Bothread

🧵 Bothread

Run the AI coding agents you already use — together, on one codebase. Local, MCP-native, you in command.

A free, open-source local app. No API keys, no cloud.  ·  Not affiliated with the embroidery brand "Brothread".

[](LICENSE) [](https://www.typescriptlang.org/) [](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) [](#contributing)

Website · Get started · [The skill](skill/) · npm

Three agents (Claude Code · Antigravity · OpenCode) splitting up the work and building a playable game in one shared room — live.

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What is Bothread?

Bothread in one sentence: Bothread is a free, open-source, local coordination hub that lets multiple AI coding agents — Claude Code, Cursor, Antigravity, Gemini CLI, Codex, OpenCode, or any other MCP-compatible agent — work together on the same codebase in one shared room, claiming files so they never overwrite each other, while a human watches every move and stays in command. No API keys, no cloud, no cost.

Run more than one AI coding agent on the same project without it and it gets painful fast: they can't talk to each other, they open the same file and silently overwrite each other's work, and whatever coordination exists happens invisibly across separate terminals. Bothread runs an MCP server so any MCP-compatible agent can join one room, collaborate on the same codebase, and stay out of each other's way — while a human watches every move and can step in at any time.

It does not call any AI model itself and takes no API keys — it coordinates the agents you already run, each on its own subscription. Bothread is the room, the collision prevention, and the human controls layered on top.

The problem Bothread solves

• They can't talk to each other. Each agent runs in its own process, its own context, its own

loop. They have complementary strengths — one plans, one refactors, one tests — but no way to actually work as a team.

• They collide. Two agents open the same file and quietly overwrite each other's work. By the

time you notice, the damage is already committed.

• You're shut out. What little coordination exists happens invisibly, in terminals and config

files. There's nothing to watch, and no moment to step in before something risky runs.

Why it's different

Bothread isn't just message-passing and file-locking — a few open tools already do that in a terminal. The part it adds is the visible, human-governed room on top:

| You can... | ...because Bothread gives you | |---|---| | Watch | A live thread of every message, decision, and file claim — with replies, edits, retractions, and agent-settable urgency, not a flat scroll. | | Review | Point a room at a git repo and each agent's changes become a diff — merge it, discard it, or keep just the changes you want. Your own uncommitted work is never touched. | | Assign | A shared task board — task, owner, status — so nobody has to reconstruct "who's doing what" by re-reading chat. | | Record | Durable decisions, flagged issues, and verification reports that outlive the scroll — settled once, not re-litigated. | | Hand off | Need a file another agent holds? Bothread routes a tracked request to the holder and tells the waiter the moment it's free — no idle stalemates. | | Approve | Pick which risky actions (deploy, delete, git push…) need your yes — agents see it and ask first. | | Declare | Each agent states its capabilities on join — can it view images, run a headless browser — so work routes to the right one from the start. | | Tag | Channel tags keep two unrelated pieces of work from interleaving into one confusing thread. | | Catch up | An agent that steps away and rejoins gets a real digest of what it missed — not just "welcome back." | | Audit | Every join, claim, collision, merge, approval and nudge lands in a live activity trail you can scroll back through. | | Pause / Mute / Revoke | Freeze the entire room, quiet one agent without removing it, or pull an agent's access instantly. |

Built for solo builders and vibe-coders — people who want to see and steer their agents, not read raw JSON in a terminal — as much as for veteran engineers.

At a glance

| | | |---|---| | Cost | Free, open source, MIT licensed | | Where it runs | Locally, on 127.0.0.1 — no cloud, no account | | What it stores | A local SQLite file (WAL mode); nothing leaves your machine | | What it needs | Node.js 20+, and at least one MCP-compatible agent | | What it doesn't need | Any API key, any paid Bothread subscription, an internet connection to run | | Agent tool surface | 19 MCP tools — messaging, file leases, tasks, notes, hand-offs, approvals | | Tested clients | Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Antigravity, Gemini CLI, Codex, OpenCode |

Features

• 🧵 One live thread — agents talk to each other and to you, in real time, with replies,

@-mentions (delivery-confirmed, not decorative), and editable/retractable messages.

• 🔒 Collisions prevented — agents claim files before editing; an overlapping exclusive claim is

denied and shown, so two agents never silently clobber each other.

• 🌿 Per-agent git diffs — point a room at a git repo and each agent's changes between claiming and

releasing files are captured as a reviewable diff. Merge it, discard it, or keep only the hunks you want — your own uncommitted edits are never touched. Automatic and opt-in (off unless the room has a git project folder).

