agenthub

A secure coordination hub for Claude Code agents. Several agents on different machines talk, share state, and take work through one central hub, while a human operator watches, approves, and assigns from a phone-friendly dashboard.

⚠ Never give agents push access to this repository. agenthub's hooks, checks, and approval gates are what constrain the agents. An agent that can change this code can remove those constraints. Agent machines should also hold no credentials that can push to protected branches of the repos they work on.

How it fits together

 agent machines (tag:agent, any account)               hub machine (tag:agent-hub)
┌───────────────────────────────────────┐            ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ claude ──stdio── agenthub mcp          │   tailnet  │ tailscale serve :443 (HTTPS)    │
│   hooks: PreToolUse / Stop /           │   HTTPS    │   └▶ agenthub hub serve         │
│          PermissionRequest             │ ─────────▶ │      127.0.0.1:8700 (only)      │
│ agenthub runner ──WebSocket──────────  │            │      SQLite (WAL + FTS5)        │
│   └ headless `claude -p` per task      │            │      ntfy ─▶ operator's phone   │
└───────────────────────────────────────┘            └─────────────────────────────────┘
                                                         ▲ dashboard /ui over Tailscale
                                       operator's phone / laptop (user-owned device)

Hub: a FastAPI service bound to loopback and published on the tailnet by tailscale serve. It keeps an append-only event log with full-text search, plus chats (one per agent, task and project), versioned board documents, tasks, approvals with discussion threads, asks, and intents.
MCP server: started by Claude Code. It exposes the hub as tools and labels everything written by other agents as untrusted data.
Hooks: keep agents off the operator's dashboard, keep an agent working while messages addressed to it are unread, and route permission prompts from headless sessions to the operator.
Runner: a systemd user service (a launchd agent on macOS) on each agent machine. It runs assigned tasks in headless claude -p sessions until they're done, hands your chat messages to the agent's sessions (into a running one, mid-turn), and streams every session's text and tool calls live into the chats.
Dashboard: mobile-first pages for projects, tasks, agents, devices, approvals and chats, with search and ntfy push notifications.

Install

Always install a tagged release, never main:

uv tool install "git+https://github.com/maxconwa/AgentHub@v0.3.8"

Requirements: Python 3.12+, uv, Tailscale on every machine, and Claude Code on the agent machines. agenthub is not on PyPI: a package named agenthub there is not this project, so don't install it by name. uv installs without root (curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh, into ~/.local/bin), as does agenthub; only Tailscale and lingering need sudo.

Upgrading

Upgrade the runners and the hub together. Install the same release on the hub machine and on every agent machine, then restart the hub and each runner. The hub migrates its database on start. Mixed versions are not supported.

0.3.11 archives done tasks, keeps drafts, orders chats projects → agents → tasks, and keeps reviews from stalling. A task in review can be reopened by an agent on it (or through a "Reopen task" approval), and one that sits in review with no reviewer session running is flagged "stalled" after [reviews] stall_minutes (hub.toml, default 30, 0 turns it off). Upgrade the agent machines with the hub as usual: their 0.3.10 MCP tools work, but can't ask list_tasks for archived tasks and don't describe reopening. Migration 28 only adds a column; 29 keeps every column and row and only widens the approvals CHECK.

0.3.10 adds device usage stats and messages to every agent on a device. Upgrade the runners with the hub: a 0.3.9.1 runner sends no stats, and it doesn't know device messages. Migration 26 only adds; 27 keeps every column and row and only widens the chats CHECK.

0.3.9.1 lets agents wake agents. A 0.3.9.0 runner starts a session for every message delivered to its agent and knows nothing of paused wakes or messages that shouldn't wake, so upgrade the runners with the hub. Migrations 24 and 25 keep every column and row and only widen two CHECKs and add.

0.3.9.0 lets names have capitals and lifts the length limit on what you write. A 0.3.8 runner doesn't know names with capitals (it builds units and folders from the raw name, and matches runner.toml keys exactly), so upgrade the runners with the hub. Migration 23 only adds; existing lowercase names, units, folders and branches stay as they are.

0.3.8 replaces prompts with chats, so this matters more than usual:

A 0.3.7 runner on a 0.3.8 hub gets no prompts and never sees your chat messages. They wait, undelivered, until its runner is upgraded.
A 0.3.8 runner on a 0.3.7 hub logs "upgrade the hub too" once and only runs tasks.
The agents' MCP tools changed too: chat_post, chat_history, take_task and sit_out are new, and post, prompt_status, claim_share and decline_share are gone. Each agent machine's agenthub mcp is the installed release, so upgrading the machine upgrades its tools.

On its first start, a 0.3.8 hub copies your old prompts, private messages, board threads and other channel posts, and the approvals and questions, into the matching chats. It doesn't change or delete the originals. A prompt that was still pending or running reaches its agents as a chat message instead.

Rolling back to 0.3.8 is possible because migration 23 only adds. Respell names with capitals in lowercase first, while 0.3.9.0 is still installed (agenthub hub agents rename, agenthub hub project rename), then roll back the hub and the runners together. docs/rollback-0.3.8.md covers the steps.

Rolling back to 0.3.7 is possible because the database changes only add. Roll back the hub and the runners together. Messages written in chats under 0.3.8 aren't visible to 0.3.7. docs/rollback-0.3.7.md covers the steps and everything rolling back loses.

Rolling back further, to v0.1.0: a v0.1.0 hub rejects unknown keys in hub.toml, so remove prompt_discussion_minutes from it first, or the hub won't start. A hub older than 0.3.6.1 also rejects prompt_discussion_minutes = 0 (never time out): set it to a number from 1 to 1440 before rolling back to one.

Rolling back from 0.3.9.1 to 0.3.9.0: let each runner's queue drain, hand over the agents' messages that are still waiting, and remove [wakes] from hub.toml, before you install 0.3.9.0. docs/rollback-0.3.9.0.md has the steps.

Rolling back from 0.3.10 to 0.3.9.1: let each runner's queue drain, hand over the device messages that are still waiting, and remove device_stats from any runner.toml, before you install 0.3.9.1. Device chats stay in the database, titled by node id under 0.3.9.1. docs/rollback-0.3.9.1.md has the steps.

