15 KiB
Agent Teams
A new approach to task management with AI agent teams. Assemble agent teams with different roles that work autonomously in parallel, communicate with each other, create and manage their own tasks, review code, and collaborate across teams. You manage everything through a kanban board — like a CTO with an AI engineering team.
Key capabilities:
- Agent Teams — create teams with roles, agents work autonomously in parallel
- Cross-team communication — agents message each other within and across teams
- Kanban board — tasks change status in real-time as agents work
- Code review — diff view per task (accept/reject/comment), similar to Cursor
- Solo mode — single agent with self-managed tasks, expandable to full team
- Live process section — see running agents, open URLs in browser
- Direct messaging — send messages to any agent, comment on tasks, add quick actions on kanban cards
- Deep session analysis — bash commands, reasoning, subprocesses breakdown
- Context monitoring — token usage by category (CLAUDE.md, tool outputs, thinking, team coordination)
- Built-in code editor — edit files with Git support without leaving the app
- MCP integration — built-in mcp-server for external tools and agent plugins
- Post-compact context recovery — restores team-management instructions after context compaction
- Notification system — alerts on task completion, agent attention needed, errors
- Zero-setup onboarding — built-in Claude Code installation and authentication
100% free, open source, and local-first. The app uses available Claude/Codex/OpenCode provider access instead of forcing a single app-level API-key setup.
Tech Stack
Electron 40.x, React 19.x, TypeScript 5.x, Tailwind CSS 3.x, Zustand 4.x
Commands
Always use pnpm (not npm/yarn) for this project.
Workspace membership is canonical in pnpm-workspace.yaml; do not re-add root package.json.workspaces, because npm subproject installs in Codex Cloud must treat nested packages as standalone projects.
Do NOT run pnpm lint:fix unless the user explicitly asks for it — it interferes with agents running in parallel.
When running build/typecheck/test commands, pipe through tail -20 to avoid flooding the context window (e.g. pnpm typecheck 2>&1 | tail -20).
-
Hard guardrails:
AGENT_CRITICAL_GUARDRAILS.md -
pnpm install- Install dependencies -
pnpm dev- Desktop Electron app with hot reload -
pnpm build- Production build -
pnpm typecheck- Type checking -
pnpm lint:fix- Lint and auto-fix -
pnpm format- Format code -
pnpm test- Run all vitest tests -
pnpm test:watch- Watch mode -
pnpm test:coverage- Coverage report -
pnpm test:coverage:critical- Critical path coverage -
pnpm test:chunks- Chunk building tests -
pnpm test:semantic- Semantic step extraction tests -
pnpm test:noise- Noise filtering tests -
pnpm test:task-filtering- Task tool filtering tests -
pnpm check- Full quality gate (types + lint + test + build) -
pnpm fix- Lint fix + format -
pnpm quality- Full check + format check + knip
Git commits
Use normal, human-readable messages. Do not add tool-attribution trailers (for example Made-with: …) to commit messages.
Path Aliases
Use path aliases for imports:
@main/*→src/main/*@renderer/*→src/renderer/*@shared/*→src/shared/*@preload/*→src/preload/*
Features Architecture
All new medium and large features should follow the canonical slice standard in docs/FEATURE_ARCHITECTURE_STANDARD.md.
Default location:
src/features/<feature-name>/
Reference implementation:
src/features/recent-projects
Feature-local guidance:
src/features/CLAUDE.md
Legacy note:
src/renderer/features/*still exists for older renderer-only slices- do not use
src/renderer/features/*as the default for new cross-process features - thin renderer-only slices may still stay local when they do not need
core/, transport wiring, or multi-process boundaries
Data Sources
~/.claude/projects/{encoded-path}/*.jsonl - Session files ~/.claude/todos/{sessionId}.json - Todo data
Path encoding: /Users/name/project → -Users-name-project
Critical Concepts
Agent Blocks
- Use
wrapAgentBlock(text)from@shared/constants/agentBlocksto wrap agent-only content. Do NOT manually concatenateAGENT_BLOCK_OPEN/CLOSE— the wrapper handles trimming and formatting. stripAgentBlocks(text)— removes agent blocks for UI displayunwrapAgentBlock(block)— extracts content from a single block- Agent blocks are hidden from the user in UI, used for internal instructions between agents.
isMeta Flag
isMeta: false= Real user message (creates new chunks)isMeta: true= Internal message (tool results, system-generated)
Chunk Structure
Independent chunk types for timeline visualization:
- UserChunk: Single user message with metrics
- AIChunk: All assistant responses with tool executions and spawned subagents
- SystemChunk: Command output/system messages
- CompactChunk: System metadata/structural messages
Each chunk has: timestamp, duration, metrics (tokens, cost, tools)
Task/Subagent Filtering
Task tool_use blocks are filtered when subagent exists Keep orphaned Task calls (no matching subagent) for visibility.
