Tirith
Coordination server for parallel coding agents: claims, contracts, notices, and memory notes.
Runs on your machine from its package; the steps are below.
What it does
- Reads
- Writes
- High impact
At most: creates or changes data: records, files, settings.
What it costs
FreeOdel charges nothing per call. The publisher may charge for its own service.
Runs locally over stdio
This server isn't hosted — your MCP client launches it from a package registry. Use one of the commands below, or drop the config into your client (e.g. Claude Desktop).
Distributed via cargo as `tirith-mcp`.
Tirith
Coordination server for parallel coding agents.
Claims, a task board, interface contracts, change notices, a decisions log,
path-scoped memory notes, and agent messages, over MCP.
Run five or ten coding agents on one repository and they edit the same files, rename things others depend on, and build both sides of an interface to different shapes. Tirith is a small daemon they all talk to: an agent claims files before editing, gets the notices, contracts, decisions, and notes for those files back with the claim, and publishes the shape of an interface before either side implements it.
It works with anything that speaks MCP, over stdio or HTTP: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, LangGraph, CrewAI, or a plain script.
It also remembers. Agents leave notes scoped to repository paths, so what one agent learned about a file reaches the next agent that claims it. Tirith stores no conversation history and no embeddings.
Status: v1 shipped. Every primitive, the CLI, persistence, and the dashboard are built and tested, against the definition in ADR-0013; tool schemas follow semantic versioning.
Install
macOS and Linux:
curl -LsSf https://eabz.github.io/tirith/install.sh | sh
Windows (PowerShell):
irm https://eabz.github.io/tirith/install.ps1 | iex
With cargo (the package is tirith-mcp, the binary is tirith):
cargo install tirith-mcp
Already installed? tirith update replaces the binary in place with the
latest release. Prebuilt binaries for macOS, Linux, and Windows on x86_64
and ARM64 are on the releases page;
every option is in docs/1-about/05-installation.md.
Listed in the MCP Registry:
mcp-name: io.github.eabz/tirith.
Quick start
In the repository, run:
tirith init
It registers tirith stdio in .mcp.json and puts a short block in
AGENTS.md (--file for another). The protocol itself, from the first
claim to who leads a swarm, arrives as the MCP server's instructions
every time a session connects; a repository that wants its own protocol
keeps it in .tirith/instructions.md (tirith init --instructions
writes the built-in one there to edit). Other clients register the same
command by hand: the shim starts the repository's daemon the first time a
session needs it, replaces a daemon of another version, and proxies to it
after that; nothing has to be started by hand.
| Client | Setup |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | claude mcp add tirith -- tirith stdio |
| Cursor | .cursor/mcp.json: { "mcpServers": { "tirith": { "command": "tirith", "args": ["stdio"] } } } |
| Codex | codex mcp add tirith -- tirith stdio |
| LangGraph, CrewAI, curl | connect over HTTP, see docs/2-examples/02-client-setup.md |
The daemon serves MCP at http://127.0.0.1:7477/mcp and a live dashboard
at http://127.0.0.1:7477/. State is written to .tirith/ in your
repository: contracts, notices, decisions, and memory notes are meant to
be committed; .tirith/runtime/ (claims, tasks, messages) is gitignored
by a .gitignore Tirith writes itself.
Every agent passes a stable agent name with each call. That is the only
convention it has to follow. To run several agents at once, paste the
protocol block from
docs/2-examples/03-swarm-playbook.md
into your project's agent instructions: it says which session leads,
when it spawns workers, what each worker is told, and which model each
runs on. The daemon serves the same rules in its instructions.
What it does
| Primitive | Tools | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Claims | claim, release, renew, claims_list | Lease files or directories before editing. Overlaps are refused with the owner, reason, and expiry, or waited out server-side with wait_secs. Leases expire if the agent dies, and the agent is told on its next call. |
| Task board | task_create, task_pull, task_update, task_list | Tasks with priority, owner, and dependencies. Agents pull the next unblocked task, skipping tasks another agent holds, and can wait server-side for one with wait_secs; a task whose owner goes silent returns to the board. |
| Contracts | contract_publish, contract_get, contract_list | Interface shapes published and versioned before implementation. A new version notifies its consumers automatically. |
| Change notices | notice_publish, notice_list | "Renamed X to Y, these paths are affected." Dependents get them in the brief that comes back with a claim, once each. |
| Decisions log | decision_record, decision_list | Settled choices with rationale, so nothing is decided twice. |
| Memory notes | memory_write, memory_read, memory_search, memory_delete | Lessons, traps, and handoffs scoped to repository paths. Committed Markdown, searchable, and delivered to whoever claims the paths a note is about. |
| Messages | message_send, message_list | Short notes between agents, delivered on the recipient's next call, so any MCP client can take part. Runtime only. |
| Status | status | Counts, persistence and load problems; verbose adds who holds what. |
Twenty-two tools, each with a description of every parameter, MCP
annotations, and an output schema, plus the protocol as the server's
instructions on connect (ADR-0038). Every result is JSON with a status
field, lists are paged, and any result may carry lost (a lease that
ended) or inbox (messages waiting). The full reference, the single source of truth for
tool schemas, is docs/1-about/04-primitives.md.
