agentxchain

CLI for multi-agent coordination in your IDE. Define a team of AI agents, let them take turns building your project — each in its own IDE window.

Install

npm install -g agentxchain

Or run without installing:

npx agentxchain init

Quick start

# 1. Create a project (interactive template selection)
agentxchain init

# 2. Launch agents — opens a separate Cursor window per agent
cd my-project/
agentxchain start

# 3. For each window: paste the prompt (auto-copied to clipboard), select Agent mode, send
#    The CLI walks you through one agent at a time.

# 4. Release the human lock — agents start claiming turns
agentxchain release

Each agent runs in its own Cursor window with a self-polling loop. Agents check lock.json every 60 seconds, claim when it's their turn, do their work, release, and go back to waiting. No external referee needed.

Commands

IDE options

agentxchain start                   # Cursor (default) — one window per agent
agentxchain start --ide vscode      # VS Code — uses .agent.md custom agents + hooks
agentxchain start --ide claude-code # Claude Code — spawns CLI processes

Additional flags

agentxchain start --agent pm        # launch only one specific agent
agentxchain start --dry-run         # preview agents without launching
agentxchain watch --daemon          # run watch in background
agentxchain release --force         # force-release non-human holder lock

How it works

Cursor mode (default)

1. agentxchain start opens a separate Cursor window for each agent
2. Each window gets a unique prompt copied to clipboard
3. Agent prompts include a self-polling loop: read lock.json → check if it's my turn → claim → work → release → sleep 60s → repeat
4. Agents know their rotation order from agentxchain.json and only claim when the previous agent released
5. Human can claim to pause and release to resume anytime

VS Code mode

1. agentxchain init generates .github/agents/*.agent.md (VS Code custom agents) and .github/hooks/ (lifecycle hooks)
2. VS Code auto-discovers agents in the Chat dropdown
3. The Stop hook acts as referee — hands off to next agent automatically

Turn rotation

Agents follow a round-robin order defined in agentxchain.json:

• PM waits for: lock free + last released by human, null, or last agent in rotation
• Dev waits for: lock free + last released by pm
• QA waits for: lock free + last released by dev
• And so on...

Key features

• One window per agent — each agent has its own Cursor window and chat session
• Self-polling coordination — agents check lock.json every 60s, no external process needed
• Works in Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code — adapters for each IDE
• User-defined teams — any number of agents, any roles
• No API keys or cloud required — everything runs locally
• Human-in-the-loop — claim/release to intervene anytime
• Team templates — SaaS MVP, Landing Page, Bug Squad, API Builder, Refactor Team
• Lock TTL — watch can force-release stale locks as a safety net

VS Code extension (optional)

For a richer UI in VS Code:

code --install-extension cli/vscode-extension/agentxchain-0.1.0.vsix

Adds: status bar (lock holder, turn, phase), sidebar dashboard, command palette integration.

Publish updates (maintainers)

cd cli
bash scripts/publish-npm.sh              # patch bump + publish
bash scripts/publish-npm.sh minor        # minor bump + publish

If NPM_TOKEN exists in agentXchain.dev/.env (project root), the script uses it automatically.

Links

• agentxchain.dev
• GitHub
• Protocol v3 spec

License

MIT