lific-0.1.0 is not a library.

Lific

A lightweight issue tracker designed for AI-driven development.

If you use AI assistants to manage your projects (Claude, OpenCode, Cursor, etc.), Lific gives them a fast, structured issue tracker that gives a few high quality tools for managing a project's issue workflow.

Why

Most issue trackers were built for teams of people clicking around a web UI. They work fine for that. But if your primary interface is an AI assistant managing issues through MCP, the priorities are different:

Schema size matters. Every tool definition eats context window tokens. Lific exposes 14 tools in ~2,000 tokens. Plane's MCP server for example exposes 100+ tools at 80,000+ tokens.
Identifiers should be readable. APP-42 instead of 5a61c25e-96ae-43f0-b25c-570ecefcb772.
Setup should be nothing. Simple setup and basic authentication connect you securely without overhead
Your data is yours. SQLite file on your disk. Copy it, back it up, inspect it with any SQL tool.

Install

cargo install lific

Or grab a binary from GitHub Releases.

Quickstart

lific init          # creates lific.toml with defaults
lific start         # starts the server on port 3456

On first start, Lific generates an API key and prints it once. Save it somewhere.

Connecting AI Assistants

OpenCode / Claude Code

Add to your MCP config (local stdio, no network):

{
  "lific": {
    "type": "local",
    "command": ["lific", "--db", "path/to/lific.db", "mcp"]
  }
}

Remote (Tailscale, VPS, etc.)

lific start serves both a REST API and an MCP endpoint on the same port:

REST API: http://localhost:3456/api/*
MCP: http://localhost:3456/mcp

Point your MCP client at the /mcp URL with a bearer token:

{
  "lific": {
    "type": "remote",
    "url": "https://your-server/mcp",
    "headers": {
      "Authorization": "Bearer lific_sk-live-..."
    }
  }
}

What the AI sees

Lific gives your AI assistant the following tools:

Tool	What it does
`list_resources`	Discover projects, modules, labels, folders, pages, issues
`list_issues`	Filter by status, priority, module, label, or workable
`get_issue`	Full details for a specific issue with relations and labels
`create_issue`	Create with project, module, labels, priority
`update_issue`	Partial updates by identifier
`get_board`	Board view grouped by status, priority, or module
`search`	Full-text search across issues and pages. Ideal for having an agent onboard onto a new project.
`link_issues` / `unlink_issues`	Dependency tracking (blocks, relates_to, duplicate)
`get_page` / `create_page` / `update_page`	Markdown docs
`manage_resource`	Create/update projects, modules, labels, folders
`delete`	Delete anything by identifier

Everything uses human-readable identifiers. project="APP", not project_id=7. module="Backend", not module_id=3.

Workable filter

list_issues(project="APP", workable=true) returns only issues where all blockers are resolved. One call to answer "what can I actually start right now?" instead of manually tracing dependency chains.

Data model

Projects contain issues, modules, labels, pages, and folders. Issues have status (backlog, todo, active, done, cancelled), priority (urgent, high, medium, low, none), and optional module/label assignments. Issues link to each other with blocks, relates_to, and duplicate relations.

Pages are markdown documents with identifiers like APP-DOC-1.

That's it. No sprints, no story points, no custom fields, no workflows. If you need those, this isn't for you.

API keys

lific key create --name "my-laptop"    # prints key once, stores hash
lific key list                          # shows names and status, never keys
lific key revoke --name "my-laptop"     # instant invalidation
lific key rotate --name "my-laptop"     # revoke old, generate new

Keys use Argon2id hashing with BLAKE3 checksums. Only hashes are stored. Multiple keys for different clients. The health endpoint (/api/health) is the only unauthenticated route.

Backups

Lific automatically backs up the database using SQLite's online backup API. Interval and retention are configurable in lific.toml (see Configuration below). On shutdown, the WAL is checkpointed so the .db file is always self-contained and safe to copy.

Configuration

lific init creates a lific.toml:

[server]
host = "0.0.0.0"
port = 3456

[database]
path = "lific.db"

[backup]
enabled = true
dir = "backups"
interval_minutes = 60
retain = 24

[log]
level = "info"

CLI flags (--db, --port, --host) override config values.

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/Void-n-Null/lific
cd lific
cargo build --release

Requires Rust 2024 edition. SQLite is bundled (no system dependency).

Importing from Plane

lific import-plane \
  --url http://localhost:8585 \
  --api-key plane_api_xxx \
  --workspace my-workspace

Fetches projects, modules, labels, issues, and relations from the Plane API and imports them. Use --skip {indentifier} to exclude specific projects by identifier.

License

MIT

lific 0.1.0