing only ever happens on confirmation.**🔍 Grounded in your real code.** Link your product repo (read-only GitHub App or a local path) and the agent checks what's*actually shipped*before it shapes: it dedupes against reality — citing`file:line` , not a stale ticket — grounds each pitch in the real architecture, and answers "is X built yet?" by reconciling the roadmap with the code. Zero-egress: the repo is grepped locally, never sent anywhere.**🧗 Shape Up, natively.** Pitches with a real problem and an appetite, a betting table to choose what's worth doing, hills to track in-flight work, frozen scope once a bet is placed. The method is the product, not a template.**🧹 Anti feature-factory.** No artificial caps, no vanity metrics. The backlog is meant to stay*small*: duplicates get merged, noise gets discarded, shaping is a discipline — not a place where requests go to die.**🔌 Bring your own LLM key.** The agent runs on your Anthropic key. No data detour through us — there is no "us" in the loop.**🏠 Self-hosted, you own the data.** One Node process, one embedded SQLite file. No external database, no telemetry, no account on someone else's server.**🔓 Source-available.** Read every line, audit it, run it for free forever. It even becomes Apache-2.0 over time (see[License](#license)). Intake | Conversational agent: triage → clarify → propose → commit. Reads `.docx` /images, splits transcripts into N features, dedupes, attributes every change. | Code-aware | Link the product repo; the intake greps it to dedupe against what's shipped and ground specs. Read-only, zero-egress — GitHub App (short-lived tokens, self-host manifest flow) or a local clone. | Backlog | Shaped features with problem · appetite · solution · rabbit holes · no-gos. Manually-assigned shapers. | Betting table | Collaborative deliberation: members vote, the owner validates → it bets features and opens a hill. | Hills | In-flight cycles with builders, periods and frozen scope. | Workspace | Email + password auth, token invitations, roles, avatars, full attribution/audit trail. | Cairn is a **single container** backed by an embedded SQLite file — no external database. Bring an Anthropic API key (or add it later in the UI) and a place to keep `/data` . Pick whichever fits: **One-click on Render:** **Docker Compose** (recommended for your own server): ``` git clone https://github.com/cairnpm/cairn && cd cairn cp .env.example .env # set NUXT_SESSION_PASSWORD (and your Anthropic key) docker compose up -d # → http://localhost:3000 ``` Also supported — **Fly.io**, plain **Docker**, backups and env vars: see ** DEPLOY.md**. Prebuilt images are published to `ghcr.io/cairnpm/cairn` .First boot creates a single owner account — `ceo@cairn.local` / `cairn` — change the password right away. The workspace starts **empty**; set `CAIRN_SEED_DEMO=1` to load a demo backlog/hills/team for a tour. ``` pnpm install echo 'ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-…' > .env pnpm dev # http://localhost:3000 pnpm test:members # hermetic auth/invitations test suite ``` `cairn` is a thin HTTP client over the running server, so an agent can ground itself on the roadmap and feed signal into the intake — no second write path. ``` export CAIRN_URL=http://localhost:3000 export CAIRN_EMAIL=agent@your-workspace # use a DEDICATED, least-privilege account: export CAIRN_PASSWORD=… # the cached session can hit any endpoint it's a member of pnpm exec cairn features --status shaping # reads: features / feature / hills / betting / overview pnpm exec cairn capture "les users veulent le mode sombre" # → {session_id, state, agent_message, proposal} pnpm exec cairn capture --session "priorité haute" # answer a clarify turn pnpm exec cairn commit --session # finalise a single proposal pnpm exec cairn commit-batch --session --segments a,b # finalise a decomposed (batch_review) capture ``` Output is JSON by default (`--pretty` for humans). The session cookie is cached in `./.cairn/` **relative to the working directory** — run from the workspace root. The command surface is a closed allowlist (reads + intake); it's an agent guardrail, not a security boundary — a real boundary is the account's own permissions. Cairn is free to **run, read, modify and self-host** — for any purpose except re-selling it as a competing hosted product. That single restriction is what lets a small team keep building it in the open instead of behind a closed door. It's licensed under the ** Functional Source License** (FSL-1.1-ALv2): two years after each release, that version automatically becomes **Apache-2.0**. So the protection is temporary and the openness is permanent — you're never locked out of your own infrastructure, and our infra is never in your critical path. Today everything is free and self-hostable. Team/organisation capabilities (SSO, multi-workspace, advanced integrations) may later require a license key — the core always runs without one. See the [roadmap]. (Vue 3) + Nitro — SSR app and single write gateway[Nuxt 4](https://nuxt.com)— embedded database, zero native deps`node:sqlite` + Tailwind v4 — dark, calm UI[shadcn-vue](https://www.shadcn-vue.com)via a thin provider interface (swap-able; deterministic offline fallback)[Anthropic Claude](https://www.anthropic.com) Issues and PRs are welcome — see ** CONTRIBUTING.md** for the setup, commit convention and how routing decisions are tested. Be kind; assume good intent. [FSL-1.1-ALv2](/cairnpm/cairn/blob/main/LICENSE) — source-available now, **Apache-2.0** two years after each release. © 2026 The Cairn Authors. "Cairn" and the logo are trademarks and are not covered by the code license.