Show HN: Paca – Lightweight Jira alternative for human-AI collaboration

Paca, a new open-source project management platform, launches as a lightweight alternative to Jira, Trello, ClickUp, and Monday, designed specifically for human-AI collaboration. The self-hosted tool treats AI agents as first-class Scrum teammates, allowing them to participate in sprint planning, pick up tasks, and collaborate on specifications, rather than functioning as peripheral chatbots. Paca is free, fully customizable via plugins compiled to WebAssembly, and aims to give teams control over their data and workflow.

AI-native. Free. Lightweight. Open-source.The fully customizable alternative to Jira, Trello, ClickUp, and Monday. Getting Started getting-started · MCP Server mcp-server--connect-any-ai-agent-to-paca · Claude Code Skill claude-code--paca-skill · Architecture /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/docs/architecture/overview.md · Contributing /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md · Roadmap /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/ROADMAP.md 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 . | 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 | 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. 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 <your-api-key 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. | 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 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 https://github.com/All-Hands-AI/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 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. 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 <<'EOF' JWT SECRET=<run: openssl rand -hex 32 ADMIN PASSWORD=<your-admin-password POSTGRES PASSWORD=<run: openssl rand -hex 32 AGENT API KEY=<run: openssl rand -hex 32 INTERNAL API KEY=<run: openssl rand -hex 32 ENCRYPTION KEY=<run: openssl rand -hex 32 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 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 /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/docs/guides/local-development.md for running services on the host for active development. Paca ships an MCP Model Context Protocol https://modelcontextprotocol.io 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.- 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" 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" } } | 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 | 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 /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/docs/guides/mcp-server-setup.md . If you use Claude Code https://claude.ai/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/ /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/skills directory using the Agent Skills https://agentskills.io/specification 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.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: claude mcp add paca \ --env PACA API KEY=<your-api-key \ --env PACA API URL=<your-paca-url \ -- npx -y @paca-ai/paca-mcp Run /paca-setup inside a Claude Code session for a guided interactive walkthrough instead. | Command | What it does | |---|---| /paca <request | General task, doc, and sprint operations in plain English | /paca-epic <requirements | Turn requirements into an epic with child stories and a spec doc | /paca-clarify <task-or-doc | Identify ambiguities, ask questions, and update the spec in Paca | /paca-breakdown <task | Decompose a task into independent, estimable sub-tasks | /paca-sprint | Plan a sprint from the backlog against capacity and goals | /paca-estimate <task s | Estimate story points and write them back to tasks | /paca-prioritize | Score and set priorities across the backlog | /paca-do <task | Execute a task, update its status, and keep docs current | /paca-test <task | Derive test cases, run them, and record results as a comment | /paca-doc <task-or-topic | 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 /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/docs/guides/claude-code-skill.md . 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 /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/docs/architecture/overview.md for detail. 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. 🦙✨ | Document | Description | |---|---| | docs/guides/getting-started.md /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/docs/guides/getting-started.md docs/guides/local-development.md /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/docs/guides/local-development.md docs/guides/mcp-server-setup.md /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/docs/guides/mcp-server-setup.md docs/guides/claude-code-skill.md /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/docs/guides/claude-code-skill.md /paca skill for Claude Code — manage Paca from your editor docs/plugins/ /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/docs/plugins deploy/README.md /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/deploy/README.md CHANGELOG.md /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md CONTRIBUTING.md /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md SECURITY.md /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/SECURITY.md Distributed under the Apache License 2.0 . See LICENSE /Paca-AI/paca/blob/master/LICENSE for details.