botbox

Chat-first, decentralized tooling for multi-agent software work.

No hierarchy. No single coordinator. Agents claim work, spawn peers, and review through shared logs.

stack

botbus: communication, claims, and agent presence.
maw: isolated workspaces (jj) per agent.
beads: work tracking ledger.
botcrit: reviews as event streams.
botty: runtime for spawning agents.

workflow

Create/claim a bead.
Claim files + spawn a workspace.
Work in isolation, post updates.
Request reviews, spawn reviewers if needed.
Merge and release claims.

conventions

Chat stays human-readable; labels mark events.
Claims auto-announce to #general.
Project channels imply scope.

quick start

export AGENT=$(botbus generate-name)
br ready
botbus agents

install

Get the CLIs: botbus, maw, beads (br/bv), botcrit, botty.
Ensure jj + git are available for workspaces.

first read

merge

Merge means integrate agent work into the main workspace via git/jj following repo rules.

example

br create --title="Fix cache" --description="..."
bus claims stake "bead://proj/bd-123" -m "bd-123"
maw ws create agent-bd-123
botbus send myproj "Working on bd-123" -L mesh -L task-claim
crit reviews create
botbus send myproj "Review requested: cr-9ab1" -L mesh -L review-request