Agent Teams
Agent Teams is this app's orchestration layer across Claude, Codex, and OpenCode runtimes. For Claude runtime behavior, also track Anthropic's upstream agent-team docs: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/agent-teams
Debugging Team Launches And Teammates
- Use
docs/team-management/debugging-agent-teams.mdwhen a team launch hangs, a teammate remainsregistered, OpenCode showsbootstrap unconfirmed, messages are missing, or Task Log Stream looks wrong. - Always correlate UI diagnostics with persisted files under
~/.claude/teams/<teamName>/, live process state, and runtime-specific evidence before changing code. - For OpenCode secondary lanes, do not confuse primary filesystem readiness with lane bootstrap readiness. A missing OpenCode inbox during primary launch is not automatically a bug.
- Do not treat
member_briefingas runtime evidence. OpenCode deliverability requires lane-scoped committed runtime evidence such asopencode-sessions.jsonplus its manifest entry.
Message Delivery Architecture
- Lead reads ONLY stdin (stream-json). Messages to lead must go through
relayLeadInboxMessages()which converts inbox entries to stdin. - Native teammates are independent CLI/process teammates. Claude/Codex-style teammates read their own inbox files between turns; no relay through the lead is needed.
- OpenCode secondary lanes do not watch teammate inbox files. User DMs are persisted to
inboxes/{member}.json, then delivered through the OpenCode runtime bridge with explicit delivery proof. - User → Teammate DM: UI writes to
inboxes/{member}.jsonwithfrom: "user". Native teammates read it directly; OpenCode teammates receive it through runtime delivery. - Teammate → User response: Teammate writes to
inboxes/user.jsonor uses the runtime-specific Agent Teams message tool that persists there. UI reads all inbox files includinguser.jsonviaTeamInboxReader. relayMemberInboxMessagesis legacy fallback code, not the normal teammate-DM path. The UI caller insrc/main/ipc/teams.tsis disabled because lead-mediated relay caused lead replies, duplicate messages, and relay loops.relayLeadInboxMessagesis ACTIVE - lead needs it because lead reads stdin, not inbox files.- Messages in
user.jsonmay lackmessageId-TeamInboxReadergenerates deterministic IDs via sha256(from+timestamp+text). - See
docs/team-management/research-messaging.mdfor full architecture details.
Team Protocol Details
- Process.team?
{ teamName, memberName, memberColor }— enriched by SubagentResolver from Task call inputs andteammate_spawnedtool results - Teammate messages arrive as
<teammate-message teammate_id="..." color="..." summary="...">content</teammate-message>in user messages (isMeta: false). Detected byisParsedTeammateMessage()— excluded from UserChunks, rendered asTeammateMessageItemcards - Session ongoing detection treats
SendMessageshutdown_response (approve: true) and its tool_result as ending events, not ongoing activity - Display summary counts distinct teammates (by name) separately from regular subagents
- Team tools: TeamCreate, TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, TaskList, TaskGet, SendMessage, TeamDelete — have readable summaries in
toolSummaryHelpers.ts
Structured Task References
- TaskRef:
{ taskId, displayId, teamName }— shared typed reference used to persist task mentions across UI and storage - Persisted optional fields:
InboxMessage.taskRefs,TaskComment.taskRefs,TeamTask.descriptionTaskRefs,TeamTask.promptTaskRefs - Request surfaces:
SendMessageRequest.taskRefs,AddTaskCommentRequest.taskRefs,CreateTaskRequest.descriptionTaskRefs,CreateTaskRequest.promptTaskRefs,UpdateKanbanPatchrequest_changes.taskRefs - Renderer flow: task-aware inputs use
useTaskSuggestions()withtaskReferenceUtils.tsto extract refs from text; encoded zero-width metadata preserves exact task identity while keeping visible text readable - Main/IPC flow:
src/main/ipc/teams.tsandsrc/main/ipc/crossTeam.tsvalidate structured refs beforeTeamDataService, inbox stores, task stores, and readers persist/rehydrate them - Rendering/navigation:
linkifyTaskIdsInMarkdown()andparseTaskLinkHref()turn persisted refs into stabletask://links across messages, comments, task descriptions, and activity items
Visible Context Tracking
Tracks what consumes tokens in Claude's context window across 6 categories (discriminated union on category field):
| Category | Type | Source |
|---|---|---|
claude-md |
ClaudeMdContextInjection |
CLAUDE.md files (global, project, directory) |
mentioned-file |
