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Well, first, you know about Github Issues (https://github.com/features/issues https://github.com/features/issues, the built-in kanban/PM system) right? And Line

Well, first, you know about Github Issues (https://github.com/features/issues https://github.com/features/issues, the built-in kanban/PM system) right? And Linear.app with its Github integration (https://linear.app/docs/github https://linear.app/docs/github)? Not sure how yours is going to be different, but I always welcome more options in the Anything But Jira™ world... Re auth/user data, maybe you're overthinking it a bit...? You should be able to use sign in with Github and request certain permissions scoped to certain repos & operations without having to store their credentials or force them to self-host. (eg see https://docs.github.com/en/apps/oauth-apps/building-oauth-apps/differences-between-github-apps-and-oauth-apps https://docs.github.com/en/apps/oauth-apps/building-oauth-ap...) As for storing project data, if you request read/write permission to those repos, yes you can put your own data in there, but that's probably not something every org would want to give you (as opposed to just metadata about their PRs, commits, comments, etc.) I suppose you could build the whole thing to be self-hosted inside a repo, built to a Github Pages inside it and maybe run on Github Actions or similar... but I think that's a lot of complexity/fragility/maintenance burden over a traditional hosted SaaS like Linear, which basically just takes a few seconds to sign up and start using. And then you end up having to debug everyone else's infrastructure too when your app breaks in various ways, vs having one version that you control yourself. Anyhow, good luck! Always exciting to see better PM tools.

neilv 2y ago
Thank you for all the great comments! Yep, I know about GitHub Issues and the similar features in GitLab and Forgejo. What I have in mind would build atop those, not replace them (analogous to how the higher project management features in those and Jira build atop an issue/task-tracking system). What I have in mind has a different and narrower emphasis than Linear.app, and hopefully would do the main thing it does much better. (Yet another reason I don't want to do enterprise sales initially -- I'd lose all the org chart stakeholders feature checklist deathmatches. I have to sell it word-of-mouth, to founders/PMs/TLs who appreciate the focus, and who have small-purchase company credit cards.) For user data, what you suggest would work, if I modify the initial functionality slightly. I don't want customer data flowing through my servers, but I could serve up JS app/pages from my servers, with the browser making the data requests to GitHub/etc. directly. (Future functionality might need code running separate from any browser.) And should be easy to package up for customers who want that server part on-prem. The greatly reduced friction -- to some PM suddenly deciding to try it as they're wrangling the project at 4:30pm, and be up and running in a minute -- seems well worth contorting the functionality a little. Thanks!

neilv 2y ago

Thank you for all the great comments! Yep, I know about GitHub Issues and the similar features in GitLab and Forgejo. What I have in mind would build atop those, not replace them (analogous to how the higher project management features in those and Jira build atop an issue/task-tracking system). What I have in mind has a different and narrower emphasis than Linear.app, and hopefully would do the main thing it does much better. (Yet another reason I don't want to do enterprise sales initially -- I'd lose all the org chart stakeholders feature checklist deathmatches. I have to sell it word-of-mouth, to founders/PMs/TLs who appreciate the focus, and who have small-purchase company credit cards.) For user data, what you suggest would work, if I modify the initial functionality slightly. I don't want customer data flowing through my servers, but I could serve up JS app/pages from my servers, with the browser making the data requests to GitHub/etc. directly. (Future functionality might need code running separate from any browser.) And should be easy to package up for customers who want that server part on-prem. The greatly reduced friction -- to some PM suddenly deciding to try it as they're wrangling the project at 4:30pm, and be up and running in a minute -- seems well worth contorting the functionality a little. Thanks!