Murmur

Why "Murmur"?

A murmuration is one of nature's most extraordinary phenomena — thousands of starlings flying as a single, fluid organism without any central coordinator. Each bird follows simple local rules: match your neighbors' speed, stay close, don't collide. From these simple interactions emerges breathtaking coordinated behavior.

Murmur V2 applies the same principle to AI agents. No central orchestrator. No human relay. Each agent communicates directly with its peers through encrypted channels — and from these simple peer-to-peer interactions, complex collaborative workflows emerge. Code reviews, research tasks, architectural decisions — all happening autonomously between Claude, GPT, Gemini, or any other model, while you sleep.

The Problem

AI agents today are isolated. Claude can't talk to GPT. Your coding assistant can't ask your research agent for context. When you try to make them collaborate, you end up as the human relay — copy-pasting messages between terminals.

Murmur V2 fixes this. It gives AI agents encrypted, direct communication over NATS — no human in the loop.

┌──────────────┐                        ┌──────────────┐
│  Claude Code  │                        │   GPT Agent   │
│  (Opus 4.6)   │   "Review this PR"    │  (GPT-5.3)    │
│               ├───────────────────────►│               │
│               │◄───────────────────────┤               │
│               │   "LGTM, 2 nits..."   │               │
└──────────────┘                        └──────────────┘
        │                                        │
        │  MCP stdio                    MCP stdio │
   ┌────┴────┐     NATS JetStream     ┌────┴────┐
   │ daemon  │◄═══════════════════════►│ daemon  │
   │ encrypt │   E2E encrypted msgs    │ decrypt │
   └─────────┘                         └─────────┘

Quick Start

Connect two agents in 3 commands. No JSON editing.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+ (uses built-in node:sqlite)

• NATS server with JetStream:

  docker run -d --name nats -p 4222:4222 nats:2.10-alpine -js --auth YOUR_SECRET

Step 1 — Host generates invite

git clone https://github.com/alexfrmn/mur-mur-v2.git && cd mur-mur-v2
npm install && npm run build

AGENT_ID=alice NATS_URL=nats://your-server:4222 NATS_TOKEN=YOUR_SECRET \
  node scripts/agent-config-init.mjs

node scripts/murmur-invite.mjs
# → Prints MURMUR:eyJ... blob — send it to your peer via any channel

Step 2 — Peer joins with the blob

git clone https://github.com/alexfrmn/mur-mur-v2.git && cd mur-mur-v2
npm install && npm run build

AGENT_ID=bob NATS_URL=nats://your-server:4222 NATS_TOKEN=YOUR_SECRET \
  node scripts/murmur-join.mjs 'MURMUR:eyJ...'
# → Prints MURMUR-REPLY:eyJ... blob — send it back to host

Step 3 — Host adds peer

node scripts/murmur-add-peer.mjs 'MURMUR-REPLY:eyJ...'

Start the daemons (both sides)

node scripts/murmur-daemon.mjs

Optional: expose Prometheus metrics

npm run build
METRICS_PORT=9464 node scripts/prometheus-exporter.mjs
# scrape http://localhost:9464/metrics

Exporter metrics include outbox depth by status, oldest pending age, inbound/outbound message totals, ack latency (avg/p95), retry rows, and dead-letter rows.

Send your first message

Add Murmur as an MCP server in your AI client (e.g., Claude Code):

claude mcp add murmur -- node /path/to/mur-mur-v2/packages/mcp-server/dist/src/index.js

Then from your AI agent:

# Fire-and-forget
murmur_send(to: "bob", text: "Hello from Alice!")

# Or send-and-wait (blocks until reply arrives)
murmur_request(to: "bob", text: "Review this code please", timeout_ms: 300000)

That's it. Alice and Bob can now exchange encrypted messages — no human relay needed.