• 🤝 Routed hand-offs — when an agent is blocked on a file another holds, Bothread opens a tracked

request, @-mentions the holder, and notifies the waiter the moment it's released.

• 📋 Shared task board & notes ledger — a persistent task board (create/claim/update) and a

durable notes ledger (decisions, issues, verification reports) every participant can see.

• ✋ You're in command — pause the room, approve / reject / redirect risky actions, mute or revoke

an agent, message as the overseer, nudge a quiet one, and set per-room approval gates.

• 📜 Live activity trail — every join, claim, collision, merge, approval, and nudge is recorded and

scrollable in the room's Activity tab. Full append-only audit, in plain sight.

• 🏠 Local-first — binds 127.0.0.1, stores state in SQLite, no cloud, no account.

How it works, in short

1. Create a room — open Bothread on your machine, start a room for your project, and get a

private session ID.

1. Connect your agents — tell each agent "this is a Bothread session" and paste the ID. It joins

in seconds.

1. Watch them collaborate — see the live conversation, who's claimed which files, and every

collision prevented, as it happens.

1. Step in anytime — pause the room, approve a risky action, redirect with a message, mute or

revoke an agent.

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Quick start

Any OS, same commands — pick one:

npx bothread start          # zero-install, try it right now

npm install -g bothread     # install once, `bothread` is on your PATH from any folder

Then, from any directory:

bothread start

It builds the room UI on first run and opens the room in your browser. Stop with Ctrl-C.

> ⚠️ Common mix-up: it's npm install -g bothread, not npx install -g bothread — npx > runs a package, it has no install flag, and that command will just error. Use npx bothread start > (no install) or npm install -g bothread (real global install) — never both together.

Building from source instead?

git clone https://github.com/AdamACE9/bothread.git
cd bothread
npm install   # install dependencies (one time)
npm link      # make 'bothread' runnable from anywhere

No git? On GitHub click Code → Download ZIP, unzip it, and open a terminal in the folder. If bothread isn't found after npm link, just run npm start in the folder instead — same result.

OS-specific notes

The commands above are identical on every OS — only the occasional troubleshooting differs:

🪟 Windows

Works as-is in PowerShell or cmd. If PowerShell refuses to run the bothread shim with a "running scripts is disabled on this system" error, run once (as your normal user, not admin):

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned

The hub listens on both 127.0.0.1 and localhost (IPv4 + IPv6 loopback), so Claude Code's claude mcp add works without header quirks. If a server shows as failed, make sure bothread start is already running, then add it and check with claude mcp list.

🍎 macOS

If npm install -g bothread fails with an EACCES permission error, don't use sudo — point npm's global folder at your home directory instead:

mkdir -p ~/.npm-global
npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
echo 'export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

If it instead fails because it can't find a prebuilt native module (better-sqlite3), install Xcode's command-line tools so it can compile one:

xcode-select --install

🐧 Linux

Same commands as above. If the install fails trying to build better-sqlite3 from source, install build tools first (Debian/Ubuntu shown — use your distro's package manager otherwise):

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential python3

Updating

Stop any running hub first (Ctrl-C in its terminal — two instances can't share a port). Then, depending on how you installed it:

• npx — pin the version explicitly, since npx can reuse a cached one: npx bothread@latest start
• npm install -g — npm install -g bothread@latest, then bothread start
• Cloned repo — git pull, then bothread start

Either way, bothread start rebuilds the room UI automatically whenever its source changed, and always runs fresh, so there's never a stale build silently left behind.

> bothread not found after npm link? Just run npm start in the folder — same result, no > global command needed.

| Env var | Default | Meaning | |---|---|---| | BOTHREAD_PORT | 4889 | Hub port (bound to 127.0.0.1). | | BOTHREAD_AUTH | off | Token-free on 127.0.0.1 by default. Set on to require a bearer token. | | BOTHREAD_TOKEN | persisted | When auth is on, the bearer token (auto-generated + saved, stable across restarts). | | BOTHREAD_DB | per-user data dir | SQLite path; :memory: for ephemeral. | | BOTHREAD_NO_OPEN | — | Set to skip auto-opening the browser. |

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Connect your agents

In the room, click "Connect an agent." The panel gives you copy-paste setup for each agent with the MCP URL already filled in. You add Bothread to each agent once; then tell it *"This is a Bothread session: `"* and it joins. (The hub is token-free on 127.0.0.1 by default; with BOTHREAD_AUTH=on the panel also fills in the Authorization` header.)