Example
Two agents, one directory. The second is refused with enough information to decide what to do next:
tirith claim --agent alice --reason "refactor session handling" src/auth/
# ok alice src/auth expires 04:14:34Z
tirith claim --agent bob --reason "fix login redirect" src/auth/login.rs
# conflict src/auth/login.rs overlaps src/auth (alice: "refactor session handling", expires 04:14:34Z)
A note left for whoever edits a path next. Alice writes it once; it comes back on Bob's claim without anyone searching, as an excerpt, never a body:
tirith memory write --agent alice "Session ids are opaque" -k gotcha --path src/auth/ <<'NOTE'
Tokens are opaque strings. Compare them, never parse them.
NOTE
tirith release --agent alice
tirith claim --agent bob --reason "fix login redirect" src/auth/login.rs
# ok bob src/auth/login.rs expires 04:14:34Z
# memory:
# session-ids-are-opaque gotcha 04:04:34Z paths src/auth Session ids are opaque: Tokens are opaque strings. Compare them, never parse them.
The full walkthrough, with contracts, notices, and the same calls over raw MCP, is docs/2-examples/01-two-agents-demo.md; the script is examples/demo.sh.
CLI
Every tool has a subcommand; the CLI uses the same MCP path agents do.
tirith serve # run the repo's daemon by hand
tirith stdio # per-session shim clients spawn; starts the daemon if needed
tirith update # replace the binary with the latest release
tirith status # counts, and who holds what
tirith init [--file AGENTS.md] [--instructions] # register the server, add the agents block
tirith claim | release | renew | claims
tirith task create | pull | update | list
tirith contract publish | get | list
tirith notice publish | list
tirith decision record | list
tirith memory write | read | search | delete # body from --body, --file, or stdin
tirith message send | list # talk to other agents; the inbox shows on any result
tirith lead log # the swarm lead and its policy's decisions
tirith lead human # items waiting for you, most agents blocked first
tirith lead human done <id> [--reply TEXT] # answer one; the reply reaches its sender
tirith tray # macOS only: menu bar icon listing every daemon
tirith tools # list tools with descriptions
tirith call <tool> '<json>' # call any tool directly
--agent sets your name, --json prints the raw result, and non-ok
outcomes exit with status 1.
Swarm lead and escalations
The session that spawns other agents claims the reserved path
.tirith/lead and becomes the swarm lead; status and the dashboard show
who holds it. The daemon then handles routine escalations with fixed
rules, without spending an LLM turn:
- What is the lead's: while it holds
.tirith/lead, only the lead publishes contracts, creates tasks, records decisions, deletes memory notes and forces another agent's task; anyone else getsconflictnaming the lead and proposes the change withmessage_send(ADR-0036). With no lead nothing is gated. The lead is also the only session that commits, pushes, opens pull requests or deploys (ADR-0037). - What escalates: a task set to
blocked(its note is the reason), or the third refusal of the same claim within 360 s. A message to the lead is never an escalation. - Where it goes: while there is a lead, to the lead's inbox as a
message from
tirith, tagged "may need the human" when it mentions credentials, permissions, spending, or destructive steps. Nothing reaches you on its own: the lead relays what needs you withmessage_sendtohuman, written for you. While there is no lead, escalations go to your queue. - Your queue: the dashboard's "Needs you" list,
tirith lead human,/api/humanon the dashboard port, and the macOS tray, which lists each item's sender and first line and notifies you of new ones. Answer with the dashboard's Done button ortirith lead human done <id> --reply "..."; the reply reaches the sender as a message fromhuman.
Claim grants, refusals, waits, releases and lease ends, notice pushes, and
escalations are appended to the lead decision log: tirith lead log, or
/api/lead on the dashboard port. Design:
ADR-0027; per tool:
04-primitives.md.
Documentation
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| 1-about | Purpose, architecture, project structure, tool reference, installation |
| 2-examples | The demo, client setup for every supported framework, and the swarm playbook: lead, workers, briefs, models |
| 3-tests | Testing strategy |
| 4-style | Rust rules and their sources, git conventions |
| 5-decisions | Architecture decision records |
| 6-agent-workflow | How agents work on this repo: Serena, memory, Tirith on itself |
| 7-release | Release process and version bumping |
| index.html | The landing page at eabz.github.io/tirith |
Contributing
Coding agents must read AGENTS.md first. This repository is
coordinated with Tirith itself: a daemon runs for the repo and agents claim
files through it before editing. The skills in
.agents/skills/ say how.
