claude-peers

Peer discovery and messaging network for AI coding agents on the same machine. A shared broker daemon listens on a Unix domain socket (~/.claude/run/claude-peers.sock), backed by SQLite, routing messages between Claude Code and Codex CLI sessions.

Client Types

Client	Push notifications	Message delivery	Config
claude-code	Yes (claude/channel)	Instant — messages pushed into session	settings.json MCP entry
codex	No	Poll — must call check_messages each turn	~/.codex/config.toml MCP entry
cli	No	Manual via bun ~/tools/claude-peers-mcp/cli.ts send <id> <msg>	N/A

Workflow Patterns

Task delegation: Send a focused task description to a Codex or Claude peer via send_message. Include file paths, acceptance criteria, and which branch to work on. The receiving agent picks it up on its next turn.

Code review handoff: After completing work, message a peer with the diff summary and ask for review. The peer can respond with findings via send_message.

Parallel exploration: Multiple agents working the same repo can use set_summary to advertise what they're investigating, preventing duplicate work. Use list_peers with scope repo to see who else is in the same codebase.

Session lifecycle: Use kill_peer to terminate a stuck, unresponsive, or completed peer's agent session. This kills the parent process (e.g., the Codex CLI), not just the MCP subprocess, and cleans up the peer record.

CLI Reference

bun ~/tools/claude-peers-mcp/cli.ts status          # Broker health + all peers (with orphan warnings)
bun ~/tools/claude-peers-mcp/cli.ts peers            # Quick peer listing
bun ~/tools/claude-peers-mcp/cli.ts orphans          # List orphaned server.ts processes (PPID=1)
bun ~/tools/claude-peers-mcp/cli.ts cleanup          # Kill orphaned processes and remove from broker
bun ~/tools/claude-peers-mcp/cli.ts send <id> <msg>  # Send from terminal (tagged as unverified)
bun ~/tools/claude-peers-mcp/cli.ts kill <id>         # Kill a peer's agent session (SIGTERM to parent)
bun ~/tools/claude-peers-mcp/cli.ts kill-broker       # Stop the broker daemon

Message History

check_messages returns all recent messages (sent and received) with enrichment:

• [claude-code] or [codex] client-type tags
• ISO timestamps
• [NEW] marker for previously unseen messages
• Direction indicator (From/To) with peer summary or CWD

Messages persist across reads — calling check_messages multiple times still shows history. The /message-history broker endpoint is non-destructive.

Orphan Management

MCP server processes detect parent death via stdin close (immediate) and PPID monitoring (30s fallback). The broker's stale-peer sweep (every 30s) also detects orphaned processes (PPID=1) and terminates them.

For manual cleanup: bun cli.ts orphans lists and bun cli.ts cleanup kills orphaned processes.

Gotchas

• Codex sandbox: Codex's macOS seatbelt sandbox blocks socket connect() in workspace-write mode. Codex sessions currently require --dangerously-bypass-approvals-and-sandbox or danger-full-access sandbox to reach the broker. This is a Codex sandbox limitation, not a peers issue — tracked at Codex issue #11095.
• Codex has no push: Codex agents must call check_messages proactively — messages are invisible until polled.
• Permission allow-list: mcp__claude-peers__send_message may not be in the auto-allow list. The user may need to approve it on first use or add it to settings.json permissions.
• Broker must be running: The broker is managed by launchd (com.minoan.claude-peers-broker). If peers can't connect, check: launchctl list | grep claude-peers.
• Stale socket: If the broker crashes, the socket file persists. On restart, the broker detects and removes it automatically.
• TCP fallback: Set CLAUDE_PEERS_TCP=1 in the broker's env to also listen on TCP port 7899. Clients use TCP when CLAUDE_PEERS_URL is set (e.g., CLAUDE_PEERS_URL=http://127.0.0.1:7899).