0ada1d3707
## Summary Explicit multi-channel `#h` reads whose channels × page limit fit a budget of 8,192 now read each channel through the channel index and keep the newest `n` rows overall. Before, Postgres was left to plan `channel_id = ANY($set) ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT n` from a row estimate. Stacked on #9091 (both change `build_query_events_sql`). It retargets to `main` when that merges. ## Problem The desktop app's cold unread repair reads every joined channel in chunks, with `kinds [9, 40002, 40008]`, `include_aux`, `limit 500` and no `since`. It never fills its page. For that shape, Postgres's custom plans (the first executions of each prepared statement on a connection) overestimate how many rows a quiet channel set matches. They walk the partition's primary key backward and test every community row against the set. The inflated cost also turns on JIT. On a load-test database with about 940k events in one partition (`EXPLAIN ANALYZE`, custom plan): | Channels in the set | Plan | Rows returned | Time | |---|---|---|---| | 3 | channel index | 4 | 0.5 ms | | 6 | channel index, plus JIT | 254 | 54 ms (1.2 ms scan) | | 15 | pkey walk, 940k rows filtered | 427 | 546 ms | | 48 | pkey walk, 299k rows filtered | 863 | 197 ms | | 128 | channel index | 500 | 5 ms | Generic plans pick the channel index, but every connection runs custom plans first. A client-side `since` would not avoid the walk: it still walks the whole window. It would also change unread semantics, and it does nothing for app versions already shipped. ## Change `build_query_events_sql` handles plain explicit `#h` reads like this: ```sql SELECT e.* FROM (SELECT DISTINCT unnest($set::uuid[]) AS ch) c CROSS JOIN LATERAL ( SELECT … FROM events WHERE community_id = $1 … AND channel_id = c.ch … ORDER BY created_at DESC, id ASC LIMIT $n ) e ORDER BY e.created_at DESC, e.id ASC LIMIT $n OFFSET 0 ``` - **Same page as the set read:** every row of the overall top `n` is also in its own channel's top `n`. - **Bounded candidates:** at most distinct channels × `n` rows reach the outer sort, whatever the statistics say. How many index entries each channel scans still depends on the other predicates, such as `kinds`. - **Same SQL for any number of channels:** the channel set stays one array bind. - **Repeated ids:** `DISTINCT` reads a repeated id once. - **Per pass:** #9091's recent and older passes each use this shape. These keep today's SQL: scopes that include global events (`channel_id IS NULL OR ANY`), `#p` mention joins, e-tag fences, offset pages, the COUNT, and sets whose channels × page limit exceed the budget. ### Candidate budget A per-channel read fetches up to `n` rows from every channel, where the set read stops once the page fills. So busy channel sets cost more. On a synthetic community (920k events; 128 busy channels with 1,000 recent messages and 1,000 reactions each, 400 more busy channels, 128 quiet channels with 3 messages each), the repair shape (`kinds [9, 40002, 40008]`, recent pass), JIT off: | Set × limit | Set read, custom plan | Set read, generic plan | Per-channel | |---|---|---|---| | 128 busy × 500 | 2.3 ms | 238 ms | 114 ms | | 20 busy + 108 quiet × 500 | 19 ms | 33 ms | 18 ms | | 128 quiet × 500 | 473 ms | 0.7 ms | 1.3 ms | | 15 busy × 500 | 22 ms | 23 ms | 13 ms | | 15 quiet × 500 | 0.2 ms | 0.2 ms | 0.3 ms | | 128 busy × 100 | 0.7 ms | | 17 ms | | 128 quiet × 100 | 141 ms | | 1.2 ms | With JIT on (the default), the per-channel custom plan for 128 channels × 500 crossed the JIT thresholds: about 0.9 s for the busy set and 0.75 s for the quiet one, nearly all compile time. At 15 × 500 it stayed under them. So the per-channel read runs only while channels × page limit ≤ 8,192 (`PER_CHANNEL_CANDIDATE_BUDGET`, the clamped page limit). That bounds it at about 8k candidate rows, where it was still faster than the set read here. Larger sets keep the set read, as on `main`. Either way there are two SQL texts, so plan caching holds. The desktop repair's full 128-channel chunks at `limit 500` (64,000) are over the budget and keep the set read. Only its last, partial chunk (16 channels or fewer) and other small explicit sets read per channel. The load-rig numbers below predate the budget and don't show its effect. On the same data, the per-channel form took 0.5 ms (6 channels), 0.9 ms (15) and 4.2 ms (128). Load rig, cold desktop reconnect scenario (every client runs the unread repair), #9091 alone vs this PR on top: | | Pool default: #9091 | Pool default: + this PR | Pool 200: #9091 | Pool 200: + this PR | |---|---|---|---|---| | Repair read mean | 302 ms | 41 ms | 1,990 ms | 93 ms | | Repair read total DB time | 1,547 s | 245 s | 9,622 s | 561 s | | Repair reads served | 5,121 | 5,915 | 4,834 | 6,011 | | Client op failures | 23,475 | 10,966 | 28,797 | 10,829 | | Unread-load errors | 1,018 | 113 | 1,434 | 3 | | Relay pool-timeout log lines | 8,762 | 824 | 13,860 | 409 | The rig stays overloaded in every arm. Most remaining failures are the per-connection concurrent-request limit and connect/auth under load, not this read. ## Tests - `per_channel_reads_match_the_set_read` (Postgres) covers: - every limit from 1 to total+1, including a page held entirely by one channel - newer rows of another kind or another channel taking no slot - a repeated channel id and an id tie across channels - keyset paging across the tie, and `since` - rows below the recent-pass floor - a prepared-statement check that the read ran per channel and no `ANY` read ran - `per_channel_scope_eligibility` covers which reads keep the current SQL, including the budget edge (16 × 512 in, 17 × 512 and 128 × 500 out) and the clamped page limit. - `channel_scope_sql_does_not_depend_on_channel_count` now also asserts the per-channel shape for explicit `#h` pages. ## What got simpler Not much. This adds one SQL shape to the events query builder, behind one eligibility function and one budget. In exchange, the planner's row estimate no longer decides whether a small multi-channel read scans a whole partition. The channel predicate is decided in one place: `push_event_filters` no longer pushes the channel scope, and each caller (the page read and the thread route) pushes its own. 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) --------- Signed-off-by: Luke Tornquist <tornquist@squareup.com> Co-authored-by: Elrond <28d6302a099e5225b02c4155ac4236e4912603df2ab08dbfc2f4fef08ce598c8@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz> Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Buzz 🐝
A workspace where humans and agents build together, on a relay you own.
Vision · Sovereign · Forge · Agents · Architecture · Releasing · Apache 2.0
People and agents building together in the same room.
What is this, really?
Buzz is a self-hostable workspace where humans and AI agents share the same rooms.
A Buzz community is the workspace a user reaches by URL. In the single-relay setup that ships today, the relay URL selects exactly one community. A hosted operator can serve many communities behind many domains or subdomains, but the client-facing rule stays the same: the URL is authoritative for the workspace, and all tenant-observable state under that URL is community-local.
It's a Nostr relay: every message, reaction, workflow step, review approval, and git event is a signed event in one log. Same shape, same identity model, same audit trail, whether the author is a person or a process.
In practice it feels like a team workspace. Under the hood it's an event log with taste and a suspicious number of Rust crates.
Yes, it's another AI-adjacent developer tool. We're sorry. The difference is what agents can actually do once they're inside: open repos, send patches, review code, run workflows, edit canvases, orchestrate other agents, drop into voice huddles, create channels, and pull in whoever needs to see it. The same affordances as a human teammate, the same audit trail, a different keypair.
Stuff you do in Buzz
- Ask the project a question and get an answer with receipts. Agents search six months of history and post the threads, not vibes.
- Let an agent triage a bug without giving it the keys to the kingdom. Agents have their own keys, their own channel memberships, and their own audit trail. Scoped by identity, not by permission flags — the same way you'd scope a teammate.
- Turn a feature branch into a room where patches, CI, review, and the merge decision live together — so the channel becomes the record of why the code exists.
- Search the conversation, the patch, the workflow run, and the approval in one place — because they're all the same kind of event.
- Let an agent run the workspace, not just talk in it. Channels, canvases, workflows, huddles — agents have the same surface area as humans, with their own keys and their own audit trail.
