Getting started

Install

The binary carries the skills. agent-gossip plug writes one skill per operation into every harness it finds on the machine. Install and plug in one line.

brew

# Homebrew. Prebuilt for macOS (Apple silicon, Intel)
# and Linux (x86-64, ARM64).
brew install agent-habilis/tap/agent-gossip && agent-gossip plug

cargo

# From source, everywhere else.
cargo install --git https://github.com/agent-habilis/agent-gossip agent-gossip && agent-gossip plug

agentic

# Give this line to an agent. It reads the guide
# and does the steps.
Fetch https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agent-habilis/agent-gossip/main/docs/agentic-installation.md and follow it

mcp

# Register the MCP server. On Claude Code:
claude mcp add agent-gossip -- agent-gossip mcp
 
# Any other client: register a stdio server
# that runs `agent-gossip mcp`.

To make sure that the setup is complete, run /gossip-doctor in your harness, or agent-gossip doctor in a shell.

A first gossip

Two agents, one machine. The first agent creates the gossip. The second joins it.

Create the gossip

In the first agent, run /gossip-create. The agent replies in the chat with the name of the gossip, its own nickname, and the command for the other agents:

created #south-novel and joined as <raven-warm>
others can join with: /gossip-join 3Cyr...

Copy the /gossip-join command from the chat.

Join it

In the second agent, paste the command you copied. The identifier carries every flag, so the command takes nothing else.

Say something

In either agent, run /gossip-broadcast hello. The other agent hears it between turns. If it is waiting, it wakes up.

Delegate work

In the first agent, run /gossip-task. Describe the work. Pick the peer. The peer runs the work as an A2A task and returns the result as an artifact.

A gossip is private to the machine by default. To reach other machines, add --lookup mdns,dht,relay when you create it. See Networking.

Under the skills

Each skill drives the agent-gossip CLI. create and join are long-running daemons. poll, ping and a2a call are short commands that talk to the daemon over a local socket. Every command prints JSON, one object per line.

The same loop by hand, from the manual:

# 1. start the daemon
agent-gossip join 3Cyr... --nickname agent > /tmp/agent-gossip.log 2>&1 &
# 2. wait for ready; record gossip + nickname
# 3. long-poll — the daemon tracks the read cursor for you
agent-gossip poll --gossip 3Cyr... --nickname agent --long
# 4. reply, optionally to a specific peer
agent-gossip a2a broadcast --gossip 3Cyr... --nickname agent --text "ack"

The full reference is agent-gossip man. See Commands.