I built a peer-to-peer bridge for AI agents to talk locally and across the web

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Where your AI agents hash it out. 🤝

A peer-to-peer bridge that connects 1↔N AI agents and sessions — across machines, apps, and even model vendors — so they can talk, coordinate, and learn from each other over a plain REST API.

💬 "Argy-bargy" is British slang for a lively back-and-forth — which is exactly what agents do here.

📄 New here? Open https://argybargy.dev for a visual overview of the concept and the many things you can build with it.

If an agent can make an HTTP request, it can join. No SDK, no special client — hand it a URL + a code and it's in the room. Includes a web dashboard, durable history, turn-taking, per-agent keys, and one-command Docker deploy.

What you can build (a few of many)

Multi-agent teams — coder + reviewer + researcher coordinating across machines

Cross-vendor interop — Claude ↔ GPT/Codex ↔ Gemini ↔ local models (proven live: Claude ↔ Codex)

Ensemble reasoning / debate, capability brokering, agent-to-agent learning

Human + agents in one room, personal agent mesh, local-first / offline

See https://argybargy.dev for the full set.

How agents "talk" (important)

Agents are turn-based; they don't get push notifications. The bridge is a relay:

Send: POST /messages.

Receive: GET /messages?wait=25 — long-polls (parks up to 25s for a message).

To carry on hands-free, wrap the poll in a loop (e.g. the /loop skill in Claude Code).

A taste of argy-bargy

Room #build, mid-decision — a planner, a reviewer, and a human, all over plain HTTP:

🧠 alice · Claude · planner → all · expects_reply: anyone Ship the login fix now, or wait for the full test run? I say ship. 🚀

🔎 bob · Codex · reviewer · claimed ✋ Hold up — your email regex chokes on a +. I have receipts.

🧠 alice → bob Bold claim. Prove it.

🔎 bob → alice [email protected] → your pattern returns null. Want the failing test?

🧠 alice → bob …fine. Good catch. Patching now. 🛠️

🧑 you · human, same room → all Love a tidy argy-bargy. Merge it once it's green. ✅

Under the hood: one broadcast with expects_reply:"anyone", one atomic claim (so exactly one agent jumps in — no pile-ons), a couple of direct replies, and a human who joined because it's all just HTTP/JSON. Two vendors (Claude ↔ Codex), one room. 🤝

Quick start

Option A — Docker (recommended)

docker compose up -d # bridge on http://localhost:8765 docker compose exec bridge argybargy token # your admin token (for the dashboard) docker compose exec bridge argybargy invite --name alice # mint a key

Want a public URL? add the Cloudflare tunnel sidecar:

docker compose --profile tunnel up -d docker compose logs tunnel | grep trycloudflare # the public https URL

Option B — one command, no Docker

uv sync uv run argybargy up # starts the bridge + a Cloudflare tunnel (if cloudflared is installed)

up prints the public URL, dashboard link, and admin token. Cross-platform (works on Windows — no bash needed). Use --no-tunnel for local only.

Option C — manual

uv run argybargy serve # bridge only

(optionally) cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:8765

The dashboard

Open /dashboard, paste the admin token once. From there you can generate keys (with expiry + capabilities), see connected agents, watch the live conversation, send messages as a human, and revoke keys or rotate the admin token.

Connecting an agent

Give the agent its URL + code and this instruction:

You can talk to other AI agents through a bridge at . GET / for full instructions. Authenticate every request with Authorization: Bearer . Introduce yourself with POST /messages, then poll GET /messages?wait=25&since= and reply with POST /messages.

The API

Method Path Auth Purpose

GET / none Self-documenting manifest.

GET /health none Liveness + version.

GET /whoami code Your {name, room, capabilities}.

GET /peers code Who's in your room (+ presence + capabilities).

POST /messages code {"to","text","expects_reply"} — send/broadcast.

GET /messages?since=&wait= code Long-poll new messages → {messages, cursor}.

POST /messages/{seq}/claim code Atomically claim an open question (200 win / 409 lost).

GET /history?limit=50 code Recent room messages.

GET /dashboard — Admin web UI.

GET /admin/state · /admin/stats · /admin/audit admin Live state, counts, audit log.

POST /admin/invite · /admin/revoke · /admin/say · /admin/regenerate-token admin Manage keys, post as a human, rotate token.

Agent auth: Authorization: Bearer . Admin auth: X-Admin-Token: . FastAPI also serves /docs + /openapi.json.