MentionedFileInjection |
User @-mentioned files |
tool-output |
ToolOutputInjection |
Tool execution results (Read, Bash, etc.) |
thinking-text |
ThinkingTextInjection |
Extended thinking + text output tokens |
team-coordination |
TeamCoordinationInjection |
Team tools (SendMessage, TaskCreate, etc.) |
user-message |
UserMessageInjection |
User prompt text per turn |
- Types:
src/renderer/types/contextInjection.ts—ContextInjectionunion,ContextStats,TokensByCategory - Tracker:
src/renderer/utils/contextTracker.ts—computeContextStats(),processSessionContextWithPhases() - Context Phases: Compaction events reset accumulated injections, tracked via
ContextPhaseInfo - Display surfaces:
ContextBadge(per-turn popover),TokenUsageDisplay(hover breakdown),SessionContextPanel(full panel)
Error Handling
- Main: try/catch, console.error, return safe defaults
- Renderer: error state in Zustand store
- IPC: parameter validation, graceful degradation
Performance
- LRU Cache: Avoid re-parsing large JSONL files
- Streaming JSONL: Line-by-line processing
- Virtual Scrolling: For large session/message lists
- Debounced File Watching: 100ms debounce
Troubleshooting
Build Issues
rm -rf dist dist-electron node_modules
pnpm install
pnpm build
Type Errors
pnpm typecheck
Test Failures
Check for changes in message parsing or chunk building logic.
Packaged app: CLI / “Not logged in”
Each successful run of CliInstallerService.getStatus() tries to append one NDJSON line to claude-cli-auth-diag.ndjson (field diagFile: full path). Typical location: Electron app.getPath('logs') — on macOS often ~/Library/Logs/<product name>/ (exact folder is OS- and build-specific). If the file exceeds 512 KiB, it is truncated to empty before the next append (avoids unbounded growth). No line is written if the app is not under Electron, log dir cannot be resolved, or disk write fails. IPC (cliInstaller:getStatus) dedupes work for 5s (STATUS_CACHE_TTL_MS in src/main/ipc/cliInstaller.ts), so rapid UI polls do not each trigger a new file append. Default logger hides info/warn in production; logger.error still goes to the console (e.g. if assembling the diag line throws — should be rare).
TypeScript Conventions
Naming
| Category | Convention | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Services/Components | PascalCase | ProjectScanner.ts |
| Utilities | camelCase | pathDecoder.ts |
| Constants | UPPER_SNAKE_CASE | PARALLEL_WINDOW_MS |
| Type Guards | isXxx | isParsedRealUserMessage() |
| Builders | buildXxx | buildChunks() |
| Getters | getXxx | getResponses() |
Type Guards
// Message type guards (src/main/types/messages.ts)
isParsedRealUserMessage(msg) // isMeta: false, string content
isParsedInternalUserMessage(msg) // isMeta: true, array content
isAssistantMessage(msg) // type: "assistant"
// Chunk type guards
isUserChunk(chunk) // type: "user"
isAIChunk(chunk) // type: "ai"
isSystemChunk(chunk) // type: "system"
isCompactChunk(chunk) // type: "compact"
// Context injection type guards (component-scoped in ContextBadge.tsx, not exported)
isClaudeMdInjection(inj) // category: "claude-md"
isMentionedFileInjection(inj) // category: "mentioned-file"
isToolOutputInjection(inj) // category: "tool-output"
isThinkingTextInjection(inj) // category: "thinking-text"
isTeamCoordinationInjection(inj) // category: "team-coordination"
isUserMessageInjection(inj) // category: "user-message"
Barrel Exports
src/main/services/ and its domain subdirectories have barrel exports via index.ts:
// Preferred
import { ChunkBuilder, ProjectScanner } from './services';
// Also valid
import { ChunkBuilder } from './services/analysis';
Note: renderer utils/hooks/types do NOT have barrel exports — import directly from files.
Import Order
- External packages
- Path aliases (@main, @renderer, @shared)
- Relative imports
Storage And Persistence
- New persistence flows should depend on small repository/storage abstractions, not directly on
localStorage,IndexedDB, Electron APIs, or JSON files from UI components/hooks. - Keep persistence concerns split by responsibility: schema/normalization, repository interface, concrete storage implementation, and UI adapter logic should live in separate modules.
- Prefer designs where the high-level feature code can swap local browser/Electron storage for a server-backed implementation without rewriting the rendering layer.
- Reuse generic persistence/layout infrastructure when adding new draggable/resizable surfaces instead of copying feature-specific storage code.