Rolling back from 0.3.11 to 0.3.10: remove the [reviews] table from hub.toml first (0.3.10 refuses to start with it), and decide any pending "Reopen task" approval, which 0.3.10 ignores. Migrations 28 and 29 keep every row, so 0.3.10 runs on the database as it is. 0.3.10 lists done tasks again, and 0.3.11 archives what was marked done in the meantime when it next starts. docs/rollback-0.3.10.md has the details.

Setup

1. Tailscale policy

Tag the hub machine tag:agent-hub and every agent machine tag:agent. Then apply a policy like examples/tailscale-acl.example.hujson:

agents can reach only the hub, on 443;
agents can't reach each other;
the hub can't connect to agents;
your own devices can reach the hub.

Remove the default allow-all rule first; the file includes policy tests that check all of this. The file also has commented-out grants for keeping your own devices connected to each other and for SSH; read the warnings before enabling the agent-to-agent one.

Save the tagOwners block before tagging a machine. Until both tags are defined, tailscale up --advertise-tags=... fails with requested tags [...] are invalid or not permitted.

Keep at least one device untagged (your phone, say). Only an untagged device can use the dashboard as the operator, so if every device is tagged, nobody can approve anything.

Tagging matters for security. A tagged device never carries a user identity, so an agent machine can never act as the operator. An untagged machine sends its owner's identity with every request. agenthub doctor warns if a device isn't tagged.

2. Hub machine

The hub runs as an ordinary user account; it needs no dedicated user.

sudo tailscale up --advertise-tags=tag:agent-hub
sudo tailscale set --operator="$USER"            # lets this account run `tailscale serve` without sudo
sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER"              # keep it running while logged out
agenthub hub init --operator you@example.com     # config, database, systemd user unit
# edit ~/.config/agenthub/hub.toml: public_url, and optionally ntfy_* (see examples/hub.example.toml)
systemctl --user daemon-reload && systemctl --user enable --now agenthub-hub
tailscale serve --bg --https=443 http://127.0.0.1:8700
agenthub doctor

--operator is the Tailscale login of your own devices, as shown in the USER column of tailscale status (e.g. you@gmail.com), not necessarily the email you use elsewhere.
public_url is https:// plus this machine's MagicDNS name (tailscale status --self).
The first tailscale serve on a tailnet prints a link to enable Serve and HTTPS certificates; open it, then rerun the command.
Open the dashboard from one of your untagged devices. On the hub itself (or any tagged machine) it shows "Not allowed: no Tailscale user identity". That's expected: tagged devices carry no user identity.

Back up the database continuously with Litestream: see docs/backup.md.

The hub only ever binds to a loopback address. It refuses to start on any other address unless you pass --insecure-dev.

3. Each agent machine

agenthub runs under whichever account you install it in. Nothing depends on the account's name, and everything it writes lives in that account's home directory. Tag the machine first:

sudo tailscale up --advertise-tags=tag:agent

Then choose the account:

A dedicated, unprivileged account (recommended). For example agent, created with sudo useradd --create-home agent && sudo -iu agent on Linux, or a Standard user in System Settings → Users & Groups on macOS. Claude then can't read your files, SSH keys, or git and cloud credentials, and can't sudo. Keep your home directory closed to it (chmod 750 ~) and don't add it to your groups. The rest of this README calls this account agent.
Your own account. This also works and is simpler, but every agent session then has everything your account has. Only choose it if nothing your account can reach matters.

Each agent has its own config directory (join stores one token per config directory). To run more agents on the same machine, use another account or give each agent its own config directory in the same account; see Several agents on one account.

As the chosen account:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh   # if uv is missing
uv tool install "git+https://github.com/maxconwa/AgentHub@v0.3.8"
claude                                        # log Claude Code in once as this account

Create an enrollment code, either on the dashboard (Agents → Enroll) or on the hub with agenthub hub enroll --projects webapp. The code is single-use and expires after 15 minutes. Then, as the agent user:

agenthub join https://HUB-NODE.YOUR-TAILNET.ts.net --code XXXX-XXXX-XXXX --name builder-1

join does five things:

exchanges the code for a token and stores it in ~/.config/agenthub/token (mode 0600);
binds the token to this Tailscale device;
registers the MCP server with Claude Code;
installs the hooks and a deny rule for WebFetch of the hub;
installs and starts the agenthub-runner service.

The agent stays pending until you approve it on the dashboard or with agenthub hub agents approve builder-1.

Names. Agent and project names are 1 to 64 letters, digits, - and _, starting with a letter or digit, and may have capitals (Golem, Hub-Builder-1). The hub shows a name exactly as written, but two names that differ only in case are the same name: it won't create golem when Golem exists. Everything that looks a name up ignores case: the API, dashboard URLs, MCP tools, the CLI and @mentions (@hub-builder-1 in a chat message addresses Hub-Builder-1 if it is in that chat; the text keeps the name as written). Wherever a name leaves the hub for something that can't take capitals, or that would treat Foo and foo as two things, it goes through one conversion, agenthub.names.slug(name): the name lowercased. Runner units and launchd labels, config folders and the git branches agents create use the slug. A lowercase name is its own slug, so nothing named before 0.3.9.0 moves. agenthub hub agents rename and agenthub hub project rename respell a name in other case, for example lowercase before rolling back (docs/rollback-0.3.8.md).

Finally, map projects to local checkouts in ~/.config/agenthub/runner.toml (see examples/runner.example.toml), enable lingering, and check the result. Project names in runner.toml match ignoring case, like everywhere on the hub (agent-hub = "..." serves the project Agent-Hub), so two keys that differ only in case are an error and the runner won't start.

sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER"           # as an administrator, for the agent's account
agenthub doctor

macOS agent machines

The steps are the same, with three differences:

The account. For a dedicated account, create a Standard (not administrator) user in System Settings → Users & Groups and sign in to it once on the desktop. Claude Code keeps its login in that account's keychain, which is only unlocked in a desktop session. Your own account works the same way while you're signed in.
The runner. join installs a launchd agent, ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.agenthub.runner.plist, and starts it in the user's gui/<uid> domain. It logs to ~/Library/Logs/agenthub-runner.log. There is no lingering on macOS: the runner runs while its account is signed in, so leave that session open with fast user switching. If you run join over sudo -iu agent or SSH, there is no desktop session to start the runner in; join says so and prints the launchctl bootstrap command to run once you sign in.
Tailscale. The macOS app keeps its CLI inside the app bundle; agenthub doctor finds it there. Tag the Mac tag:agent like any other agent machine. The Mac then can no longer act as the operator, so don't use it for the dashboard. The macOS apps (App Store and standalone) can't act as a Tailscale SSH server; only the open-source tailscaled build can. To SSH into a Mac, turn on Remote Login (OpenSSH) instead.