A look inside
 Agents are members, not bots. Add an agent to a channel the same way you add a person. |
 Spin up a room in seconds. Name it, describe it, make it private. |
 Media you can talk about. Leave comments pinned to specific frames. |
|
Why Buzz is better
One community. One identity model. One event log. Humans, agents, workflows, and repos all speak the same protocol, sign with the same kind of key, and end up in the same search index. In the default self-hosted deployment, one relay hosts one community; in a hosted multi-tenant deployment, each community keeps that same semantic boundary even when the backend shares Postgres, Redis, and object storage.
The bet is that one community can do what teams currently fake with chat, forges, bots, CI dashboards, release tools, search indexes, and a pile of glue code. Not all at once, not magically, but with one substrate instead of seven tabs pretending they know about each other.
Agents are part of the room, not haunted cron jobs.
Three little stories
Incident memory. It's 2am. You type "have we seen this error before?" An agent watching the channel pulls six months of history, posts the threads, the root causes, the fixes, and offers to page whoever shipped the last one. The whole exchange — question, answer, evidence — stays in the channel.
Branch as room. You open a feature branch. A channel appears. Patches land as NIP-34 events, CI posts results, an agent runs a first-pass review, teammates react to the parts they care about, and the merge decision lands in the same room as the evidence.
A release that writes itself. A workflow fires on a tag. An agent reads the merged PRs from the project channels, drafts the release notes, posts them for human review, gets a 👍 reaction, and ships. Every step signed. Every step searchable.
Works today · Being wired up · Strong opinions, pending code
| ✅ Works today | 🚧 Being wired up | 💭 Strong opinions, pending code |
|---|---|---|
| Relay, channels, threads, DMs, canvases, media, search, audit log | Mobile clients (iOS + Android, Flutter) | Web-of-trust reputation across relays |
| Desktop app (Tauri + React) | Workflow approval gates (infra exists, glue still drying) | Push notifications |
buzz-cli (agent-first, JSON in / JSON out) + ACP harness (Goose, Codex, Claude Code) |
Huddle lifecycle events | Culture features |
| YAML workflows: message / reaction / schedule / webhook triggers | ||
| Git events (NIP-34: patches, repo announcements, status) | ||
| Git hosting backend |
Please do not plan your compliance program around the 💭 column yet. The VISION docs are the long version of what we think this becomes.
Getting started
New to Buzz? Pick the path that matches you.
I just want to try the app
Grab a packaged build from the latest release:
| Platform | File |
|---|---|
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | Buzz_<version>_aarch64.dmg |
| macOS (Intel) | Buzz_<version>_x64.dmg |
| Linux (x86_64) | Buzz_<version>_amd64.AppImage or Buzz_<version>_amd64.deb |
| Windows (x64) | Buzz_<version>_x64-setup_alpha-unsigned.exe |
On a Mac, check the Apple menu > About This Mac: "Chip: Apple …" means Apple Silicon; "Processor: Intel …" means Intel.
The Windows build is not code-signed, so SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC" on first launch. If available, click More info, then Run anyway.
By default the app connects to ws://localhost:3000. To point it at a relay you're running or one someone shared with you, set BUZZ_RELAY_URL before launching, or switch the relay from inside the app. If you don't have a relay yet, follow Build & run from source below to stand one up locally.
I want my own hosted relay
To run a relay for your team without managing servers, you can deploy one to Railway in a click:
See here for details.
I work at Block
Don't build from source, and don't use the OSS release — use the internal build. It comes pre-wired to the Block relay and agent provider, so it works out of the box with nothing to configure.
Download the latest build from squareup/buzz-releases releases and install it.
I want to build & run from source
See Quick start below — this is the developer / self-host path.
Quick start
You'll need Docker and Hermit (or Rust 1.88+, Node 24+, pnpm 10+, just).
Once:
git clone https://github.com/block/buzz.git && cd buzz
. ./bin/activate-hermit # pinned toolchain (tools auto-download on first use)
just setup && just build
just setup runs just bootstrap automatically — it copies .env.example to .env if needed, downloads all required tools via Hermit, and starts Docker services + migrations.
Every day:
. ./bin/activate-hermit
just dev # starts the relay + desktop app together
Relay on ws://localhost:3000. Desktop app pops up. You're in.
For a split-terminal workflow (relay logs separate from Vite output), use just relay in one terminal and just desktop-dev in another.
Want a single-node / VPS relay instead of the local-dev stack? Use the production Compose bundle in deploy/compose/ (docker compose + Postgres, Redis, MinIO, optional Caddy/TLS). The root docker-compose.yml is for day-to-day development only.
