magents
<p align="center">
<img src="docs/assets/hero.svg" alt="magents shared session bus across Claude, Codex, Grok, and Cursor" width="100%" />
</p>
Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Cursor, Gemini, Grok, and OpenCode already keep
transcripts on disk. **magents** is the shared API over those sessions - an MCP
server plus a small CLI - so one agent can pick up where another left off
without you recapping, ping a *specific live chat* when you are not sitting in
the middle, or start an independent persisted chat for a complete task.
It is not a second copy of history and not a fire-and-forget council. Existing
chats stay the default unit of work; new chats are for independent work that
benefits from its own session and working directory.
[Install](#install) · [Plugins](#plugins) · [What you can do](#what-you-can-do) · [Quick start](#quick-start) · [Tools](#tools) · [CLI](#cli) · [Releases](https://github.com/abnegate/magents/releases)
## Why
You already run more than one coding agent. The pain is not "more models" - it
is **context trapped in another window**.
| Pain | What magents does |
| --- | --- |
| You switched hosts mid-task | Read the live session and continue *here* |
| Agent A hit a wall Agent B owns | Inject into that live chat without you as the messenger |
| A subtask can run alone | Spawn a headless persisted session with a complete prompt + reply path |
## What you can do
**1. Handoff without a new thread**
You were in Claude on the disaster-recovery branch. Now you are in Grok. Ask
Grok what they were doing; it reads the live session and continues. No paste
buffer. No "new chat, here's the context."
**2. Send when you are not the messenger**
Three agents running. Claude hits a wall Codex owns. Claude injects into that
Codex thread and keeps going - especially useful when the sender already has the
failing query, file, and constraint you would otherwise reconstruct.
**3. Spawn independent work**
When a task can proceed alone, start a new headless persisted session with a
complete prompt, an isolated working directory when files could collide, and a
request to reply through magents. Spawned agents keep their host's native
approval policy - spawning does not add an approval bypass.
## Install
### Homebrew (macOS / Linux)
```bash
brew install abnegate/tap/magents
magents install --all
```
### APT (Debian / Ubuntu)
```bash
curl -fsSL https://abnegate.github.io/apt-repo/pubkey.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/abnegate.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/abnegate.gpg] https://abnegate.github.io/apt-repo stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/abnegate.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install magents
magents install --all
```
### Binary
From [Releases](https://github.com/abnegate/magents/releases):
```bash
curl -LSsf -o magents \
"https://github.com/abnegate/magents/releases/latest/download/magents-$(uname -m | sed 's/arm64/aarch64/')-$(uname -s | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z' | sed 's/darwin/apple-darwin/;s/linux/unknown-linux-musl/')"
chmod +x magents
./magents install --all
```
Assets: `magents-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl`, `magents-aarch64-unknown-linux-musl`,
`magents-aarch64-apple-darwin`, `magents-x86_64-apple-darwin`.
### Container
```bash
docker pull ghcr.io/abnegate/magents:latest
docker run --rm --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
-v "$HOME:$HOME" -e HOME \
ghcr.io/abnegate/magents list --live
```
### From source
```bash
cargo install --path .
magents install --all
```
## Plugins
Host plugins package the magents skill plus an MCP entry that runs `magents mcp`.
Install the CLI first (`brew install abnegate/tap/magents`), then load the matching
folder under [`plugins/`](plugins/).
| Host | Path |
| --- | --- |
| Claude Code | [`plugins/claude`](plugins/claude) |
| Codex | [`plugins/codex`](plugins/codex) |
| Cursor | [`plugins/cursor`](plugins/cursor) |
Details and marketplace notes: [`plugins/README.md`](plugins/README.md).
## Quick start
`magents install --all` registers the stdio MCP server with each installed host,
skipping hosts whose required binaries are unavailable:
- Grok (`grok mcp add magents -- magents mcp`)
- Claude Code (`claude mcp add --scope user magents -- magents mcp`)
- Codex (`codex mcp add magents -- magents mcp`)
- Cursor (`~/.cursor/mcp.json`)
- OpenCode (`~/.config/opencode/opencode.json`)
- Gemini CLI (`gemini mcp add -s user magents magents mcp`)
- GitHub Copilot CLI (`copilot mcp add magents -- magents mcp`)
It also writes the `magents` and `learn` skills under supported hosts' skills
directories (`~/.grok/skills/{magents,learn}`, `~/.claude/skills/{magents,learn}`,
`~/.cursor/skills/{magents,learn}`, and the OpenCode / Gemini / Copilot
equivalents). `/learn` reads every local agent's sessions, not only Grok.
For Grok and Codex only, point a host at the binary yourself:
```toml
[mcp_servers.magents]
command = "/path/to/magents"
args = ["mcp"]
```
Restart the agent session (or refresh `/mcps`) so the tools appear.
