PM platform · 2026 Open source

Tracklane

Modern AI-first Rails 8 project management for teams who want their own.

Tech stack

Rails 8 PostgreSQL 16 pgvector Claude Hotwire Turbo Streams Stimulus Solid Queue Solid Cable Tailwind CSS v4 Kamal 2

The problem

Most open project management tools show their age in UI, real-time collaboration, and deploy story. Closed SaaS alternatives solve the UX problem but lock teams into vendor silos, usage limits, and weak self-host paths. Teams that need privacy, data sovereignty, or on-prem deploy end up choosing between a modern experience and owning their data. AI features in PM tools usually sit as bolt-ons that do not change how the team actually works.

Goals

Every surface a 2026 PM user expects: kanban, timeline, calendar, wiki, workload
Self-hostable on a single VPS with one Kamal deploy command
AI in the core workflow via triage and ask-your-project chat, off by default and bring-your-own-key
Strict multi-tenancy enforced at the database, not just in the app layer

The solution

Organizations and projects with role-gated access (admin, manager, member, viewer)
Issues with status, priority, assignee, start date, due date, comments, and @mentions
Kanban board with Stimulus drag-and-drop and Turbo Stream live updates across every connected user
Timeline (Gantt) and calendar views per project, plus a workload view grouping issues by assignee across the organization
Markdown wiki per project and time tracking per issue with per-user and per-week totals
Invitation flow with signed tokens and email notifications for assignments, mentions, and pending invites
Claude-powered issue triage on create: suggested priority, labels, and assignee with confirm or override
Ask-your-project chat: pgvector retrieval over issues and comments with cited sources inline

My role

→ Solo developer on architecture, data model, UX, and every phase
→ Rails 8 with Hotwire, Turbo Streams, and Solid Cable for real-time collaboration without a React front-end
→ Claude integration for triage; pgvector + embeddings pipeline for ask-your-project chat
→ Postgres 16 with Row-Level Security on every tenant-scoped table, enforced through a NOSUPERUSER app role
→ 79 integration tests (200 assertions) that prove cross-tenant SELECT / INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE are rejected

UI direction

Monday-style three-column shell: persistent left sidebar with projects, top bar with async theme toggle, main area with right rail widgets where they fit. Dark mode as a first-class target, not an afterthought. AI suggestions render inline on the issue page with confirm or dismiss buttons, never a separate modal.

User flows

Issue triage flow

1 Member creates a new issue with title and description
2 Background job asks Claude for a priority, assignee, labels, and rationale
3 Turbo Stream drops the suggestion card onto the issue page without a refresh
4 Member reviews and confirms or dismisses; the PM state persists either way

Ask your project

1 Member opens the project's ask page
2 Types a natural language question
3 Server embeds it, runs a cosine search over this project's indexed issues and comments, asks Claude with those chunks
4 Response renders with inline citations linking back to the source issue, plus a source list below

Cross-tenant safety

1 Every request opens a transaction and SETs app.current_user_id and app.current_organization_id
2 Every tenant-scoped table has a USING + WITH CHECK RLS policy on organization_id
3 Rails connects as a NOSUPERUSER role so the policies actually apply even to the owner path
4 Integration suite simulates the app role with SET LOCAL ROLE and asserts the guarantees

Screenshots

Click any image to open at full size.

Dashboard home in dark mode with active projects, recent activity, and AI triage suggestions.

Kanban board with drag-and-drop issue cards grouped by status.

Gantt-style timeline view across project milestones.

Workload view showing per-assignee capacity and currently assigned issues.

Calendar view aggregating due dates across the workspace.

Issue detail page with threaded comments, activity log, and AI summary.

Activity feed of recent changes across all projects.

Ask-AI chat panel powered by Claude with project-scoped context.

Wiki empty state with a quick-create entry point.

Member invitation flow with role assignment.

New project creation modal with template picker.

Key learnings

Postgres RLS done right is the cleanest way to get bulletproof multi-tenancy in Rails, and the test suite is what makes it real
after_commit callbacks fire after the outer transaction closes, so any RLS-dependent work needs to re-establish its own GUC scope
Hotwire with Turbo Streams and Solid Cable covers real-time PM features without pulling in a JavaScript framework
Bring-your-own-key for AI keeps the app fully usable and demoable even when no provider is configured
Monday-style shell with a persistent sidebar and quiet right rail scales from tiny demo data up to a real org without redesign

Want something like Tracklane?

I'm open to senior contract work. Let's talk about what you're building.

Get in touch