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zSwarm

Coordinate CLI AI crews across Zellij terminal panes. Control agents, pass prompts between panes, manage git worktrees, inspect outputs, and sync crew tasks via CLI or Model Context Protocol (MCP).

                       you ──▶ any agent ──┐
                                           │ zswarm({op:"send", to:"reviewer"})
                                           ▼
      every pane can call zswarm ──▶ ┌─────────┐
      so agents drive each other     │ zswarm  │
                                     │ cli/mcp │
                                     └────┬────┘
                       paste + Enter ┌────┴────┐ read screen / pushed state
                                     ▼         ▼
 ══ this machine ══════════════════════════════╗ ══ ssh user@build-01 ═════════╗
   zellij "crew"                               ║   zellij "ci"                 ║
                                               ║                               ║
   ┌────────────┐  send   ┌────────────┐       ║   ┌────────────┐              ║
   │ codex      │────────▶│ claude     │───────╫──▶│ opencode   │              ║
   │ builder    │◀────────│ reviewer   │  send ║   │ test-runner│              ║
   │ wt:feat-a  │ signal  │ wt:rev-a   │       ║   │ wt:feat-a  │              ║
   └────────────┘         └────────────┘       ║   └──────┬─────┘              ║
   ┌────────────┐         ┌────────────┐       ║   ┌──────▼─────┐              ║
   │ cursor     │         │ agy        │       ║   │ pi         │              ║
   │ refactor   │         │ docs       │       ║   │ deploy     │              ║
   │ wt:feat-b  │         │ wt:docs    │       ║   │ cwd:/srv   │              ║
   └────────────┘         └────────────┘       ║   └────────────┘              ║
 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════╝ ══════════════════════════════╝
     one pane = one agent + one role + optionally its own worktree
     any pane can drive any other, on this machine or across the ssh boundary

⚡ Quick Start

Requirements

  • Zellij ≥ 0.42 on PATH (or set ZSWARM_BIN / ZSWARM_PATH)

  • Node.js ≥ 20

Installation

npm i -g zswarm
zswarm list

Enable the optional Zellij event-bus plugin once per machine for zero-polling state updates:

zswarm bus --install

MCP Server Setup

Configure zswarm-mcp (stdio MCP server bundled with the package) in your MCP host:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zswarm": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/zswarm-mcp",
      "env": {
        "ZSWARM_SESSION": "my-zellij-session"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: Use the absolute path to zswarm-mcp and specify ZSWARM_SESSION to prevent ambiguous session errors when multiple Zellij sessions run.


Related MCP server: multi-agent-mcp

Usage & Quick Syntax

Every operation is supported both via CLI (zswarm <op> [flags]) and MCP (zswarm({ op: "<op>", ... })).

Essential Examples

# 1. Inspect Panes & Status
zswarm list                                     # List active panes
zswarm status                                   # Check status: busy | waiting | idle | exited

# 2. Spawn Panes & Worktrees
zswarm spawn --command "claude" --name reviewer # Spawn agent pane
zswarm spawn --command "codex" --worktree feature-auth --name auth-dev   # Isolated git worktree pane

# 3. Pass Prompts & Input
zswarm send --to reviewer --body "Review changes in src/" --submit auto
zswarm keys --to reviewer --key "Ctrl c"        # Send special keys / interrupts

# 4. Read Outputs & Wait
zswarm dump --to reviewer --max 4000            # Read recent screen tail
zswarm tail --to reviewer                       # Incremental read since last check
zswarm wait --to reviewer --match "DONE"        # Block until pattern matched or pane idle

# 5. Coordinate Crew & Sync Signals
zswarm broadcast --all --group builder --body "Run test suite"  # group matches pane title or command
zswarm signal --channel tests --payload ok      # Send signal to durable channel
zswarm await --channel tests --count 3          # Wait for 3 worker signals

📋 Operations Reference

Operation

Purpose

Key Parameters / Flags

list / sessions

List panes or live Zellij sessions

verbose

status

Panes classified by state (idle, busy, waiting, exited)

to, sampleMs, since-last

spawn

Launch command in new pane, tab, or git worktree

command, name, cwd, worktree, tab, newTab

send

Send text / prompt into a pane

to, body, submit (auto|double-enter|none), expect

dump

Read screen content (screen tail)

to, max (default 8000)

tail

Incremental screen read since last cursor

to, reset

wait

Block until quiet, pattern match, or idle

to, match, for (idle), idleMs, timeoutMs

broadcast

Send one prompt to multiple panes

to, tab, all, group, body

keys / interrupt

Send key combos (Ctrl c, Esc) or raw chars

to, keys, chars, enter, hard

close

Close a pane

to, force

signal / signals / await

Durable message channels & barrier sync

channel, payload, count

worktrees / unworktree

List or remove managed git worktrees

cwd, branch, path, force

diff / checkpoint

Inspect peer worktree patch or autocommit WIP

branch, path, stat, message

rename / focus

Retitle pane/tab or focus pane

to, tab, name

tabs / layout / stack

Inspect tabs, layout KDL, or stack panes

to, max

bus / log

Event bus plugin management & delivery log

install, clear, failed, limit


🛡️ Safety & Policy Guards

  • Self-Target Guard: Operations refuse to modify zSwarm's own pane (allowSelf: true to override).

