Offline Kanban Task Board Desktop Software with Local Storage and WIP Limits

An offline kanban task board desktop software is a personal task manager that runs on one computer, shows work as cards in columns, and saves every card in the browser's local storage instead of an online account. This project builds that board with four columns — Backlog, To Do, Doing and Done — plus a work-in-progress limit of three cards on Doing, so only three tasks can sit in progress at once. Cards carry a title, a short note and a priority of High, Medium or Low, and they can be added, edited, moved between columns, searched and filtered offline. Because all data stays on the user's own machine, the board keeps working during outages, on shared lab computers without sign-in, and for users who do not want their task lists stored on a remote server. It is a single-user tool by design: there are no teams, no shared boards and no notifications to other people.

The real problem is simpler than most task tools admit. A student or solo worker usually has ten half-started tasks and no honest view of what is actually in progress, while team platforms demand an account, an internet connection and a workspace built for groups. Those tools add invitations, permissions and feeds that a single user never needs, and they stop being useful the moment the connection drops. This board removes all of that: one person, four columns, one clear rule about how much work may be in progress, and data that lives on the machine in front of them. Builder note from the demo build: the first screenshot attempt rendered an empty board because of a stray brace in the card-rendering function, and the fix — rebuilding that function with plain string concatenation — is the version shown in the gallery images.

A task begins as a card created through the add form, where the user types a title, note, priority and starting column. On creation the card is appended to the board's card list and the whole list is written to local storage, so the new task is durable before anything else happens. Rendering reads that list, applies the current search text and priority filter, and draws each column with its cards and move buttons. Moving a card is the only step with a rule attached: if the destination is Doing and Doing already holds three cards, the move is refused with an explanatory message and the card stays where it was. Otherwise the card's column changes, the list is saved again, and the board re-renders with updated counts and the WIP warning shown or hidden accordingly. Editing replaces a card's title and saves immediately, deleting removes the card, and reloading restores the last saved board exactly.

1. The user opens the single HTML file in a desktop browser; on first run the board loads eight sample cards, and afterwards it loads the last saved board from local storage.
2. A new task is added through the form with a title, an optional note, a priority of High, Medium or Low, and a starting column (Backlog, To Do, Doing or Done).
3. The card is appended to the board's list and the full list is written to local storage immediately, so the task survives a reload or browser restart.
4. The board renders all four columns, showing each card's title, note, priority tag and buttons for moving, editing and deleting it.
5. To start work, the user moves a card into Doing; if Doing already holds three cards, the move is refused with a warning until a card is finished or moved out.
6. Finished work is moved to Done, which clears a Doing slot, hides the WIP warning when the count drops below three, and updates the header summary.
7. The search box filters cards by title and note text as the user types, and the priority filter narrows the board to one priority level.
8. Closing and reopening the page restores the board from local storage unchanged, with no sign-in, sync or server involved at any point.

This project vs team kanban platforms

Tech stack:

• HTML5 · CSS · JavaScript (single-file app)
• Browser localStorage API (client-side persistence)
• Kanban board design (four columns with WIP enforcement)
• Priority tagging and live search filtering
• Responsive CSS grid layout for desktop screens
• Git (version control for the demo and report sources)
• Report and presentation tooling (PDF and slide exports)

The board's strongest capabilities are its enforced work-in-progress limit, its local-storage persistence, its plain card workflow and its search and priority filters. The WIP limit is the heart of the project: Doing accepts at most three cards, and any attempt to move a fourth card in is refused with a clear message until a card is finished or moved out. Persistence is equally deliberate — every add, edit, move and delete is written to the browser's local storage immediately, so a reload restores the exact board, including the sample tasks on first run. Cards move with simple buttons rather than drag gestures, which keeps the board usable with a keyboard and mouse on any desktop, and the search box plus priority filter make a long board scannable in seconds, even with dozens of cards.

• [Four-column kanban board] Backlog, To Do, Doing and Done columns hold cards with a title, a short note and a priority, giving one glanceable view of planned, ready, active and finished work.
• [Enforced WIP limit on Doing] Doing accepts a maximum of three cards (design target); moving a fourth card in shows a warning and is refused until a card leaves Doing, so unfinished work cannot pile up silently.
• [Local-storage persistence] Every card change is saved to the browser's local storage on the same machine, so the board survives reloads and works with no account, no server and no internet connection.
• [Add, edit, move and delete cards] Cards are created from a form, edited in place, moved between any two columns with buttons, and deleted individually, covering the full card lifecycle.
• [Search and priority filter] A live search box matches titles and notes, and a priority filter narrows the board to High, Medium or Low cards, which keeps long task lists readable.
• [Live board summary] A header line reports the total card count, the Doing count against its WIP limit, and the finished count, so the state of the whole board is visible without counting columns.
• [Sample board on first run] Eight realistic sample cards (sample count) ship with the demo so the board's behaviour, including the full Doing column, can be tried immediately before adding real tasks.
• [Single-file offline demo] The entire board is one HTML file with embedded styles and scripts, so it runs by opening the file in a browser and can be carried on a USB drive between machines.

• Working single-file kanban board demo (four columns, WIP enforcement, local-storage persistence, search and priority filters)
• Project report PDF (background, kanban and WIP-limit theory, design, implementation, testing procedure, limitations, future scope)
• Abstract PDF (10-section structure matching the report)
• Presentation slides for the final review
• Viva Q&A preparation document (kanban rules, WIP limits, local storage, offline design trade-offs)
• Source file of the demo with the sample board, ready to run by opening it in a browser