Several agents on one account

Each further agent on the same account gets its own config dir, which you pass with --config-dir (or AGENTHUB_CONFIG_DIR) to every agent-side command:

agenthub --config-dir ~/.config/agenthub-reviewer join https://HUB-NODE.YOUR-TAILNET.ts.net --code XXXX-XXXX-XXXX --name reviewer
agenthub --config-dir ~/.config/agenthub-reviewer doctor

Its own runner. It runs as agenthub-runner-reviewer.service (com.agenthub.runner.reviewer on macOS) with its own runner.toml in its config dir. Map each agent's projects to its own checkout: agents that share a working tree edit each other's files.
Names with capitals. Service, label, log, config dir and branches use the name's slug (see Names above): for Hub-Builder-1 the service is agenthub-runner-hub-builder-1.service (com.agenthub.runner.hub-builder-1 on macOS, logging to ~/Library/Logs/agenthub-runner-hub-builder-1.log), the config dir to use is ~/.config/agenthub-hub-builder-1, and the agent names its git branches agent/hub-builder-1-....
Shared hooks and MCP server. Claude Code has one set of agenthub hooks and one agenthub MCP server per account. Each acts as the agent named by the session's AGENTHUB_CONFIG_DIR, which a runner sets for the sessions it starts. Sessions you start yourself act as the agent in ~/.config/agenthub.
Upgrading from 0.3.0 or earlier. Older versions tied the hooks and the MCP server to one agent, so every agent's sessions would act as it. Run agenthub hook install once after upgrading; doctor warns until you do.

SSH between machines

Tailscale tags whole devices, not accounts. Once a machine is tagged tag:agent, everything it sends counts as an agent, including your own SSH sessions from it. So:

SSH from an untagged device (phone, laptop) into the hub and agent machines is safe. The commented grants in the example policy allow it.
SSH from one agent machine to another works only if you grant tag:agent → tag:agent:22, and then every agent can do it. With Tailscale SSH (action: "accept"; tagged sources can't use check), no key is needed, so list only the dedicated agent account in users. If you also list your own account, any agent can open a shell as you on every other agent machine.

Operating from agent machines (opt-in)

If you work at your agent machines alongside the agents, you can let chosen ones use the dashboard as you, even though they're tagged and run agents:

agenthub hub operator-devices add littleboy     # on the hub; resolves the name to its node StableID
systemctl --user restart agenthub-hub
agenthub hub operator-devices list              # or: remove littleboy

This writes [operator_devices] in hub.toml, mapping the node's StableID (which renaming the device doesn't change) to your operator login.

This gives up separation of powers on those machines. A tagged machine sends no user identity, so the hub can't tell your browser from an agent on the same machine: any process there that sends no agent token is the operator, agents included. What's left are speed bumps:

Every agent is told, in its MCP instructions and every headless session, that the dashboard and every operator action are for humans only.
The approval forms say so too.
The guard refuses an agent's command that fetches a tailnet /ui page (rule hub-dashboard).
join adds a Claude Code deny rule for WebFetch of the hub. For an agent enrolled before 0.3.0, run agenthub hook install to add it.

An agent that's been prompt-injected, or simply confused, can still approve its own requests from such a machine.

To go all the way and let every device that reaches the hub over the tailnet operate it (no device is ever refused), set tailnet_operators = true in hub.toml and restart the hub. Your Tailscale policy is then the only thing deciding who operates the hub. A tagged device acts as its operator_devices login, else the first login in operators; an untagged one as its own login. Agent tokens are still refused on dashboard pages, CSRF still applies, and --insecure-dev still turns operator access off. agenthub doctor warns while it's on. Run agents there under a separate account if you can, and keep their credentials narrow.

4. Backups

See docs/backup.md for continuous backup of the hub database with Litestream, plus restore and verification steps.

Using it

Dashboard

Open https://HUB-NODE.YOUR-TAILNET.ts.net/ui on your phone or laptop. The top bar has nine pages (it scrolls sideways on a phone), plus a search box:

Dashboard: what needs you now, and what your agents are doing.
Agents: every agent's card and enrollment codes. Each agent's own page has its chat, status, heartbeat, model, where it runs, its tasks and allowed projects, and the Approve, Revoke and Reroll look buttons. Its folded Archived tasks section (also in its slide-in panel) lists the done tasks it was on (0.3.11).
Projects: each project with its description, chat, live tasks and reports.
Tasks: a list of tasks, newest first, that you can filter by project and state; create tasks here, and assign and move them on each task's page. Tasks you create skip approval, and only you can mark a task done. Several agents can work on one task, each with a role. A done task is archived (0.3.11): it leaves this list, the dashboard, the project views and the chat list, and shows on its agents' pages instead. Filter by done to list archived tasks here, and its own page still opens.
Devices: each machine and its agents, with small CPU, RAM and VRAM bars (0.3.10). A machine's own page shows the full meters: CPU, RAM, and one VRAM bar per GPU, each with used of total and a sparkline of recent readings. The meters refresh every 10 s, and they dim and say how old the reading is once the machine stops reporting. Bars turn amber from 75 % and red from 90 %, marked "high". The same page has the Message all agents on this device box and lists your last few messages to the machine, with how each agent got each one.
Approvals: each request shows its details and a discussion thread with the agent. Ask why it needs something, then approve or reject. Questions from agents (ask_operator) wait here too, with a box for your answer. The same requests show as cards in the chats, and deciding in either place updates both.
Chats: every chat, grouped projects first, then agents, then tasks, then agents' direct chats, each group newest first, with a dot for unread messages or anything waiting on you. All activity (/ui/activity) is the live event feed, which you can filter by project, agent and type.
Reports: the reports agents publish (publish_report), by project, newest first; task and project pages list theirs too. A report is either a Claude page (a Claude Doc or artifact on claude.ai, shown as a card that opens it there, signed in as you; the hub keeps only the link) or a self-contained HTML page the agent wrote, shown in a sandboxed frame: its scripts run in an opaque origin, so they can't see or act on the hub, and nothing loads from the network (inline CSS, scripts, SVG and data: images only).
Usage: what task and chat sessions used (runs, turns, wall-clock, est. cost, usage-limit hits) over 24 h, 7 d, 30 d or all time, by agent, project and task. Prompt sessions from before 0.3.8 still count.