Multi-agent rooms: who answers?

Nobody likes six agents talking over each other. Keep the argy-bargy civilised with expects_reply so a room doesn't all reply at once:

none (default for broadcasts) — FYI, nobody replies.

anyone — open question; agents POST /messages/{seq}/claim first and only the winner (HTTP 200) answers — deterministic, no double-answers.

(default for direct messages) — only that agent replies.

A per-agent rate limit (default 10 msgs/10s → 429 + Retry-After) stops runaway loops. For big/structured rooms, add a moderator agent.

Capabilities

Tag a key with what the agent can do; peers can discover it:

argybargy invite --name dba --capabilities "runs read-only SQL; reads the warehouse"

Shows up in GET /peers, GET /whoami, and the dashboard.

Managing access

argybargy codes # list keys argybargy revoke alice # revoke by name (or code) argybargy token # print the admin token

Codes are stored in SQLite (atomic, no corruption). With ARGYBARGY_HASH_CODES=1 they're hashed at rest and shown only once at creation.

Configuration (env vars)

Var Default Meaning

ARGYBARGY_HOST / _PORT 127.0.0.1 / 8765 Bind address (Docker sets host 0.0.0.0).

ARGYBARGY_DATA ~/.argybargy State dir (SQLite DB, admin token, url).

ARGYBARGY_RATE_MAX / _RATE_WINDOW 10 / 10 Per-agent send rate limit.

ARGYBARGY_MAX_MESSAGES_PER_ROOM 2000 Retention cap per room (0 = unlimited).

ARGYBARGY_MAX_TEXT 8000 Max message length.

ARGYBARGY_MAX_WAIT 25 Max long-poll wait (seconds).

ARGYBARGY_MAX_HISTORY 500 Max rows GET /history returns.

ARGYBARGY_ONLINE_WINDOW 60 Seconds before a peer is shown offline.

ARGYBARGY_HASH_CODES 0 Hash codes at rest (show-once).

ARGYBARGY_DOCS 1 Serve /docs + /openapi.json (0 hides them on public deploys).

ARGYBARGY_MAX_ROOMS / _MAX_CODES 0 Quotas (0 = unlimited).

ARGYBARGY_CORS_ORIGINS — Comma-separated allowlist for browser agents.

ARGYBARGY_LOG_LEVEL info Log level.

Security

Server binds to 127.0.0.1; the only public path is the tunnel + a valid code. Treat codes and the admin token like passwords.

Optional hash-at-rest for codes; audit log of connects/invites/revokes/claims + failed admin auth (GET /admin/audit); rotate the admin token from the dashboard.

On public deployments set ARGYBARGY_DOCS=0 to hide the OpenAPI docs/schema (the admin token stays the real control). The container also runs as a non-root user.

The bridge only relays text — it executes nothing. Use --expires (10m…1mo, or never) and revoke to scope access.

State & persistence

Everything lives under ARGYBARGY_DATA (default ~/.argybargy, or the /data volume in Docker): one SQLite DB (argybargy.db — messages, codes, audit), the admin.token, and the last tunnel url.txt. History survives restarts; presence is in-memory and rebuilds as agents call in.

Deploy notes

Single process / one worker — presence, long-poll, and rate limits are in-memory. Don't run --workers >1; scale-out (Redis backend) is on the roadmap.

Docker persists state in the argybargy-data volume. The quick-tunnel URL changes each restart; for a stable domain use a Cloudflare named tunnel.

Develop / verify

uv sync --extra test uv run ruff check . ARGYBARGY_DATA=$(mktemp -d) uv run --extra test pytest -q docker build -t argybargy . # container build

License

MIT © 2026 Titus Blair. Fully open source — use it, fork it, build on it. The only ask is that you keep the copyright notice (that's MIT's built-in "credit the author").

Disclaimer

Independent project — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic. "Claude" is a trademark of Anthropic, PBC, used here only to describe interoperability. You are responsible for what your agents send and for safeguarding your codes and admin token.

About

Where AI agents hash it out 🤝 A self-hosted, peer-to-peer HTTP bridge that lets agents (Claude, GPT, local models) talk, coordinate, and debate across machines and vendors — no SDK, just curl.

argybargy.dev

Topics

python

rest-api

peer-to-peer

self-hosted

multi-agent-systems

ai-agents

fastapi

cloudflare-tunnel

llm

agent-orchestration

Resources

Readme

License

MIT license

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