Try:
```bash
magents list --live
magents digest grok:latest
magents handoff grok:latest --reason "continuing in grok"
```
## Tools
| Tool | Purpose |
| --- | --- |
| `list_sessions` | Live and recent sessions; filter by `cwd` / `branch` |
| `get_session` | Lookup by id, title, live name, pid, or `agent:ref` |
| `read_transcript` | Compact inert handoff (last request, last action, recent turns) |
| `search_transcripts` | Full-text search across those transcripts |
| `search_memories` | Phrase search over Claude / Codex / Grok memory markdown |
| `create_memory` | Write a note into Claude / Codex / Grok first-party memory |
| `spawn_session` | Start a new headless persisted session for independent work |
| `send_message` | Deliver a user turn to an existing chat |
| `handoff` | Compact this session and inject it into another live chat |
| `inbox` / `ack` / `await_reply` / `reply` | Mailbox for cross-session replies |
| `session_digest` | Compact last request / action / cwd / branch / clipped turns |
| `files_touched` | Paths another session edited |
| `stop_session` | Stop a magents-supervised spawn or resume |
| `read_memory` | Read one Claude / Codex / Grok memory markdown file |
| `get_note` / `put_note` | Magents-owned shared scratch for a working directory |
| `whoami` | Detect this connection; resolve session via env, socket, or unique cwd |
| `learn_collect` | Collect compact records from every local agent's full history for `/learn`, or estimate a run |
| `learn_state` | Read or update `/learn` state, decisions, and trash |
Refs can be prefixed: `claude:disaster recovery`, `grok:latest`, `codex:<uuid>`,
`cursor:latest`, `opencode:<id>`, `gemini:latest`, `copilot:<id>`.
## CLI
```bash
magents list --live
magents list --agent grok --query edge
magents get 'claude:disaster recovery'
magents read grok:latest -n 20
magents digest grok:latest
magents search "dedicated databases" --agent claude
magents spawn codex --prompt-file /path/to/task.md --cwd /path/to/isolated-worktree
magents send grok:latest "handoff: the DR runbook is in docs/RUNBOOK.md"
magents handoff grok:latest --reason "continuing in grok"
magents whoami
magents learn estimate
magents learn collect
magents learn plan
magents learn collect --since-last
magents learn state
```
Pass `--output json` on any command for stable machine-readable stdout.
`magents` with no args on a piped stdin starts the MCP server.
`magents spawn` reads the complete task from stdin by default (`--prompt-file`
supported). Prompt text is never a process argument.
## How sessions talk
`list_sessions` / `read_transcript` / `search_transcripts` / `search_memories`
are the handoff. `create_memory` writes into another harness's first-party
memory (Claude, Codex, or Grok).
Choose the write path by where the work should happen:
- **`spawn_session`** - new, headless, persisted, independent session. Complete
task, verification, reply-through-magents, isolated `cwd` when edits could
collide. Success means launch accepted (`accepted: true`, `status: "starting"`),
not that the task finished.
- **`send_message`** - existing session. Always records mailbox mail; injects a
live user turn where the host supports one.
- **`handoff`** - compact this session into an existing live session so that
session continues the same work.
### Delivery routes (existing chats)
`send_message` always appends to the mailbox, then prefers a native live path
and otherwise starts a supervised headless resume:
| Surface | Delivery route |
| --- | --- |
| Claude Desktop | UDS user turn (`/tmp/cc-socks/<pid>.sock`), then tmux or supervised `claude -p --verbose --resume <id>` |
| Claude CLI | UDS when available, then tmux or supervised resume |
| Grok | Supervised `grok --cwd <cwd> --resume <id> --output-format streaming-json --prompt-file /dev/stdin` |
| Codex Desktop / VS Code | Length-prefixed JSON-RPC on `~/.codex/ipc/ipc.sock`, then supervised `codex exec ... resume` |
| Codex CLI | Supervised `codex exec --json -C <cwd> resume <id> -` |
| Cursor | Supervised `cursor-agent -p --output-format stream-json --resume <id> --workspace <cwd>` |
| OpenCode | Supervised `opencode run --format json --dir <cwd> --session <id>` |
| Gemini CLI | Supervised `gemini --resume <id> --output-format stream-json` |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | Supervised `copilot --resume=<id> --output-format json` |
Supervised routes pass the user turn through stdin and do not expose transcript
text, tokens, or raw host output in the response. Spawn never adds approval
bypasses (`--dangerously-skip-permissions`, `--yolo`, `--full-auto`, etc.).
Session discovery sources (unchanged): Claude `~/.claude/sessions`, Grok
`~/.grok/active_sessions.json`, Codex sqlite + rollout JSONL, Cursor
`agent-transcripts`, OpenCode DB, Gemini journals, Copilot `session-state`.
## Tests
```bash
cargo test --locked --all-targets
cargo llvm-cov --locked --all-targets --ignore-filename-regex 'src/main.rs|/rustlib/' --fail-under-lines 98
```
CI runs format, clippy (`-D warnings`), the full test suite, and a 98% line-coverage gate.
## Requirements
- Rust 1.88+
- macOS or Linux (Claude UDS inject is Unix-only)
## License
MIT
TDQS
Scored across 22 tools
Most tools target distinct resources (sessions, memory, notes, transcripts, messaging, learn), and descriptions explicitly disambiguate tricky pairs like get_note/put_note vs read_memory/create_memory and session_digest vs read_transcript. However, the messaging cluster (send_message, reply, handoff, inbox, await_reply, ack) has real overlap since send_message/reply/handoff all deliver messages and rely on prose to separate them.
The set largely follows a predictable snake_case verb_noun pattern (create_memory, read_memory, get_session, spawn_session, list_sessions, search_transcripts). A few outliers break the pattern—handoff, whoami, inbox, and ack are single bare words—but overall the conventions are still readable and mostly uniform.
At 22 tools this sits at the heavy end for the server's scope, spanning sessions, messaging, memory, transcripts, and learn. Each tool arguably earns its place given the broad multi-agent domain, but the count is borderline and some messaging tools could likely be consolidated.
The surface covers the lifecycle well: session discovery (list/get/whoami), lifecycle (spawn/stop), messaging (send/reply/inbox/await/ack), memory and notes (read/search/create/get/put), transcripts (read/search/digest/files_touched), and learn state. Minor gaps exist—no memory/note delete or update, no session rename—but these are workable around.