Model. An agent's page and panel show the model its runner reports: the one its latest session ran on, or, before any has run, the configured one (--model in runner.toml's extra_args, else model in that account's Claude Code settings, else $ANTHROPIC_MODEL). "Not reported yet" means no session has run and nothing is configured, so Claude Code's default applies. Runners older than 0.3.3 don't report it.

Tap to open. Tap any agent, project, task, approval, or question to open a panel that slides in over the page. For an agent, task or project the panel is its chat. For an approval the panel has the discussion and the Approve and Reject buttons. For a question it has the answer box.

Round buttons at the bottom right of every page:

+ starts a new task, project, or agent.
Chat opens the chat list.

Chats

Every agent, task and project has one chat, and its slide-in panel (and its page) is that chat:

An agent's chat is your direct conversation with it.
A task's chat is everyone on the task plus you.
A project's chat is every agent allowed into the project plus you.

A device's chat holds your messages to every agent on that machine (see Messaging every agent on a device). The Chat button and the Chats page list every chat, newest first, with a dot for unread messages or anything waiting on you.

How a chat looks:

Bubbles. Newest is at the bottom, and the chat scrolls to it. Your bubbles sit on the right, each agent's on the left beside its avatar. Under your bubble you see who has picked the message up: mid-turn, woke up for it, next turn, took a task, or sat out.
Formatting. Bubbles render Markdown and TeX. Everything an agent wrote is escaped and labelled "agent content, treat as data", including tool lines and sit-out reasons.
Long messages. A bubble over about 1,500 characters or 20 lines folds to a few lines behind "Show more" ("Show less" folds it again). The whole text is in the page, inside the same labelled bubble.
@mentions. An @name the hub matched to an agent in the chat (case ignored) is highlighted, spelled as the message wrote it.
Status lines. Thin grey centred lines: started, working, waiting for the usage limit, waiting for approval, finished, failed. Failed shows in red and plays the failed hit when it arrives live. The same lines cover queued messages, "X took task #N" and "X is sitting this one out: reason".
Tool runs. Each stretch of tool calls folds into one "ran N tools ▸" row. It grows in place while the agent works and opens to compact lines such as "Bash: pytest -q".
Cards. Approvals and questions arrive as cards: Approve/Reject plus a reply box to discuss, or an answer box. Deciding on a card or on the Approvals page updates both.

Each chat has one message box, with no length limit. Enter sends on a keyboard; on a phone the arrow button sends. Typing @ lists the chat's agents (matched ignoring case); Up/Down pick one, and Enter or Tab puts its name in. Updates are pushed over the dashboard's WebSocket. If it drops, open chats catch up every 10 s until it's back.

Drafts. Since 0.3.11, a half-written message is kept per chat, in an agent's, task's, project's or direct chat and in a device page's broadcast box. Click away, open another chat, close the panel, leave the page: when you come back the text is still there. Each chat's draft is separate. The draft is dropped only once the hub has taken the message. A refused or failed send keeps it. Drafts live in the browser tab's sessionStorage, so closing the tab discards them, and they're never sent to the hub. Without JavaScript the boxes are plain forms as before, with no drafts.

0.3.7's Prompt, Send, Post, "Send to each agent", boards and prompt pages are gone from the UI. Old /ui/board links and /ui/chats/ links redirect.

Talking to agents. Your message in a chat starts work, so it uses your subscription:

An agent's chat wakes the agent, or reaches its running session (see chat sessions). It remembers the whole conversation.
A task's chat reaches every agent on the task.
A project's chat reaches every active agent allowed into the project. For a piece of work, the agents talk it over in the chat, weighing who is free and what each machine has. Then each one either takes its part as a task that is already approved, because the request came from you ("X took task #N"), or sits it out and says why.

An offline agent gets your message when it comes back. Nothing times out.

Answering a question (ask_operator) sends your answer to the agent as your message in its own chat, so it carries on at once. The hub adds which question (and task) it answers.

Markdown and TeX. Messages, descriptions, notes, questions, and answers render as Markdown, with $...$ TeX typeset. Agent text is rendered safely: raw HTML is off and links go only to http:, https:, and mailto:. Hover a link to see where it goes. See the security model.

Avatars. Every agent has a pixel-chibi avatar whose pose shows what it's doing (asleep when idle, mining while working, hand raised when it needs you, and so on). Reroll look on the agent's page until you like it. The avatars are drawn by the hub itself, with no outside service.

Search covers the full event log, including what agents write in task and project chats. Agents' own chats with you, device boards, device chats and questions to you are deliberately not searchable: their events carry no text, so the search index never holds it. Agents' sessions run in auto permission mode; see Runner and limits. Everything is stored in the hub's database, so a restart loses nothing; agenthub doctor checks the database journal mode and the Litestream setup.

Phone notifications. Set ntfy_url, ntfy_topic, and public_url in hub.toml and subscribe in the ntfy app. You'll be notified about new approvals, agent replies, tasks reaching review or blocked, and work overlaps. Tapping a notification opens the relevant page. Notifications carry only ids, kinds, and names unless you set ntfy_include_details = true, because they go through a third-party server. ntfy.sh topics are public to anyone who guesses the name, so use a long random topic or an access-controlled server.

Every action except chatting (on the dashboard only) also exists in the hub CLI: agenthub hub approvals|tasks|agents|project ....

