PM platform · 2026 In development

Tracklane

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

Tech stack

Rails 8 PostgreSQL 16 Claude Hotwire Action Cable Sidekiq Tailwind Docker

The problem

Redmine has a rich feature set but a 2006-era experience, and closed SaaS alternatives lock teams into vendor silos with limited self-host stories. Teams that need privacy, data sovereignty, or on-prem deploy have nowhere to land that feels modern. AI features in PM tools are usually bolt-ons that do not change how the team actually works.

Goals

A Redmine-level feature set that does not feel like 2006
Self-hostable by default with a single deploy command
AI in the core workflow, not as a separate feature flag
Outbound signed webhooks for real integration with other tools

The solution

Organizations and projects with role-gated access (admin, manager, member, viewer)
Issues with status, priority, labels, assignee, due date, comments, and mentions
Kanban board with drag-and-drop and live updates across every connected user
Issue triage on create: AI-suggested priority, labels, and assignee
Ask-your-project chat that answers across every issue, comment, and wiki page with source citations
Daily team digest summarizing what shipped, what is blocked, and what is at risk
Meeting-to-tickets extractor that turns transcripts into draft issues with suggested owners
Wiki per project, Gantt scheduling, time tracking, outbound signed webhooks

My role

→ Solo developer on architecture, data model, and roadmap
→ Rails 8 with Hotwire and Action Cable for live collaboration
→ Claude integration for triage, chat, digest, and meeting extraction
→ PostgreSQL schema with multi-tenant scoping and full-text search
→ Single-command Docker deploy target for self-host users

UI direction

Dense information when it helps operators, quiet otherwise. Content over chrome. Live collaboration surfaces through subtle cues, not heavy chat-like badges. AI suggestions are inline with human override, never a separate modal.

User flows

Issue triage flow

1 Member creates a new issue with title and description
2 AI suggests priority, labels, and assignee based on prior resolved issues
3 Member reviews suggestions and confirms or overrides
4 Issue lands on the kanban and activity feed

Ask your project

1 Member opens project chat
2 Asks a natural language question across issues, comments, wiki
3 Response cites source threads inline
4 Member clicks through to verify or continue the thread

Key learnings

AI in core PM workflows works best when it drafts and humans confirm, not the other way around
Ask-your-project is the feature that justifies ingesting every comment and wiki page into a retrieval layer
Rails 8 with Hotwire is fast enough to ship modern PM without a React front-end
Self-host is still a real deploy target in 2026 for teams that care about data sovereignty

Want something like Tracklane?

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

Get in touch