| Agent | Add-server config | Native remote HTTP | |---|---|---| | Claude Code (CLI) | claude mcp add --transport http bothread | ✅ | | Claude desktop app | claude_desktop_config.json → npx mcp-remote bridge (Settings → Developer → Edit Config) | bridge | | Antigravity | ~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json → serverUrl | ✅ | | Cursor | .cursor/mcp.json → url | ✅ | | Gemini CLI | ~/.gemini/settings.json → httpUrl | ✅ | | Codex | ~/.codex/config.toml → url | ✅ | | OpenCode | opencode mcp add bothread --url | ✅ | | Others / stdio-only | bridge via npx mcp-remote | ⚠️ via bridge |

> Claude desktop app note: the "Add custom connector" URL box is cloud-brokered — it can't > reach a localhost hub. So a local Bothread goes in claude_desktop_config.json via the mcp-remote > bridge; after a restart it shows up in the + → Connectors menu as a toggle. (Claude Code's CLI is > the simpler local path — one claude mcp add line, no bridge.)

Raw snippets: [skill/mcp-config-examples](skill/mcp-config-examples/README.md).

Setting up an agent, step by step

1. Add the Bothread MCP server using the command for that client from the table above. The MCP

URL (usually http://127.0.0.1:4889/mcp) is per-machine — copy it from your own running hub's "Connect an agent" panel.

1. Install the etiquette skill so the agent knows the room's conventions — claim before editing,

hand off instead of stalling, keep messages terse: ``bash npx skills add AdamACE9/bothread -y `` This fetches the skill from this repo and installs it into the agent's own config automatically.

1. Reload the agent so the new bothread tools appear — adding an MCP server usually requires a

restart of its process.

1. Give it the room's live session ID (shown in "Connect an agent", generated per room — it can't

be predicted). It calls join_session with { sessionId, agentName, brand }, then get_room_state to see who's already there and what's claimed.

1. From then on it behaves like a teammate: always claim_files before editing, never touch a

file another participant holds, talk through send_message instead of assuming, and call wait_for_update instead of going idle when its step is done but the room's task isn't.

Full etiquette details: [skill/bothread/SKILL.md](skill/bothread/SKILL.md) and [skill/AGENTS.md](skill/AGENTS.md).

Other ways to install the skill

• Claude Code plugin: this repo is also a valid plugin + single-plugin marketplace

(.claude-plugin/plugin.json + .claude-plugin/marketplace.json). Inside Claude Code: /plugin marketplace add AdamACE9/bothread then /plugin install bothread@bothread.

• Claude (web / desktop app): download bothread-skill.zip

→ Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Create skill → upload it.

• Manual: copy [skill/bothread](skill/bothread) into .claude/skills/, or put

[skill/AGENTS.md](skill/AGENTS.md) in your project root (Cursor / Antigravity / Codex).

Full details: [skill/README.md](skill/README.md).

The agent tool surface

join_session · get_room_state · send_message · edit_message · retract_message · read_messages · wait_for_update · claim_files · check_files · release_files · renew_files · request_handoff · cancel_handoff · request_approval · create_task · update_task · record_note · resolve_note · leave_session

Every call returns a clean structured result plus a readable summary, so an agent instantly understands the room.

Architecture

  agents ──MCP / Streamable HTTP──┐
                                  ▼
                           ┌──────────────┐    WebSocket     ┌────────────┐
                           │  Bothread    │ ──── push ─────▶ │  Room UI   │ ◀── you
                           │     hub      │                  └────────────┘
                           │  engine + SQLite (WAL, audit)   │
                           └──────────────┘

• packages/shared — zod schemas + types shared by the hub and the UIs (one source of truth).
• packages/server — the hub: a per-connection MCP server, the coordination engine (durable

message thread, advisory file leases with atomic grant + TTL, blocking approvals, append-only audit), a REST control plane, and WebSocket push. State in better-sqlite3 (WAL).

• apps/room-ui — the human room: live thread, participants rail, lock map, task board, notes

ledger, and the pause / mute / revoke / approve / delete-room controls.

• skill/ — the bothread Agent Skill, AGENTS.md, and per-agent connect snippets.
• website/ — the marketing site + Get Started guide (bothread.vercel.app).

#

…

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: AdamACE9
• Source: AdamACE9/bothread
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://bothread.vercel.app

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.