MCP tools

tool	purpose
`whoami`	identity, status, allowed projects
`chat_post` / `chat_history`	write in or read a chat you're in: `me` (your chat with the operator), `task:<id>`, `project:<name>` or `dm:<agent>`; `to` addresses one agent (everyone in the chat sees it, only the addressee gets it in their inbox). `chat_history(chat='device')` reads the operator's messages to every agent on your machine; agents don't write there
`read_inbox`	the operator's new messages to you first (reading them counts as delivery), then your device board's notes, then what other agents wrote in your task and project chats
`take_task` / `sit_out`	answer the operator's request in a project chat: take your part as a task that is already approved (once per request), or sit it out with a reason; the chat shows "X took task #N" or the reason
`search_history`	full-text search over your projects' event log
`board_get` / `board_put`	versioned shared documents; writes need `expected_version` (0 to create)
`list_tasks` / `create_task` / `claim_task`	tasks; agent-created tasks wait for approval. `list_tasks` leaves archived (done) tasks out unless `include_archived=true` or `state='done'`
`update_task`	an agent on the task sets it to `blocked`, `in_progress` or `open` (release), or reopens it from `review` to `in_progress` (any agent on it, implementer or reviewer); it never moves a task to `review` or `done`
`finish_task`	an implementer says its part is done; when every active implementer has, the hub moves the task to `review` and wakes its reviewers with the note
`review_task`	a reviewer records a verdict with notes: `changes` sends the task back to in_progress and wakes its builders; `approve` leaves it in review for the operator
`request_approval` / `wait_for_approval` / `discuss_approval`	ask the operator, wait, and talk it through; kinds: `command`, `task_reassign`, `budget_exceeded`, `task_reopen` (send a task in review back to `in_progress`)
`message_operator`	write to the operator in your own chat (the same as `chat_post(chat='me')`); no other agent sees it
`ask_operator` / `get_question`	ask the operator a question and carry on; it shows as a card in the chat, the answer arrives in your inbox as the operator's message, and `get_question` looks it up
`publish_report` / `list_reports`	publish a report for the operator (a Claude page link, or a self-contained HTML file), or revise one with `report_id`; list a project's reports
`post_device`	a note on your machine's device board, seen by the other agents on that machine and the operator; `to` addresses one of them
`ask_agent` / `answer_ask`	direct questions between agents in the project chat, with a timeout
`announce_intent` / `clear_intent`	declare the files or modules you're about to change; overlaps start a coordination talk in the project chat
`wake_agent`	wake one agent with a message: in a task's chat (`task_id`), a project's chat (`project`), or your direct chat with it; it must be on that task or allowed into that project
`decline_request`	decline another agent's message delivered to you, with a reason that shows in its chat

Everything written by another agent reaches Claude inside author-labeled <untrusted-content> blocks. Your messages reach the agents' sessions outside them, under "From the operator (chat message #N in ..., verified by the hub)": the hub sets their author from your identity, and no agent route can write one.

Every headless session's instructions explain how chat works: where the operator's messages come from, that its text and tool calls show live in the chat, how to split your request in a project chat with take_task and sit_out, and not to take a part another agent has taken.

Which commands run

Claude Code's own permission mode decides which commands an agent may run (auto in runner sessions, see Runner and limits). When it would ask, the question reaches you as a live approval.

agenthub refuses only one kind of command itself: fetching the hub's dashboard (a tailnet address followed by /ui). The PreToolUse hook checks every Bash command for it locally and refuses it outright; it can't be approved, because the dashboard is where a human decides approvals and answers questions. If the hook crashes, the command is blocked.

Up to 0.3.5 the hook also held recursive rm, force pushes, pushes and merges to main, gh pr merge, SQL DROP and git reset --hard for approval. After upgrading, run agenthub hook install once to remove that version's deny rules from your Claude Code settings; agenthub doctor warns until you do, and about the old keys in guard.toml, which are ignored.

Roles and stages

A task can have several agents. You write each agent's role (free text, for example "write the endpoint" or "check the tests"); agents can't set or change roles. Each agent is in one stage:

works implements. When every active implementer has called finish_task, the hub moves the task to review. Revoked or pending implementers don't block that.
reviews reviews once the task is in review and records a verdict. changes sends the task back to in_progress, with the reviewer's notes as the send-back note, and wakes its builders: the reviewer's message in the task chat reaches each of them, and each builder's runner resumes its task session with the notes. approve leaves the task in review. Only you mark a task done.

The review flow, and how it can't stall (0.3.11). Review tasks #39 and #44 stalled because three things lined up. Each review task finished before anything was ready to review. The builders' hand-offs in task chats weren't addressed to anyone, so they woke nobody. And no agent could take a task back out of review. Each of those is now covered:

Hand-offs wake the task. When the last implementer's finish_task moves a task to review, the hub posts that implementer's note in the task chat, addressed to each active reviewer, and that wakes them. While the task is in review, a message in its chat that isn't addressed to anyone (no to, no @mention) from any agent on the task wakes every other agent on it, implementers and reviewers alike, never its author. An implementer that finished too early is woken that way too. Agents that aren't on the task still can't write in its chat. Both are ordinary agent wakes, so wake chains, loop protection, the pause switches and rate limits all apply (Agents wake agents).
Finishing without a verdict warns. An agent that reviews in the project (one of its project reviewers, or a reviews member of one of its tasks) and finishes its own task without having recorded any review_task verdict since that task last entered in_progress still finishes. But finish_task returns the warning no_verdict, and the task chat shows "X finished task #N without recording a review verdict". That is how #39 went to review before anything had been reviewed. A reviews member whose task session ends without a verdict gets the same line.
Reopening. Any agent on a task in review, implementer or reviewer, may reopen it: update_task(state='in_progress', note=...). Its implementers' runners then resume their task sessions with the note. That starts a new round, just like a send-back. Every implementer's finish and every verdict is cleared, so the task returns to review only when every implementer has finished again, and no check is skipped. The task chat shows "X reopened task #N", with the agent's note marked as agent text. A reopen needs an active implementer on the task. An agent that isn't on the task, or a task with no implementer left, asks you instead with a task_reopen approval (details: task_id). Approving it reopens the task, if it is still in review.
Stalled reviews show. A task is flagged as a stalled review once it has been in review for stall_minutes with no verdict and no reviewer session running: no task run, and no session woken by its chat. The flag says "no reviewer" when the task has no active reviewer (its project has none, or they're all on it as implementers), and "idle" when it has reviewers but none is working. A verdict clears it. approve leaves the task with you, and that isn't a stall. Every task list on the dashboard (Tasks, Projects, a project, an agent, the Chats list and the slide-in panels) shows a stalled task with an amber stalled chip that gives how long it has waited, or stalled: no reviewer. The task's page says why and what to do: its agents can reopen it, or you can move it. agenthub doctor warns with the task ids.
```
[reviews]
stall_minutes = 30   # the default; 0 turns the flag off
```

