Addresses #2445. Closely related to #2483 -- see "Relationship to #2483" below; I am happy to close this in favour of that one. ## The problem On Windows the notification plugin's injected shim decides its permission at startup like this ([`guest-js/init.ts:12-18`](https://github.com/tauri-apps/plugins-workspace/blob/v2/plugins/notification/guest-js/init.ts)): ```ts if (window.Notification.permission !== 'default' || __TEMPLATE_windows__) { return await Promise.resolve(window.Notification.permission === 'granted') } return await invoke('plugin:notification|is_permission_granted') ``` `__TEMPLATE_windows__` is replaced with the literal `true` on Windows, so the `||` short-circuits and the shim compares its own freshly-initialised `'default'` against `'granted'` -- `false` -- and stamps **`denied`**. The line that would ask the backend is unreachable, and the backend would have said yes: `permission_state()` returns `PermissionState::Granted` unconditionally on desktop. So on every launch of the Windows app, `window.Notification.permission` is `denied` and nothing in the OS is denying anything. ## Why the toggle is only half of it `getDesktopNotificationPermissionState()` trusts that value, so `refreshPermission()` reports `denied` at mount, and this effect in `hooks.ts` runs before the user touches anything: ```ts React.useEffect(() => { if (settings.desktopEnabled && (permission === "denied" || permission === "unsupported")) { setSettings((current) => ({ ...current, desktopEnabled: false })); } }, [permission, settings.desktopEnabled]); ``` It writes `desktopEnabled: false` and persists it. Measured on a real install: with alerts successfully enabled and `desktopEnabled` persisted as `true`, a clean relaunch comes back with it persisted as `false`. That means fixing only the enable path leaves a Windows user re-enabling alerts after every restart. ## What this changes One place: `getDesktopNotificationPermissionState()` repairs the bogus value instead of reporting it. ```ts if ( window.Notification.permission === "denied" && isTauri() && isWindowsPlatform() ) { try { return await requestDesktopNotificationAccess(); } catch { return window.Notification.permission; } } ``` `requestPermission()` is the only call that reaches the backend, and on Windows it raises no prompt, returns `Granted`, and rewrites the shim's cached value -- so this is self-limiting: the next read short-circuits as `granted` and never requests again. There is a test for exactly that. Repairing at the read rather than at the toggle fixes every consumer at once, including `sendDesktopNotification()`, which gates delivery on `=== "granted"` and would otherwise drop notifications at boot. - `denied` stays terminal on macOS, on Linux, and on ordinary Windows web pages. - A denial that survives the request is still reported as `denied`. - A rejected request falls back to the current value instead of propagating; callers do not handle rejections today. - Adds `isWindowsPlatform()` to `shared/lib/platform.ts`, alongside the existing `isMacPlatform()` / `isLinuxPlatform()`. - No new dependencies. No changes to `hooks.ts` or to notification delivery. ## Verification on a real Windows 11 install Buzz Desktop 0.5.9 release build, Windows 11 Home 10.0.26200, WebView2 151.0.4129.72, attached over CDP. Clean boot, nothing injected: ``` window.Notification.permission -> "denied" localStorage[...].desktopEnabled -> false (written by the effect above) await window.Notification.requestPermission() -> "granted" window.Notification.permission -> "granted" new window.Notification("Buzz", { body: ... }) ToastNotificationManager::History .GetHistory("xyz.block.buzz.app") -> 3 -> 4 (real toast delivered) CreateToastNotifier(...).Setting -> Enabled ``` The OS was permissive throughout: no `ToastEnabled` override, no notification policy keys under HKCU or HKLM, and the app present under `HKCU\...\Notifications\Settings\xyz.block.buzz.app`. Full detail in [this comment](https://github.com/block/buzz/pull/2483#issuecomment-5255972424). To be precise about scope: this confirms the mechanism the patch relies on, measured on a stock release build. The patched build itself is covered by the unit tests below, not by a packaged Windows run. ## Tests `pnpm test` -- full desktop suite. New cases in `lib/desktop.test.mjs`: - Windows Tauri repairs the shim's false denied state on read - the repaired state is cached, so later reads do not request again - a denial that survives the request is reported as denied - denied stays terminal outside the Windows Tauri app (Windows web, Linux Tauri, Linux web) - granted is returned untouched and never triggers a request Plus `shared/lib/platform.test.mjs` for `isWindowsPlatform()` across `Win32` / `Win64` / `Windows` and `MacIntel` / `Darwin` / `Linux x86_64`. ## Relationship to #2483 #2483 fixes the same root cause at the toggle: it retries the request inside `setDesktopEnabled`. That makes the toggle work, which is what #2445 reports, and its `ensureDesktopNotificationPermission` helper is a nicer shape than an inline condition. The difference is where the repair happens. Because #2483 leaves the mount-time read as `denied`, the effect quoted above still turns the setting off on every launch, so the fix does not survive a restart. Repairing at the read covers the toggle path too, since `setDesktopEnabled` calls `refreshPermission()` first and finds `granted`. The two overlap: both add `isWindowsPlatform()` to `platform.ts`, so whichever lands second needs a trivial rebase. If maintainers prefer #2483's shape, the equivalent of this PR is to call its helper from `refreshPermission` as well as from `setDesktopEnabled` -- I am glad to close this and send that instead. I did not want to push changes into someone else's open PR uninvited. ## Once this lands #2445 can close. I am running a per-machine launcher workaround for a small Windows team until then, which this makes unnecessary. Signed-off-by: VSCteam <144167621+Joxyko@users.noreply.github.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
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
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.



