Boards & Zones
Boards are 2D spatial canvases for organizing branches. Like Figma for AI coding work — drag, group, comment, collaborate in real time.
Instead of linear lists or kanban columns, every branch lives at an (x, y) coordinate on a board. Sessions appear as a genealogy tree on the branch card. Multiple users see the same canvas with live cursors.
An Agor board with custom-styled zones forming a pipeline. Each branch card shows its session tree, env tabs, and PR badge — and the floating PiP preview shows a session live-streaming as it works.
Why spatial?
Your brain remembers space. You remember:
- “The auth branch is in the top-left corner.”
- “Testing sessions cluster on the right.”
- “That failed experiment is way down there.”
This is location-based memory — the same reason you remember where you parked but forget a shopping list. A 2D board gives every branch and session a place. Linear lists discard that.
Like Figma did for design, Agor brings spatial collaboration to AI coding:
- Everyone sees the same board.
- Real-time cursors show where teammates are working.
- Drag a branch, teammates see it move instantly.
See Multiplayer & Social for the full collaboration story (cursors, facepile, comments, attention pulse).
Zones
A zone is a spatial region on a board that triggers a templated prompt when a branch is dropped into it.
Drag a branch into “Code Review” → auto-prompts the agent for review. Drag into “Needs Tests” → auto-prompts for test generation. Drag into “Ship It” → auto-prompts for changelog + PR description.
Zones turn your board into a workflow engine. Spatial position means something — it triggers behavior.
How zone triggers work
When you drop a branch into a zone:
-
Session selection — which session gets the prompt?
- Always create new session (default) — clean slate for the zone’s task
- Let me pick — choose which session in the tree has the right context
- Most recently active — usually the session you were just working in
-
Templated prompt executes — the zone’s Handlebars template renders with dynamic data from the branch, board, repo, and environment.
Handlebars template variables
Zone prompts have access to:
- Branch —
{{ branch.name }},{{ branch.issue_url }},{{ branch.pull_request_url }},{{ branch.unique_id }} - Board —
{{ board.name }},{{ board.description }} - Session —
{{ session.title }},{{ session.description }} - Environment —
{{ environment.url }},{{ environment.status }} - Repo —
{{ repo.name }},{{ repo.default_branch }}
Example zone prompt
Review the implementation of {{ branch.issue_url }}.
Check if:
1. All acceptance criteria from the issue are met
2. Edge cases are handled
3. Error messages are user-friendly
If approved, comment on {{ branch.pull_request_url }} with summary.Drop a branch → auto-prompts with issue and PR links pre-filled. No copy-paste, no forgetting which ticket this was for.
The zone trigger modal — pick an action, override session config, and edit the templated prompt before firing.
Kanban-style flows
The classic pattern: chain zones into a pipeline.
[ Triage ] → [ Analyze ] → [ Build ] → [ Review ] → [ Ship ]
issue plan code cross-agent PR + notes
reviewEach zone has a different prompt template. Drag a branch across the board and it walks through the workflow, picking up context at every step.
You can also build asymmetric pipelines: a “Stuck” zone that escalates to a different model, a “Spawn 5 reviewers” zone that fans out to multiple agents, a “Generate tests” zone wired to a Codex template.
Multiple boards, one workspace
A workspace can have many boards — one per team, one per project, one per long-running initiative. Boards are independent canvases with their own branches, zones, and members.
Common patterns:
- Per-project boards — One board per major product, each with its own zones and team.
- Per-pipeline boards — A “PR review” board, a “Bug triage” board, a “Roadmap” board.
- Solo vs team boards — Personal scratch board for experiments, team board for shipped work.
Cards (Beta)
Branches aren’t the only thing that can live on a board. Cards are generic workflow entities — support tickets, sales leads, content pieces — that an assistant creates and manages via MCP. Same spatial canvas, same zones, same multiplayer presence — just not git-bound.
Related
- Branches — The primary primitive that lives on boards
- Sessions & Trees — The genealogy rendered on each branch card
- Multiplayer & Social — Cursors, facepile, comments
- Cards — Non-branch entities on boards
- Assistants — Agents that orchestrate branches and zones