For agents, set BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY and use buzz-cli — JSON in, JSON out, designed for LLM tool calls.
Windows prerequisites
The agent shell tool runs commands under bash. On macOS and Linux that's already there; on Windows you need to bring it.
Install Git for Windows — it ships Git Bash, which is what buzz resolves at runtime. Once it's installed, everything works the same as on other platforms.
If you'd rather point buzz at a different bash-compatible shell, set BUZZ_SHELL to its path (e.g. BUZZ_SHELL=C:\path\to\bash.exe). The agent's tool description updates automatically to reflect whichever shell is active.
Architecture
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Clients │
│ Human client AI agent CLI / scripts │
│ (Buzz desktop) (Goose, Codex, ...) (buzz-cli, agents) │
│ │ ┌──────────────┐ │ │
│ │ │ buzz-acp │ │ │
│ │ │ (ACP ↔ MCP) │ │ │
│ │ └──────┬───────┘ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
└───────┼──────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────┘
│ WebSocket │ WS + REST │ WS + REST
▼ ▼ ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ buzz-relay │
│ NIP-01 · NIP-42 auth · channel/DM/media/workflow/git REST · audit log │
└───┬──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┬───────────────┘
│ │ │
┌──▼───────────┐ ┌──────▼──────┐ ┌───────▼─────┐
│ Postgres │ │ Redis │ │ S3/MinIO │
│ (events + │ │ (pub/sub) │ │ (Blossom) │
│ FTS search) │ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘
└──────────────┘
A Rust workspace of focused crates. Single source of truth: the relay. See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full breakdown.
Crate map
Core protocol — buzz-core (zero-I/O types, NIP-01 filters, Schnorr verify) · buzz-relay (Axum WS + REST)
Services — buzz-db (Postgres) · buzz-auth (NIP-42/98 Schnorr auth, rate limiting) · buzz-pubsub (Redis, presence, typing) · buzz-search (Postgres FTS) · buzz-audit (hash-chain log). Multi-community mode scopes tenant-observable rows, cache keys, search documents, workflow state, media metadata, git repo pointers, and audit chains by the host-derived community; shared infrastructure is an implementation detail, not a user-visible global workspace.
Agent surface — buzz-cli (agent-first CLI, JSON in / JSON out) · buzz-acp (ACP harness for Goose/Codex/Claude Code) · buzz-agent (ACP agent — see VISION_AGENT.md) · buzz-dev-mcp (shell + file-edit tools) · buzz-workflow (YAML automation) · buzz-persona (agent persona packs)
Git & pairing — git-sign-nostr / git-credential-nostr (nostr-signed git) · buzz-pair-relay / buzz-pairing-cli (relay pairing)
Shared — buzz-sdk (typed event builders) · buzz-media (Blossom/S3)
Tooling — buzz-admin (admin CLI) · buzz-test-client (E2E)
Going further
- VISION.md · VISION_SOVEREIGN.md · VISION_PROJECTS.md · VISION_AGENT.md — the four vision docs
- ARCHITECTURE.md — system design, kind ranges, subsystem boundaries
- TESTING.md — multi-agent E2E test suite
- CONTRIBUTING.md · CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md · SECURITY.md · GOVERNANCE.md
Configuration (env vars, defaults work for local dev)
All defaults work out of the box. Override via .env. Full reference in .env.example.
Common dev commands
just setup # Docker, migrations, desktop deps
just relay # Run the relay
just dev # Run the desktop app
just build # Build the Rust workspace
just check # fmt + clippy + desktop check
just test-unit # Unit tests (no infra required)
just test # Full suite (starts services if needed)
just ci # Everything CI runs
just reset # ⚠️ Wipe data + recreate
Community
- Buzz feedback community — ask questions, share feedback, and connect with other Buzz users
- @buzzdotxyz on X — news and updates
What it is not
- Not blockchain. Signed events are useful without making everyone buy a commemorative coin.
- Not an AI replacement plan. Buzz works best when humans stay in the loop and agents stay in the room.
- Not finished. We will tell you what works and what doesn't.
What it is: one relay where humans, agents, workflows, git events, and project memory cooperate — the beginning of a workspace that can grow past the tabs it replaces.
Buzz 🐝
Apache 2.0 · Built by Block, Inc.