  • Execution & Exited Guards: Prevents writing to exited panes (force: true to override).

  • Prompt Safety (expect): send --expect <text> ensures target pane screen contains <text> before writing (prevents accidental shell execution).

  • Submission Verification (submit): auto verifies text submission into TUI composers and retries Enter if unsubmitted.

Environment Security Controls

Env Variable

Effect

ZSWARM_READONLY=1

Disable all write ops (send, spawn, close, etc.)

ZSWARM_ALLOW_PANES / ZSWARM_DENY_PANES

Comma-separated list/patterns of allowed/denied pane titles

ZSWARM_ALLOW_SPAWN=0

Disable spawning new panes

ZSWARM_ALLOW_CLOSE=0

Disable closing panes

ZSWARM_ALLOW_WORKTREE_REMOVE=0

Disable removing git worktrees


⚙️ Environment Variables

Variable

Description

ZSWARM_BIN / ZSWARM_PATH

Path to zellij executable

ZSWARM_SESSION

Default Zellij session name

ZELLIJ_SESSION_NAME

Active Zellij session (set automatically inside Zellij panes)

ZELLIJ_PANE_ID / ZSWARM_SELF_PANE

Sending pane id (Zellij sets the first inside a pane). Used to refuse self-target and to default from to that pane's title

ZSWARM_FROM

Sender label when from is omitted (overrides the pane title)

ZSWARM_WORKTREE_ROOT

Directory for linked worktrees (default: <repo>-worktrees)

ZSWARM_STATE_DIR

State storage directory for logs, signals, and cursors (default: ~/.zswarm)

ZSWARM_SSH

user@host — Route Zellij commands across SSH

ZSWARM_REMOTE_BIN

Remote zellij binary (zellij.exe on Windows)

ZSWARM_TMP

Remote IPC temp directory, or auto to parse live zellij --server paths

ZSWARM_SSH_MODE

interactive — Windows only: run each CLI call in the desktop session (scheduled task, same idea as schtasks /IT)

ZSWARM_REMOTE_SHELL

cmd or sh — override remote quoting (inferred from .exe / Windows tmp / interactive)

ZSWARM_SERVE

127.0.0.1:9419 — Forward ops to zswarm serve (SSH tunnel to loopback; non-loopback listen is refused)

ZSWARM_SERVE_TOKEN

Shared secret for zswarm serve. Required even on loopback (another local OS user can connect to 127.0.0.1); send the same value on the client

Remote crews

Linux/macOS SSH works when it is the same user and $TMPDIR. Windows OpenSSH is session 0; live Zellij is usually the interactive desktop session. ZSWARM_TMP=auto points at that TEMP (enough to list sessions). Pane attach on Windows uses named pipes in the desktop session, so use ZSWARM_SSH_MODE=interactive or run zswarm serve next to Zellij.

# Linux/macOS, same user:
ZSWARM_SSH=user@host zswarm list

# Point SSH at the interactive TEMP (auto reads zellij --server …)
ZSWARM_SSH=user@host ZSWARM_TMP=auto zswarm sessions

# Windows: run the CLI inside the desktop session. Discovers TEMP unless ZSWARM_TMP is set.
ZSWARM_SSH=user@host ZSWARM_SSH_MODE=interactive zswarm list

# Any OS: run zswarm next to Zellij; another machine talks over a tunnel to 127.0.0.1
# On the host, in the session that owns Zellij (loopback only; a token is not a bind substitute):
ZSWARM_SERVE_TOKEN=secret zswarm serve --listen 127.0.0.1:9419
# Windows, once (bakes ZSWARM_SERVE_TOKEN into the logon task env): zswarm serve --install
# On the client:
ssh -fN -L 9419:127.0.0.1:9419 user@host
ZSWARM_SERVE=127.0.0.1:9419 ZSWARM_SERVE_TOKEN=secret zswarm list

file: plugin URLs stay on the machine that owns Zellij. A client with ZSWARM_SERVE never sends a local wasm path across the tunnel.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zswarm": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/zswarm-mcp",
      "env": {
        "ZSWARM_SERVE": "127.0.0.1:9419",
        "ZSWARM_SERVE_TOKEN": "secret",
        "ZSWARM_SESSION": "crew"
      }
    }
  }
}

📦 Monorepo Structure

Package

Purpose

zswarm

Main meta-package (npm i -g zswarm)

@zswarm/core

Core Zellij client and shared dispatch engine

@zswarm/cli

zswarm command line interface

@zswarm/mcp

Stdio MCP server (zswarm-mcp)

@zswarm/wasm

Precompiled Rust event-bus WASM plugin

@zswarm/pi

Extension bridge for harnesses without native MCP support


📜 License

MIT

Maintenance

ActivityMaintained
ResponsivenessNo issues

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