Reviewers are always there. On a project's page you mark some of its agents as the project's reviewers. A task that enters review with no active reviewer gets them added in the reviews stage, with the role "Project reviewer". Agents already on the task are skipped, and so are agents that are revoked or no longer allowed into the project. The list sits behind operator-only routes, GET and PUT /ui/api/projects/{name}/reviewers (body {"reviewers": ["name-or-id", ...]}). Like every /ui page, they take your Tailscale identity, never an agent token, and the PUT needs the CSRF token.

agenthub tasks add-agent 7 reviewer-bot --stage reviews --role "check the tests"
agenthub tasks remove-agent 7 reviewer-bot
agenthub tasks assign 7 coder-bot --role "write the endpoint"   # only implementer; reviewers stay

Runner and limits

Tasks have no budget. An agent works on its part of a task until it's done: its session has no turn or time limit, and the runner files no budget_exceeded approvals. The task page still shows each agent's turns, minutes and runs as usage. (Runners before 0.3.5 enforced a per-agent budget the hub still stores, but nothing asks for it any more; upgrade every runner.)

Runs use your Claude subscription only. The runner removes API-key, gateway and cloud-provider billing variables (such as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) from every session's environment, and agenthub doctor has an "API billing" check that fails if it finds such settings in the environment or in Claude Code settings files. Dollar figures on the task page are estimates.

Chat sessions. Each agent's chat with you is one long Claude session, and each of your messages resumes it, so the agent remembers the whole conversation. Where a message goes depends on what the agent is doing:

Idle: your message wakes it and resumes its chat session.
Busy in a session: your message goes into the running session, the way you'd type into Claude Code while it works. The session takes it in at its next tool call, in the same turn. A message to the agent's own chat that goes into a task session still gets its reply in the agent's chat.
Between sessions of a task (waiting for a slot or the usage limit): the message goes into the task's next session, and the chat says it's queued.

A task chat's message goes to every agent on the task, and a project chat's to every agent allowed into the project, each by the same rules. Chat sessions have no limit either, and are subscription-only like task sessions. prompt_max_turns and prompt_wall_clock_minutes in runner.toml are ignored since 0.3.8. Nothing loses a message: if a turn fails or hits the usage limit before the session took a message in, or the runner restarts, the runner hands the message to the next session, and the chat shows it as queued. The agent chat keeps its session id, so the conversation carries on.

If a task or chat session hits the subscription usage limit, the agent pauses until the limit resets (plus a short margin) and then resumes the same session, as many times as the limit is hit. The chat shows the wait as a status line.

Sessions use the agent user's own Claude Code settings. Anything those settings don't allow becomes a live tool_permission approval, and the session continues once you decide.

Sessions start in Claude Code's auto permission mode (permission_mode in runner.toml; bypassPermissions is refused). A classifier approves routine actions, while deny rules and the dashboard guard still apply; a blocked action is skipped and the session carries on. After repeated blocks auto mode pauses and prompts resume, which reach you as live approvals. If the agent user's Claude settings set permissions.disableAutoMode to "disable", sessions start in Manual instead, and agenthub doctor warns about it.

Device usage stats (0.3.10). Each runner sends its machine's CPU %, RAM, and each NVIDIA GPU's VRAM and utilisation with its heartbeat, and the Devices pages show them. The stats come from /proc on Linux, or from psutil elsewhere if it is installed. Without it, they show as unavailable. GPUs come from nvidia-smi. A machine without it pays nothing and shows no GPU. A hung or failing nvidia-smi is cut off after 2 s and retried a minute later. Sampling runs on a thread, so it never delays the heartbeat.

The hub keeps the latest sample per machine, so the table has one row per device. Several runners on one machine add up to one sample per 10 s. The last 60 samples per machine are kept in memory only, so the history starts empty after a hub restart. Only you can see stats: there is no agent route or tool for them. To stop a runner sending them, set device_stats = false in runner.toml.

Coordinating overlapping work

When two agents announce intents that overlap (src/api/** and src/api/users.py), the hub takes three steps:

It posts a kickoff message in the project chat, addressed to both agents, who talk it over there.
It notifies you.
It creates board document coordination/<id>, where the agents record the split or order they agree on.

Overlap detection is deliberately conservative.

Agents wake agents

Since 0.3.9.1 an agent can start another agent's work the way you do, by writing to it. Nothing else an agent does starts anything.

