udctl vs Taskwarrior + Vikunja
People who want tasks on the command line and a kanban board on the web often pair Taskwarrior for the terminal with Vikunja for the browser. udctl provides both from one server.
udctl (UnDercontrol) is a self-hostable workspace for tasks, notes and expenses, with a kubectl-style CLI (ud) and AI coding agents you dispatch from a task comment.
Facts side by side
| Taskwarrior 3 | Vikunja | udctl | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form | Command line task | Self-hosted web app with list, kanban, Gantt and table views; paid hosted Vikunja Cloud also offered | Command line ud, plus web, desktop and iOS apps |
| Command line | task <filter> <command> <mods>, e.g. task 12 modify due:eom | The bundled vikunja command administers the server (backups, migrations, users); the task CLI is veans, officially labeled experimental | ud get / describe / apply / patch / delete |
| Where data lives | taskchampion.sqlite3 on your machine | The Vikunja server you deploy | The udctl server you deploy |
| Several devices and people | task sync to a TaskChampion sync server, AWS S3 or Google Cloud Storage; the sync server can be configured for multiple users | Multiple accounts on the server | Every client talks to the same server; shared with groups that have admin and member roles |
| How AI coding agents connect | The agent runs task commands | veans targets coding agents: veans prime prints a system prompt that teaches the workflow, and agents move claimed tasks to "In Review" | Agents call ud commands; you can also @mention an agent in a task comment to open a terminal on your machine and start Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode or another agent |
| Using both | Taskwarrior and Vikunja keep separate data | Same | Command line and web read the same data |
| License and price | MIT, open source | AGPL-3.0, open source; self-hosting is free, Cloud is paid | Proprietary; free for individuals and teams of up to 3, larger teams pay by team size |
Which one
- Terminal only, single user, offline, open source: pick Taskwarrior.
- Web board only, with Gantt charts, open source: pick Vikunja.
- Command line and web on the same tasks, plus notes and expenses on the same server: pick udctl.
Sources
- Taskwarrior: https://taskwarrior.org/docs/upgrade-3/ (taskchampion.sqlite3), /docs/sync/ (sync backends, multiple users), /docs/examples/ (command examples), /docs/ (MIT)
- Vikunja: https://vikunja.io/ (four views, AGPLv3, Cloud), /docs/cli/ (server administration commands), /docs/veans/ (experimental agent CLI)