# Beans by hmans

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Beans by hmans and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a simple, pragmatic Markdown-based task tracker that agents can read and edit directly. Critics say its codebase is large and setup in a repo can be messy.

## Why people recommend it

- Plain Markdown files agents can edit (2 comments): "its serdes is markdown files with front matter, in a dot folder" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46741258)) "its directly editable by them as its just markdown" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46692731))
- Simpler code and easier use (1 comments): "for much simpler code and use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48397440))
- Pragmatic fit with agent workflows (1 comments): "I find it a refreshingly pragmatic take that works great with my agents use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47521745))

## What people warn about

- Large codebase and messy setup (1 comments): "It's insane that its measured in the 100s of thousands of LoC and getting that thing setup in a repo is a mess." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46836592))
- Weak human auditability (1 comments): "wanted something with better human auditability" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47249516))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Beads by Steve Yegge](https://hackerapproved.com/p/beads.md): 79 recommend
- [Agent Kanban](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vs-code-agent-kanban.md): 13 recommend
- [ticket by wedow](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ticket.md): 6 recommend
- [Backlog.md](https://hackerapproved.com/p/backlog-md.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Beans by hmans", https://hackerapproved.com/p/beans/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).