Automatic moves

A workspace can move its cards between columns by itself as their agents change state: into In Progress when an agent starts working, into Review when it waits for you, into Done when it stops. This page explains the three rules, what fires each one, and what never does.

Set up the rules

Open the workspace's Edit dialog (in the toolbar above its board) and find Move cards automatically. It has one select per rule, each set to Don't move (the default) or one of the workspace's columns:

Click Save. Every rule is off until you pick a column for it, and you can use any one, two or all three.

How a move works

• A rule fires only on a change: when the activity becomes working, when it becomes waiting or question, or when the shell stops. An agent that stays at work doesn't keep moving its card.
• The card goes to the bottom of the rule's column, as board move puts it. A card already in that column stays where it is.
• A card you move by hand stays where you put it until its next change fires a rule.
• Rules apply to every card of the workspace, never to its shells.
• The move is saved and synced like any other move. The rule itself runs only in the Bikube that is running the card: activity and stops happen on that machine, so another machine never moves the card on its own.

What doesn't fire a rule

• An activity being cleared (board activity . none, or a Waiting for you that you have seen by opening the card).
• A card that Couldn't start or whose ssh failed (SSH failed).
• Deleting a card, quitting Bikube, or restarting it, even though they stop the card's shell.
• A rule naming a column that has since been deleted: deleting the column turns the rule off.

Example: a pipeline for Claude Code

With these rules, a Claude Code card walks across the board by itself:

1. You create a card in Backlog and send Claude a message. Its hooks set the activity to working, and the card moves to In Progress.
2. Claude finishes its turn, or asks you something. The activity becomes waiting or question, and the card moves to Review, where the cards that need you collect.
3. You answer, and the card goes back to In Progress while Claude works.
4. When you are done, you Close the card, and it moves to Done. (Quitting Claude alone leaves the card's shell running, so it doesn't count as stopped.)

Claude Code cards set their activity by themselves through Bikube's hooks. Other agents can set it with board activity; see The board command.