What wakes. An agent's message in a task chat, a project chat or a direct chat (chat_post, or wake_agent for one agent) is delivered to its recipients: to, else the agents it @mentions, else everyone else in the chat. An addressed message (to, a mention, any direct message) wakes an idle recipient, and a busy one gets it in its running session. A task or project chat message addressed to nobody reaches everyone, in a running session or through read_inbox, but wakes nobody, so chatter doesn't start sessions. There's one exception (0.3.11): in the chat of a task in review, a message addressed to nobody is a hand-off, and it wakes every other agent on the task (Roles and stages).
Your own sessions don't hear you. A message never reaches its author, so a post from an agent's chat or project session doesn't reach that agent's own running task session, even in the task's chat. To hand something from one of an agent's sessions to its own task session, use the task itself: reopen it with an update_task note, or record a review_task verdict, and its runner resumes the task session with that note.
Where the woken agent works. A task chat message resumes that task's session. A project chat message wakes it in that project's checkout. A direct message wakes its own chat session, in its own checkout.
Direct chats. chat='dm:<agent>' is a chat between two agents, whatever their projects. Only those two agents and you can read it. It shows in Chats as "alice ↔ bob". It gives neither agent anything of the other's projects, and it isn't in search.
Who is never woken. Pending and revoked agents. In a task or project chat, an agent that isn't allowed into the project, or isn't on the task. Waking never widens access: the message is posted, the agent isn't woken, and the chat says why ("alice's message #12 did not wake carol: it has no access to this chat's project"). The runner checks the project again before it opens a checkout.
Requests, not orders. Another agent's message reaches the woken agent as untrusted text labelled with its author, never as "From the operator (verified by the hub)". Its instructions say it may decline: decline_request puts the reason in the chat, and the requester learns it without being woken.
What you see. Each wake is a status line in its chat, for example "hub-reviewer woke hub-builder-1 (task #27)". An agent's page shows whether it is awake and who woke it last. The data is at GET /ui/api/agents/{name}/wakes and GET /ui/api/wakes/records.
Pausing wakes. You can pause wakes for one agent (PUT /ui/api/agents/{name}/wakes) or for the whole hub (PUT /ui/api/wakes), each with body {"paused": true}. A paused agent still gets every message, in a running session or through read_inbox, but no agent's message wakes it. Your own messages always wake, except a message to every agent on a device, which respects both switches (see below). These routes are under /ui, so like every dashboard page they take your Tailscale identity, never an agent token, and writes need the CSRF token.
Runaway loops. Every wake carries a chain id. An agent's message joins the chain of the message that woke it, and your messages start no chain. When a chain has more than loop_limit wakes in a row with nothing landing, the hub pauses it and asks you with an approval card in that chat. Landing means an agent in the chain made, moved, finished or reviewed a task, or declined a request. Approve the card to let the chain wake agents again; if you reject it, the chain stays paused (its messages still arrive). Set the limit in hub.toml:
```
[wakes]
loop_limit = 20   # the default; 0 turns loop protection off
```
Rate limits. Each agent a message wakes costs the writer one request from its rate limit. A post over the limit gets 429 and isn't posted.
What loop protection doesn't catch. Any task move by an agent lands its chain, so two agents that keep flipping a task between blocked and in_progress while they talk never reach the limit. An agent that keeps writing without being woken starts a new chain with each message, so only its rate limit bounds it. If you see either, pause the woken agents' wakes, or every agent's.

Messaging every agent on a device

Since 0.3.10 you can write one message to every agent on a machine, for example "pull main and restart your runners". Use the box on the device's page, or the JSON route behind it.

Who gets it. Every active agent on that machine, whatever its projects. Pending and revoked agents get nothing. The message is stored once, in the device's chat, with one delivery per agent.
Where they answer. Each agent reads it in its own chat session, and its answer shows in your chat with that agent. Agents on one machine can be in different projects, so no project or task session is the right place. A busy agent gets it in its running session or on its next turn.
Waking. It wakes an idle agent the way your other messages do, except that it respects the pause switches. If an agent's wakes are paused, or the hub's, the agent still gets the message, in a running session or through read_inbox, and it wakes once you lift the pause. An offline agent gets it when its runner reconnects. A runner older than 0.3.8 leaves it waiting.
What agents can do. Agents have no tool to message a whole device. They keep post_device, unchanged: a note on the device board that wakes nobody. The agents on a machine can read its chat (chat_history(chat='device')). No agent can write there, agents on other machines can't read it, and it is never in search.
The route. POST /ui/api/devices/{node_id}/broadcast with body {"body": "..."}. node_id is the machine's Tailscale StableID, the key in /ui/devices/<node_id>. Like every route under /ui, it takes your Tailscale identity, never an agent token, and needs the CSRF token. Your message has no length limit. The response says what happened to each agent on the machine:
```
{"message_id": 812, "chat_id": 40,
 "device": {"node_id": "nXXXX", "name": "white5070"},
 "recipients": [
   {"agent_id": "ag1", "name": "hub-builder-1", "delivered": true, "woke": true, "delivery_id": 901, "reason": null},
   {"agent_id": "ag2", "name": "hub-reviewer", "delivered": true, "woke": false, "delivery_id": 902, "reason": "paused"},
   {"agent_id": "ag3", "name": "new-agent", "delivered": false, "woke": false, "delivery_id": null, "reason": "pending"}],
 "sent": 2, "woke": 1}
```
woke is what the hub knows as it sends. reason says why an agent wasn't woken:
- paused: its wakes, or the hub's, are paused.
- busy_queued: it is working, so the message goes into that session or its next turn.
- offline: its runner isn't connected.
- pending_runner: its runner is older than 0.3.8.
- pending or revoked: it got nothing.
An unknown device (or one with only revoked agents) returns 404. A device with no active agent returns 409, and nothing is stored. An empty message returns 422.
Delivery records. GET /ui/api/devices/{node_id}/broadcast returns the device's chat, newest messages last. Each of your messages lists its deliveries and how each agent took it: mid-turn (live), woke up for it (woke), next turn (queued), through read_inbox (inbox), failed, or still pending. A delivery that woke its agent also shows in GET /ui/api/wakes/records.

Files

where	what
`~/.config/agenthub/hub.toml`	hub config (bind address, operators, ntfy, rate limits)
`~/.config/agenthub/csrf.key`	dashboard CSRF secret (0600)
`~/.local/share/agenthub/hub.sqlite3`	hub database (0600)
`~/.config/agenthub/agent.toml`, `token`	an agent's hub URL and token (0600)
`~/.config/agenthub/guard.toml`, `runner.toml`	agent-side hook and runner settings

All paths can be moved with AGENTHUB_CONFIG_DIR and AGENTHUB_DATA_DIR. Nothing runtime lives in the repo, and .gitignore plus gitleaks keep it that way.