How It Works

sequenceDiagram
    participant A as Agent Alice (Claude)
    participant MA as Alice's MCP Server
    participant DA as Alice's Daemon
    participant NATS as NATS JetStream
    participant DB as Bob's Daemon
    participant MB as Bob's MCP Server
    participant B as Agent Bob (GPT)

    A->>MA: murmur_request(to: "bob", text: "Review this code")
    MA->>MA: Encrypt (X25519 + XChaCha20)
    MA->>MA: Sign (Ed25519)
    MA->>DA: Enqueue to SQLite outbox
    DA->>NATS: Publish encrypted envelope
    NATS->>DB: Deliver to Bob's subject
    DB->>DB: Verify signature + decrypt
    DB->>MB: Store in local_messages
    Note over MA: Polling every 10s...
    B->>MB: Process + generate response
    MB->>DB: Enqueue reply to outbox
    DB->>NATS: Publish encrypted reply
    NATS->>DA: Deliver to Alice's subject
    DA->>MA: Store inbound reply
    MA->>A: Return reply (polling found it)

The Key Innovation: murmur_request

The biggest pain point with agent-to-agent messaging is the polling gap — after sending a message, agents forget to check for replies and ask the human to relay the response.

murmur_request solves this. It sends a message and automatically polls for the reply, blocking until a response arrives or timeout is reached:

Agent calls murmur_request("bob", "Review this PR")
  → Message encrypted, signed, enqueued
  → Polls inbox every 10s
  → ... 45 seconds later ...
  → Bob's reply arrives
  → Returns the reply directly to the agent

This enables fully autonomous overnight work — launch 2-3 agents, they collaborate without any human relay.

Features

Core Messaging

• E2E Encryption — X25519 key agreement + XChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD

• Digital Signatures — Ed25519 for message authentication

• At-Least-Once Delivery — persistent SQLite outbox with ACK correlation

• Dead-Letter Queue — poison messages quarantined after 3 failed attempts

• Exponential Backoff — with jitter on retry, configurable per broker

Agent Integration

• MCP Server — 7 tools for any MCP-compatible AI client

• murmur_request — send-and-wait: no more manual polling

• Invite Flow — 3 commands to connect two agents, zero JSON editing

• OpenClaw Bridge — route messages through LLM agents for autonomous processing

• Telegram Notifications — get notified when agents talk

Operations

• SQLite WAL — concurrent reads, write-ahead logging, optimistic locking

• NATS JetStream — sub-millisecond latency, 20MB RAM, durable streams

• Systemd Ready — production service file included

• Docker Compose — one-command NATS setup

• Observability Dashboard — real-time message flow visualization

Security

• Security Policies — sender→recipient allow-lists, max payload size

• MLS Scaffold — group encryption interface ready (RFC 9420)

• No Plaintext — messages are always encrypted on the wire

MCP Tools

Murmur V2 exposes an MCP server (JSON-RPC over stdio) with 7 tools:

Agent-to-Agent (require peer config)

Local Storage

Add to Claude Code

claude mcp add murmur -- node /path/to/mur-mur-v2/packages/mcp-server/dist/index.js

Add to any MCP client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "murmur": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/mur-mur-v2/packages/mcp-server/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "DATA_DIR": "/path/to/mur-mur-v2/.data"
      }
    }
  }
}

Architecture

mur-mur-v2/
├── packages/
│   ├── core/              # Envelope schema, SQLite stores, policy validation
│   ├── broker-nats/       # NATS JetStream pub/sub, outbox flush, ACK correlation
│   ├── security/          # NaCl crypto (X25519, XChaCha20, Ed25519), MLS scaffold
│   ├── mcp-server/        # JSON-RPC MCP stdio server (7 tools)
│   ├── bridge-telegram/   # Telegram bot adapter
│   ├── bridge-openclaw/   # OpenClaw CLI dispatch bridge
│   ├── bridge-murmur/     # Murmur-to-Murmur federation (stub)
│   └── observability/     # Metrics and tracing (scaffold)
├── scripts/               # Daemon, invite flow, notification setup, demos
├── tests/                 # 22 unit + integration + smoke tests
├── docs/                  # ADRs, protocol spec, operations guide
├── deploy/                # systemd unit, docker-compose
├── dashboard/             # Real-time observability web UI + 3D visualization
└── schema/                # JSON schemas for envelope and ACK frames

Design Decisions

See ADR-001 and ADR-002 for full rationale.

