A free, open-source, accessible, dark-mode-first kanban board — a calm alternative to Trello. Built by Malin Fossum and Henry Elendheim.
Slice 1 (local single-user board) is complete. Slice 2a (accounts and identity) is in progress.
Boards, lists, cards, labels and per-card checklists all work end to end, with undo-first deletes, keyboard operation and screen-reader announcements throughout. On top of that, Wend now has real accounts: register with an email address and a display name, confirm it from an emailed link, sign in, and every board belongs to you alone — a board you do not own answers 404, not 403. A forgotten password is recoverable, and completing a reset signs out every live session for that account.
Still to come in 2a: account settings, account deletion, security hardening, deployment. Then Slice 2b — sharing, board membership and invitations.
Wend is localhost only and is not deployed.
/api/auth/*is not yet rate limited. That is a deliberate, tracked gate — security hardening lands before Wend is ever exposed. Seedocs/backlog.md.
Design docs and build plans live in docs/.
- ASP.NET Core (
net10.0) — minimal API, localhost only - ASP.NET Core Identity with cookie sessions, behind hand-written
/api/auth/*endpoints — no scaffolded Identity UI, so the frontend keeps its no-build-step, accessibility-first character - EF Core → PostgreSQL for storage, with EF migrations, behind per-entity repository seams
- Vanilla-JavaScript MVC frontend, served from
wwwroot - NUnit — 255 tests
| Project | Responsibility |
|---|---|
Wend.Core |
Board domain, WendUser, the repository seams, EF Core data access |
Wend.Api |
Minimal API endpoints (boards and /api/auth/*), Identity and cookie configuration; serves the frontend |
Wend.Tests |
NUnit tests covering Core and the API |
Wend stores data in PostgreSQL. Install a local server once — a normal Windows service, no Docker:
winget install --exact --id PostgreSQL.PostgreSQL.17
Set the postgres password to postgres and keep port 5432. Store the dev connection string once:
dotnet user-secrets set "ConnectionStrings:WendDb" "Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=wend;Username=postgres;Password=postgres" --project Wend.Api
Wend reads that secret only in the Development environment, and it refuses to start outside it
until a real email provider is configured — an auth system that cannot send mail should not boot.
Wend.Api/Properties/launchSettings.json sets that environment for you, so running it is one command:
dotnet run --project Wend.Api
The profile sets no applicationUrl on purpose — Kestrel's address comes from Wend:Port in
Program.cs and binds 127.0.0.1:5174. Starting the app any other way (the built binary, your own
profile) still needs the environment set by hand:
$env:ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT = "Development" # PowerShell
Without it you get ConnectionStrings:WendDb is not configured, which looks like a missing secret and
is really a missing environment variable.
In Development, static files are served with Cache-Control: no-cache, so an ordinary reload picks up
edited JavaScript and CSS — no hard-reload dance.
Then open http://127.0.0.1:5174. You will land on the sign-in screen, because every board belongs to a user now.
There is no email provider in development. Wend writes every link it would have sent to a file:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Wend\auth-emails.log
Register at /register, open that file, and follow the newest /verify?... link to confirm the
address — then sign in. /forgot-password works the same way. Confirmation links last 24 hours, reset
links one hour.
Once signed in you can create boards, manage a board's lists, add and move cards, and open a card for
its task view to edit the title, notes, due date, labels and checklist. The API lives under
/api/auth, /api/boards, /api/lists, /api/cards, /api/labels and /api/checklist-items. EF
Core migrations create and update the schema on startup.
The API integration tests need the local PostgreSQL server running — each creates a throwaway database on it. The repository unit tests run on in-memory SQLite.
dotnet test
MIT © 2026 Malin Fossum and Henry Elendheim