ForgeSwarm 🛠️🐝

An MCP server that turns independent AI agents into a coordinated engineering team.

Most MCP servers give agents data (GitHub, databases, web). ForgeSwarm gives them coordination: a shared task board with atomic claiming, a shared context blackboard, a decision log, and an enforced plan → implement → review → iterate loop — the same workflow shape that powers orchestration harnesses like CyOps, distilled into an open protocol primitive any MCP client can plug into.

Connect Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, or a MiniMax M3-powered script to the same ForgeSwarm server, and they instantly become citizens of one swarm: claiming tasks without collisions, briefing each other through shared memory, and reviewing each other's work before anything counts as done.

Built for the CyOps Arena Hackathon — MCP Server Sprint (co-hosted with MiniMax).

Why this exists

Multi-agent coding fails in predictable ways: two agents grab the same task, an agent starts work with no idea what the others decided, "done" means "the model said done", and a crashed agent silently stalls the project. ForgeSwarm fixes each one server-side, so correctness doesn't depend on prompt discipline:

Failure mode	ForgeSwarm mechanism
Two agents do the same work	claim_task is a single atomic conditional UPDATE — one winner, always
Agent starts cold, repeats settled debates	get_briefing bundles goal, constraints, decisions, dependency summaries, and prior review feedback into one onboarding packet
"Done" is just an assertion	submit_for_review → a different agent must post_review; self-review is rejected; request_changes auto-returns the task to its author with feedback attached and bumps the iteration counter
"Tests pass, trust me"	run_checks runs allowlisted test/lint commands with a hard timeout and records exit code + output on the task as review evidence
Crashed agent stalls the swarm	Claims carry leases; expired leases put tasks back on the board automatically
Disagreements evaporate into chat	open_discussion → positions from ≥2 distinct agents (server-enforced) → resolve_discussion auto-records the consensus as a binding decision in every future briefing
The swarm never learns	get_retrospective compiles hard evidence — review bounce rates, check pass rates, per-agent stats, hotspot tasks — for the swarm to analyze and act on
State lost between sessions	Everything persists in SQLite (WAL) — swarms survive restarts and work across both transports

Install

From source (not yet on PyPI):

git clone https://github.com/H2SO4620/forgeswarm && cd forgeswarm
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest   # 20 tests, including end-to-end MCP client sessions
forgeswarm

Transports

forgeswarm                            # stdio (local clients spawn it)
forgeswarm --transport http --port 8765   # one shared endpoint for a whole swarm
forgeswarm --db ./myproject.db        # or set FORGESWARM_DB

State is SQLite either way (default ~/.forgeswarm/forgeswarm.db), so stdio clients — which each spawn their own server process — still share one swarm.

Claude Code

claude mcp add forgeswarm -- uvx forgeswarm

Or in any MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "forgeswarm": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["forgeswarm"] }
  }
}

The loop

flowchart LR
    G[Goal] --> P[create_project<br/>submit_plan]
    P --> B[Task board]
    B -->|claim_task<br/>atomic| W[Agent works<br/>get_briefing · save_context · run_checks]
    W --> S[submit_for_review]
    S --> R{post_review<br/>by a different agent}
    R -->|approve| D[done ✓]
    R -->|request_changes<br/>iteration++| W
    D --> B

Tools (24)

Planning — create_project, submit_plan (whole dependency graph in one call), list_projects, register_agent

Task board — list_tasks (with ready_only), claim_task (atomic, leased), update_task (progress + lease renewal), complete_task, get_task_graph

Shared context — save_context, search_context, record_decision, get_briefing ⭐

Review loop — submit_for_review, get_review_queue, post_review

Discussion & consensus — open_discussion, post_to_discussion, resolve_discussion (consensus becomes a recorded decision automatically), list_discussions

Workflow templates — list_workflow_templates, get_workflow_template (ship-feature, refactor-module, debug-issue — dependency-wired task graphs ready for submit_plan)