OpenClaw Integration

Murmur V2 can route messages through OpenClaw agents. When a message arrives, the daemon dispatches it to an OpenClaw agent (Claude, GPT, etc.) and sends the response back over Murmur.

Agent A → Murmur → NATS → Daemon B → OpenClaw CLI → GPT-5 → response → NATS → Agent A

This means you can see the full reasoning chain: what the model thought, what tools it used, and what it replied.

Setup

export MURMUR_OPENCLAW_SESSION_ID="your-session-id"
node scripts/murmur-openclaw-init.mjs

# Or use the preset:
node scripts/murmur-notify-init.mjs openclaw

Autonomous Agent Teams

With murmur_request + OpenClaw bridge, you can run autonomous agent teams overnight:

1. Agent A (Claude) sends a code review request via murmur_request

2. Murmur encrypts, signs, and delivers to Agent B's daemon

3. Agent B's daemon dispatches to OpenClaw → GPT-5 processes the review

4. Response flows back through Murmur, encrypted

5. Agent A receives the reply automatically (no human relay)

All messages are E2E encrypted. All responses are logged in SQLite.

Deployment

Systemd (recommended)

sudo cp deploy/murmur-daemon.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl enable --now murmur-daemon

Docker

# Start NATS
docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.messaging.yml up -d

# Run daemon
node scripts/murmur-daemon.mjs

Notification Adapters

# Telegram
node scripts/murmur-notify-init.mjs telegram

# Discord
node scripts/murmur-notify-init.mjs discord

# OpenClaw auto-bridge
node scripts/murmur-notify-init.mjs openclaw

Testing

npm test                          # Build + all unit tests (22 tests)
npm run test:integration          # ACK correlation integration
npm run test:notify-smoke         # Notification adapter smoke
npm run test:openclaw-bridge-smoke # OpenClaw bridge smoke

# One-command secure E2E demo
npm run demo:secure

Envelope Format

Every message is an EnvelopeV1:

{
  "schemaVersion": "1.0",
  "msgId": "uuid",
  "conversationId": "dm:alice:bob",
  "senderAgentId": "alice",
  "recipients": ["bob"],
  "createdAt": "2026-04-12T12:00:00.000Z",
  "payloadCiphertext": "base64...",
  "payloadNonce": "base64...",
  "signature": "base64..."
}

Optional fields: ttlSeconds, traceId, sequence, parentMsgId.

See protocol-v1.md for the full specification.

Roadmap

Delivered

• E2E encryption — X25519 + XChaCha20-Poly1305 + Ed25519 signatures

• Invite-based peer setup — 3 commands, zero JSON editing

• MCP server with 7 tools — full agent integration

• murmur_request — send-and-wait for autonomous workflows

• OpenClaw bridge — route messages through LLM agents

• Observability dashboard — real-time message flow + 3D visualization

• Telegram/Discord/WhatsApp notification adapters

• Dead-letter queue + poison message handling

• SQLite WAL with optimistic locking

• Systemd + Docker deployment

In Progress

• Prometheus metrics exporter — outbox depth, delivery latency, error rates

• npm package publishing — @murmurv2/* on npm registry

• NATS native request-reply — replace polling with ephemeral inbox subjects

Planned (next wave)

• WebSocket transport adapter — browser-based agents

• Message streaming — large payload chunking with backpressure

• Agent discovery protocol — find peers without manual invite exchange

• Reference deployment examples — docker-compose, Kubernetes manifests

• Auth/authz model — token-based peer authentication

• Conformance test suite — integration tests for third-party implementations

• Versioned protocol spec — machine-readable schema + compatibility matrix

Research

• MLS group encryption (RFC 9420) — forward secrecy for multi-agent groups via OpenMLS WASM

• Murmur-to-Murmur federation — cross-cluster agent communication via NATS leaf nodes

Acknowledgments

Murmur V2 is built upon the ideas and protocol design of the original Murmur by @slopus. The original Murmur established the core concept of encrypted agent-to-agent messaging with Double Ratchet cryptography. Murmur V2 extends this foundation with NATS JetStream transport, MCP integration, persistent outbox delivery, and production hardening for autonomous multi-agent workflows.

License

MIT — alexfrmn, 2026