3e9d2e90ce
## Summary Add **Manual relay image**, a manual-only GitHub Actions workflow that builds and uploads a Buzz relay image from a chosen repository branch, tag or full commit SHA. It does not wait for normal CI checks or require the chosen source to be merged to `main`. This PR changes only `.github/workflows/docker-manual.yml`. It adds no scripts or runbook. The normal Docker release workflow and existing staging-only workflow are unchanged. ### What the workflow does 1. Resolves `source_ref` to one exact source commit. 2. Builds the existing Dockerfile's `runtime` target on native AMD64 and ARM64 runners. 3. Uploads each architecture to `ghcr.io/block/buzz` using the existing `GITHUB_TOKEN`. 4. Publishes a unique `manual-<source-sha12>-<run-id>-<attempt>` tag when both builds succeed. 5. Verifies that the published image contains exactly one runtime for each architecture and that both runtime source labels match the selected commit. 6. Reports the source SHA, registry tag and combined digest in the run summary and a downloadable JSON artifact. There are no push, pull-request or scheduled triggers. The workflow does not run the test suite, wait for `ci.yml`, or require a successful CI qualification. The source must still build successfully, and image verification must succeed before the workflow reports success. ### Run from GitHub UI 1. Open [Buzz Actions](https://github.com/block/buzz/actions). 2. Select **Manual relay image**. 3. Click **Run workflow** and select `main` or the repository branch containing the workflow definition you want to run. 4. Enter your block/buzz branch, tag or full SHA in **source_ref**. Example: `fix-db-timeout`. The commit must be reachable from a repository branch; PR refs and PR-only commits are rejected. 5. Click **Run workflow** and wait for both builds and **Publish and verify the combined image** to succeed. 6. Open the run summary and copy its registry tag and digest. **`source_ref` is the code you want to build.** The workflow branch selects the build instructions and may be non-main; CLI `--ref` selects that branch. Your source branch does not need to merge. This new workflow appears in the UI once its definition is on the default branch. ### Run from CLI You need GitHub CLI authenticated as a collaborator who can run workflows. No repository checkout, laptop Docker setup, AWS login or personal package-publishing token is required. ```bash # First-time GitHub CLI login only; skip if already authenticated. gh auth login --hostname github.com --web # Replace this with your Buzz branch, tag or full commit SHA. export BUZZ_SOURCE_REF='fix-db-timeout' gh workflow run docker-manual.yml \ --repo block/buzz --ref main \ -f source_ref="$BUZZ_SOURCE_REF" # Find YOUR new run; its title includes the selected source_ref. gh run list --repo block/buzz --workflow docker-manual.yml \ --event workflow_dispatch --limit 5 export BUZZ_RUN_ID='REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_RUN_ID' gh run watch "$BUZZ_RUN_ID" --repo block/buzz --exit-status gh run view "$BUZZ_RUN_ID" --repo block/buzz --web ``` ### Source and workflow selection Dispatch may use `main` or another branch in `block/buzz`. CLI `--ref` selects the workflow definition; `-f source_ref=...` separately selects the code to build. For example, `--ref feature/build-tooling -f source_ref=fix-db-timeout` runs the feature branch's workflow against the fix branch's code. The dispatcher is responsible for selecting trusted workflow instructions. The resolver has no package-write permission and runs no selected-source scripts. It validates the input, fetches canonical branch histories, and proves the selected commit is reachable from a repository branch before either publishing job can start. A full SHA cannot bypass the PR-ref restriction. Tags that point only to unreachable or PR-only commits are rejected too. Before this new workflow is registered on the default branch, its exact definition can be tested through the existing workflow path on the isolated test branch: ```bash gh workflow run docker.yml --repo block/buzz \ --ref codex/manual-relay-image-test -f source_ref=fix-db-timeout ``` This runs a fresh build of the selected repository source. It does not modify the default branch's normal workflow. ### Image output and deployment The summary reports an immutable reference such as `ghcr.io/block/buzz@sha256:...`. The `manual-image-<run-id>-<attempt>` artifact contains the same digest, source identity and per-architecture digests. Keep the actual `manual-*` tag as deployment/version metadata alongside the digest. No synthetic `sha-*` deployment tag or registry alias is emitted. The image registry is shared by consumers; the workflow does not select staging or production. Downstream deployment configuration selects the image digest and environment. This workflow does not edit deployment manifests, sync Argo CD, restart workloads, overwrite normal release tags, or upload directly to AWS ECR. Any downstream cache import and deployment are separate operations. Manual images do not receive the normal CI deployment-eligibility attestation. They are not automatically eligible for canonical promotion. The selected code and any skipped checks must be evaluated before an explicit deployment. ### Testing The earlier implementation completed a real two-architecture build and publish in [run 42704887052](https://github.com/block/buzz/actions/runs/42704887052). Its image was also verified in the downstream ECR cache. The build-and-publish path passed [run 42713322329](https://github.com/block/buzz/actions/runs/42713322329) for unmerged source `beda6eeaec8ca4a00231a05a079eb168d2a6aec2`. Both native builds and combined-image verification succeeded. That run predates the source restrictions added during review. The current resolver and workflow-origin guard were executed directly from this YAML against local Git fixtures: 19 source cases and 3 origin cases passed. These include accepting internal branches/tags/ancestor SHAs and rejecting PR refs, the raw SHA of a PR-only commit, unreachable tags, malformed inputs and a foreign repository. Main and non-main workflow refs are both accepted in block/buzz. Live resolution of a block/buzz feature branch also passed. The exact image verifier passed valid-image cases and rejected missing/duplicate platforms, wrong architecture and wrong source. No deployment was started. Full local `just ci` stopped at the existing mobile formatting check (exit 65), with an unresolved `flutter_lints/flutter.yaml` include. The repository-wide check is not green; no mobile source was changed by this PR. ### Related issue No matching issue found. The existing staging-dev workflow publishes to a distinct staging-only package and accepts branches/tags; this workflow adds general manual publication and raw commit selection. <img width="1465" height="821" alt="Screenshot 2026-11-09 at 5 55 42 PM" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6a78b31f-9646-4f19-b44a-116c16818331" /> --------- Signed-off-by: Ravneet Arora <rarora@squareup.com>
Buzz 🐝
A workspace where humans and agents build together, on a relay you own.
Vision · Sovereign · Forge · Agents · Architecture · Releasing · Apache 2.0
Note
Buzz 1.0 is at block/buzz-app. This repository is Buzz 0.X, which is still available and supported. Buzz 1.0 adds plugins; their API is a preview, so updates can break them.
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.