Dolt backend compatibility: beads v0.50+ removed JSONL

[mikez93]

Summary

As of beads CLI v0.50.1 (2026-02-14), the bd tool switched its default backend from SQLite+JSONL to Dolt (a SQL database with Git-style version control). In v0.51.0, the entire JSONL sync layer was removed (~11,000 lines of code).

beads-kanban-ui 0.4.2 reads directly from .beads/issues.jsonl via file-watching in the Rust backend. That file no longer exists in Dolt-backed repos, so the UI shows no data.

What Changed in Beads

Version	Date	Change
v0.49.0	Jan 22	Migration tooling added (bd migrate --to-dolt)
v0.50.1	Feb 14	Dolt becomes default backend
v0.51.0	Feb 16	SQLite backend, JSONL sync, daemon, 3-way merge engine all removed
v0.52.0	Feb 17	Stabilization (current stable)

Active storage is now in .beads/dolt/ (a Dolt database). The bd CLI exposes --json flags on all commands for programmatic access.

Impact

• New repos initialized with bd init on v0.50+ have no issues.jsonl file
• Existing repos migrated via bd migrate --to-dolt lose their JSONL file
• beads-kanban-ui 0.4.2 is effectively non-functional with current beads

Possible Approaches

1. Query via bd CLI — e.g. bd list --json, bd show <id> --json (simplest, no Dolt dependency)
2. Query Dolt directly — Dolt exposes a MySQL-compatible wire protocol via dolt sql-server
3. Hybrid — use bd CLI as the data layer, keep the existing UI/WebSocket architecture

Environment

• beads-kanban-ui: 0.4.2
• beads CLI: 0.52.0 (Dolt backend)
• macOS 14.x (Apple Silicon)