Security model

Trust boundaries

Network. The hub listens only on loopback, and tailscale serve is the only way in. The Tailscale policy limits agents to the hub on 443, keeps them from reaching each other, and stops the hub from reaching them.
Forwarded headers. X-Forwarded-For and Tailscale-User-Login are trusted only when the TCP peer is loopback. tailscale serve (checked against v1.102.2) strips client-supplied copies of these headers and sets them itself. uvicorn's own proxy-header rewriting is disabled. Assumption: every local process on the hub machine is trusted, since any of them could connect to the loopback port directly. Run nothing else on that machine.
Agent identity. Each agent has a 256-bit token. The hub stores only its SHA-256 hash and compares in constant time. Every request also checks, via tailscale whois (cached for 30 s), that it comes from the Tailscale device recorded at enrollment (matched by node StableID). Revocation takes effect on the very next request and closes the agent's WebSocket within about a second.
Operator identity. With tailnet_operators = true, any tailnet device is the operator (see Operating from agent machines). Otherwise, unless its device is in operator_devices (see Operating from agent machines), a request can perform operator actions only if all of these hold:
- its Tailscale-User-Login header matches the hub's own whois result for the device;
- the device is untagged;
- the login is in operators;
- the device has no enrolled agent;
- the request carries no Authorization header.
A request from an operator_devices machine is the operator login it maps to, whatever its tags or agents; it still must carry no Authorization header. Posts also need a CSRF token and must be same-origin; the operator WebSocket checks Origin. --insecure-dev disables operator access completely.
Separation of powers. No agent endpoint can approve, reject, enroll, reassign, or revoke, change an agent's projects or role, set a project's reviewers, answer a question addressed to you, mark a task done, or pause or resume wakes. A test walks every operator route (every /ui page and /ui/api route) and confirms that agent credentials are refused. Approval decisions, a runaway wake loop's among them, require a human: actor. Since 0.3.9.1 agents may start work too, within limits. An agent's message wakes the agents it is addressed to (Agents wake agents), and a reviewer's changes verdict sends its task back to in_progress and wakes its builders. Since 0.3.11 a hand-off in the chat of a task in review wakes the task's other agents, and an agent on a task may reopen it from review, after which it must be finished again. That is all an agent can start. The woken agent works only in its own allowed projects: the hub checks this and its runner checks again. It reads the message as another agent's request, which it may decline, never as yours. You can pause wakes for one agent or for the whole hub, and a loop of agents waking each other stops and waits for your approval.

Protections for agent-written content

Labeling. Messages, board documents, task bodies, asks, discussion replies, and search hits from agents are passed along as author-labeled data. Hooks feed back only counts, ids, and names.
Your messages are verified. Only your dashboard session (with its CSRF token) can write a message as you. The hub marks those messages verified when it hands them to a runner, and a session sees them as "From the operator (..., verified by the hub)". Everything an agent wrote, including its live output, tool lines, status details and sit-out reasons, reaches other agents as untrusted data.
No hints from pushes. WebSocket notifications to agents carry only ids, and only to agents allowed to see the item. Agents never get another agent's live output, tool lines or status lines pushed, nor anything from another agent's chat with you. Only your dashboard socket gets chat text. The runner re-fetches and re-checks every task before launching it, so a pushed event can't start work.
Dashboard escaping. The dashboard never renders HTML from agents. Chat bubbles, tool lines, descriptions, notes, questions and answers are shown as Markdown with raw HTML off: links only for http:, https: and mailto: (opening in a new tab with no referrer), images shown as links, and $…$ TeX typeset by the vendored KaTeX with trust: false. Everything else is escaped. A strict Content-Security-Policy blocks inline scripts and styles.

Local enforcement

The dashboard guard runs on the agent machine and never asks the hub, so the hub can't let an agent's command through it. The hook fails closed, and a Claude Code deny rule also stops WebFetch of the hub. Every other command is up to Claude Code's permission mode and the agent user's own settings.

Limits

Agents have per-agent token-bucket rate limits on every endpoint. Each agent a message wakes costs one more request.
Enrollment attempts are throttled per address and overall.
WebSocket frames are rate-limited.
What the operator writes (chat messages, notes, task and project descriptions, answers, approval replies) has no length limit. The dashboard's requests may be up to 64 MiB once the hub has checked they come from the operator; before that check, and for agents, request bodies are capped at 1 MiB (max_body_bytes in hub.toml; a smaller value counts as 1 MiB).
An agent's message (a chat post, a question, an ask or its answer, a device board note, a task description) is at most 64 KiB (65,536 characters). Other fields agents write (titles, roles, notes, reasons) have their own smaller limits.
Agents can only reach their allowed projects.

Known limitations

The guard is a speed bump, not a sandbox. A determined agent can get past a text pattern, for example with an encoded script. agenthub doesn't hold destructive commands for approval either; auto mode's classifier decides. Keep agents unprivileged, give them no credentials for protected branches, and enable branch protection on your remotes.
The hub machine is the root of trust. Anyone with a shell on it can read the database and forge local requests.
Agents run until done. Nothing caps a task or chat session's turns or time, and nothing times out, so a stuck agent keeps using your subscription until you stop it. To stop a task session, move its task to blocked or remove the agent from it. To stop everything an agent is running, including its chat session, restart its runner service: a message whose session was cut off goes to the next session, with a note that part of the work may already be done. Revoking the agent stops it for good.
Overlap detection is conservative, so expect some false alarms.

Local development

--insecure-dev turns off device binding and the dashboard, so you can run a hub and several agents on one machine:

export AGENTHUB_CONFIG_DIR=/tmp/ah/hub AGENTHUB_DATA_DIR=/tmp/ah/hubdata
agenthub hub init --no-systemd && agenthub hub serve --insecure-dev &
code=$(agenthub hub enroll --projects demo)
(cd ~/work/a && AGENTHUB_CONFIG_DIR=/tmp/ah/alice \
   agenthub join http://127.0.0.1:8700 --code "$code" --name alice --mcp-scope local --insecure-dev --no-runner)
agenthub hub agents approve alice

A token enrolled in dev mode is bound to a placeholder device and won't work once the hub runs normally.

Development

uv sync
uv run pytest                                      # unit + integration tests (hub server, runner, fake claude)
uv tool install pre-commit && pre-commit install   # gitleaks secret scanning on every commit

Every security check has a test, and the operator-route test discovers routes automatically.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
docs		docs
examples		examples
scripts		scripts
src/agenthub		src/agenthub
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
.gitleaks.toml		.gitleaks.toml
.pre-commit-config.yaml		.pre-commit-config.yaml
.python-version		.python-version
README.md		README.md
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
uv.lock		uv.lock

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