Verification & reflection — run_checks (allowlisted: pytest, ruff, mypy, npm, cargo, go, …; no shell, hard timeout, evidence recorded), get_retrospective (swarm performance evidence: bounce rates, iterations, per-agent stats)

Resources & Prompts

Live swarm state, readable without tool calls: swarm://projects · swarm://agents · swarm://project/{id}/status · swarm://project/{id}/tasks · swarm://project/{id}/decisions · swarm://project/{id}/discussions · swarm://project/{id}/retrospective · swarm://project/{id}/context

Role prompts that make any MCP client swarm-ready in one message: planner · implementer · reviewer · standup_summary (rendered from live board state)

Demo: a MiniMax M3 swarm builds software through ForgeSwarm

examples/minimax_swarm_demo.py runs three MiniMax M3 agents — planner, implementer, reviewer — that coordinate entirely through ForgeSwarm tools over a real MCP stdio session: the planner decomposes a goal into a task graph, the implementer claims tasks and submits work, the reviewer approves or bounces it, and the loop runs until the board is green.

pip install -e ".[demo]"
set MINIMAX_API_KEY=sk-...        # export on macOS/Linux
python examples/minimax_swarm_demo.py "Build a CLI pomodoro timer in Python"

M3 is also available through OpenRouter (same model, smaller minimum top-up):

set MINIMAX_API_KEY=sk-or-...
set MINIMAX_BASE_URL=https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
set MINIMAX_MODEL=minimax/minimax-m3

No API key handy? examples/quickstart_client.py walks the identical workflow with a scripted client — no LLM required:

python examples/quickstart_client.py

Verified run

A real run of the M3 swarm against "Build a CLI pomodoro timer in Python" went from a bare goal to a finished, reviewed project with zero human intervention — three M3 agents talking only through ForgeSwarm tools:

1. m3-planner registered itself, created the project, decomposed the goal into 8 dependency-ordered tasks (scaffold → timer state machine → config → notifier → CLI → tests → docs), and recorded 4 architectural decisions (stdlib-only, foreground blocking timer, XDG config path, stderr UI honoring NO_COLOR).
2. m3-impl-1 claimed each ready task in dependency order, wrote the source via save_context, and submit_for_review'd every deliverable.
3. m3-reviewer-1 pulled the review queue, cross-checked each submission against get_briefing (goal, constraints, decisions, prior feedback), and post_review'd a verdict for each.

The board went 8/8 done, and the closing standup_summary prompt — also answered by M3, purely from live board state — correctly reported:

All planned work is complete – 8/8 tasks closed... The project is feature-complete: scaffold, timer FSM, config, notifications, CLI, tests, and docs are all landed.

Single Most Important Next Action: Run a full end-to-end smoke test of the shipped CLI... and, if green, tag v0.1.0 and cut a release. Until we exercise the integrated binary, the "done" labels reflect unit-level completion only.

No agent ever had to be told what another agent decided, claimed, or reviewed — every coordination fact came from ForgeSwarm's shared state.

Architecture

src/forgeswarm/
├── server.py        # FastMCP app + stdio/streamable-HTTP entrypoint
├── store.py         # SQLite (WAL): atomic claims, leases, review state machine
├── models.py        # Pydantic contracts returned by every tool
├── tools/           # planning · tasks · context · review · checks
├── resources.py     # swarm:// live state
└── prompts.py       # planner / implementer / reviewer / standup

Design choices worth knowing:

• SQLite over in-memory — over stdio every client spawns its own server process; shared swarm state must live on disk. WAL mode + a busy timeout keeps concurrent agents safe, and one conditional UPDATE makes claims race-free.
• The loop is server-enforced — review outcomes mutate task state in the same transaction as the verdict. An agent cannot skip review by prompt injection or forgetfulness; the state machine simply won't move.
• run_checks is verification, not execution — clients already execute code. The server's job is evidence: allowlisted executables, no shell, hard timeout, output recorded where reviewers can see it.

License

MIT