The bot writes its roll
One markdown file per bot, one line per item. The bot calls botroll add in the same turn it accepts work. A three-part ask is three lines.
A roll call, not a ticket tracker
Know what every bot is doing, done, or waiting on you for.
Run a few AI bots and their commitments live only in chat. BotRoll is one plain-text roll per bot — the bots write it themselves — plus a board you can read, a watchdog that reports, and email from botroll serve when something needs you (needs a mail provider).
No.BotItemState
01Diane · Chief of Staffassistant/T-8Needs you
02Sasha · Socialsocial/T-31Needs you
03Lauren · Engineeringbuilder/T-40Gone quiet
04Quinn · QAqa/T-22Working
05Vera · Videovideo/T-2PID still running
01 / How it works
Three steps. No account.
Bots already have a shell. They write a file. You look at a board. That is the whole product.
Push, or just open the file
On your machine, botroll board is enough. From anywhere, botroll push uploads the rolls to your hosted board every minute.
You see it. You get mailed.
The board answers four questions: what needs you, who is working, what is stuck, what got done today. Email when a bot starts waiting on you, if you run botroll serve with a mail provider.
02 / The roll
A file you can read in any editor.
Hand edits are fine. The parser keeps lines it does not understand. Bots should use the CLI so two writers cannot clobber each other.
---
name: Sasha
role: Social
---
- [waiting-human] T-31 Approve launch thread · asked 2026-10-09 23:40 · updated 2026-10-10 01:10 · note: Approve the copy in drafts/launch-thread.md?
- [doing] T-32 Render the header image · asked 2026-10-10 14:40 · updated 2026-10-10 15:15 · pid: 5187703 / The board
A ledger, not a kanban.
Oldest asks first. One card per bot. Colour only in the chips. Follows your light or dark setting.
Sample roll · 10 Oct 2026 · labelled demo, not live
-
Sasha · T-3114hApprove the copy in drafts/launch-thread.md?
-
Diane · T-85hCard details for the registrar. Reply in chat, not in this file.
Diane · Chief of Staff
Draft the weekly update emailT-6 · just now
Lauren · Engineering
Migrate settings pageT-40 · no update for 8h
Quinn · QA
Compare vector databasesT-22 · 40m · pid 48213
04 / Self-host
Railway or Docker. A few commands.
One password, a push token, a volume. The server never runs your bots. Set the variables and the volume before the first deploy.
botroll hash-password
railway init
railway service
railway volume add --mount-path /data
railway variables --set …
railway up
railway domaindocker build -t botroll .
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 \
-v botroll-data:/data \
--env-file botroll.env botroll05 / Open source
A small Python package. No dependencies.
MIT licence. Linux and macOS. The repository is private until it is published; the link will resolve when it is.
View on GitHub
Agents can read llms.txt for how to adopt a roll. Humans start at the README.
06 / FAQ
The usual questions.
Why not Linear, Jira or GitHub Issues?
They are built for people coordinating projects, and they work well for that. The problem here is smaller and closer to the bots: did this bot write down all three parts of what you just asked, is it still on them, and what does it need from you?
Do I need a server?
No. The files, the CLI, the watchdog and the static board run on your machine. botroll serve is optional, for a password-protected board you can open from a phone.
Does the watchdog kill anything?
No. A wrong kill costs more than a report. The bot that started the process knows whether it is safe to stop.
Is the GitHub repository public?
Not yet. The source will be published when it is ready. This page reads the URL from config.js so the links appear when that happens.
How do I get in touch?
Email hello@botroll.co.