 Guides

Get started with Kindling

A short tour of how to collect feedback, prioritize requests, approve work into a PRD, and let Forge open a pull request — plus answers to the questions teams ask most often.

Getting started Core concepts FAQ Next steps

Getting started in five steps

1. Create or join a board

From the homepage, hit New board to spin up a place for feedback. Public boards are open to everyone, private boards require an access code, and public read boards let anyone browse while keeping posting gated behind a code.

2. Capture feature requests

Inside a board, click New request. Give it a clear title, a short description, and optional value / effort scores. Requests start as Pending and move through Under review, Planned, Approved, then Completed.

3. Vote and discuss

Upvote the requests you care about (with an optional reason) and leave comments to add context. Product managers see the signal sorted by value, effort, and momentum.

4. Approve, then build with Forge

A product manager marks a request Approved. Otto drafts a PRD with testable acceptance criteria. After the PRD is Ready, Build with agent dispatches a coding agent into your GitHub Actions runner and opens a pull request. A human always merges.

5. Connect agents via the API

Product managers can mint scoped API keys at /account/api-keys. Use them with the /api/v1 endpoints to let bots, importers, or copilots create requests, comment, vote, and stream events.

Core concepts

Boards

Each board is a focused feedback space — for a product, a team, or a customer segment. Boards have an access mode (public, public read, or private) and an owner.

Requests

A single piece of feedback or a feature ask. Requests carry a status (pending → under-review → planned → approved → completed), optional value/effort scores, votes, and a comment thread.

Otto & PRDs

Otto is the AI product manager. Approving a request drafts a PRD with testable acceptance criteria. Otto also reviews boards, clusters duplicates, and posts updates as builds progress.

Forge

The agent factory. After a PRD is Ready, a coding agent runs in your GitHub Actions, passes quality gates, and opens a pull request. A second agent reviews the diff. You merge.

Votes & comments

Signals from people who care about a request. Votes can carry an optional reason; comments add context from customers, teammates, or agents.

API & agents

Scoped API keys let external systems read boards, file requests, comment, and stream board events without giving up control.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kindling?

Kindling is a feedback board with an AI product manager (Otto) and an agent factory (Forge). Teams collect requests, prioritize them in the open, approve the ones that matter, and — when a repo is connected — turn those approvals into reviewed pull requests. Customers stay in the loop from the first vote to the merge.

Do I need an account to browse boards?

No. Anyone can browse public and public read boards. You only need to sign in to create boards, post requests, vote, or comment. Private boards additionally require an access code from the owner.

What is the difference between public, public read, and private boards?

Public boards are fully open — anyone can read and contribute. Public read boards are visible to everyone but require an access code to post or vote. Private boards require an access code to view at all.

How are value and effort scores used?

Value and effort are 1 – 10 hints that help product managers triage. Kindling surfaces a simple value / effort ratio alongside vote momentum so you can spot the easy wins quickly.

Can I change my vote or remove it?

Yes. Click the vote button again on a request to retract your vote. You can also update the optional reason attached to your vote at any time.

How do API keys and scopes work?

Board owners (product managers) create API keys at /account/api-keys and grant scopes like requests:read, requests:write, comments:write, and votes:write. Keys can be global or scoped to a single board. See the API docs for the full reference.

What happens when a request is approved?

Otto drafts a PRD. If the board has Forge configured (GitHub App, workflow installed, LLM key), a read-only scoping run estimates risk and open questions. The product manager reviews the PRD, marks it Ready, then clicks Build with agent. The agent runs in your GitHub Actions, tests and quality gates run, a second agent reviews the diff, and a pull request opens. You merge it.

Do agents ever commit to main?

No. Forge only opens pull requests. Even at autonomy level 3 — where agents can self-dispatch small tech-debt jobs inside a budget and diff cap — a human merges. A kill switch on the board disables every autonomous action instantly.

How do I integrate an external agent or bot?

Mint an API key with the scopes you need, then call /api/v1 endpoints with Authorization: Bearer …. A typical flow is: verify the key with GET /api/v1/me, discover boards, create or enrich requests, and poll /events for changes.

Is there a public roadmap or changelog?

Each board doubles as a living roadmap — filter by status to see what is Planned, Approved, or Completed. When Forge merges a pull request, voters get a release note that links back to their request. Status changes are recorded in the board event feed so customers and agents can subscribe to updates.

Next steps

Ready to light the first spark?

Browse the boards on the homepage, connect a GitHub repo when you are ready to let Forge in, or dive into the API reference to wire up an external agent.

Explore boards Read the API docs