df3f28a2c4
Stack: this PR → #8062 🤖 Follows #8028 (merged). Adds `BUZZ_NIP_FI_MODE=shadow`. The relay loads and validates the full enforce configuration (issuers, communities, lifetimes, command issuers), evaluates NIP-FI evidence wherever enforce would decide, and records what enforce would have done, while every request, upgrade and session behaves exactly as in `off`. The one approved exception is admin disconnect: shadow verifies the command and returns `200`, where Off has no verifier and returns `503`. It lets an operator measure the would-deny rate, including Hosts missing from `BUZZ_NIP_FI_COMMUNITIES`, before switching to `enforce`. - **Mode predicates.** `NipFiMode` gains `is_off`, `restricts`, `evaluates`, `enforces`, `denies_unconditionally` and `observes_only`, built on two exhaustive `match` bases (`restricts`, `evaluates`); `is_off` is a `matches!` and the rest derive from the bases, so a new mode cannot silently fall into one side. Every call site uses them, including the Git membership-lookup failure from #8005, which uses `restricts()` so shadow keeps Off's body. A test scans each crate's `src/` and fails on any `NipFiMode::<variant>` in production code outside the predicate definitions and the env parser, which catches `==`, `matches!` on any number of lines, `if let` and or-patterns. - **Startup.** Shadow goes through enforce's path, so every enforce startup refusal applies, including the required connection lifetime. Missing-setting errors name the configured mode through one formatter (`mode_requires`); the enforce text is byte-identical. Shadow builds the assertion verifier and claims command replays under its own Redis prefix, both through the production `AppState::new`. - **HTTP and Blossom.** `admit_nip_fi_http` keeps Off's result in shadow and additionally replays enforce in enforce's order: first the router guard's steps (community, then assertion), then the handler's steps (NIP-98, pairing, deny set) on the same NIP-98 proof, through `evaluate_enforce_steps`, which enforce shares. A Host mapped in config but missing from the communities table, with a valid assertion, records an admit, because enforce's guard passes and its 404 is not a NIP-FI denial. A dev-mode `X-Pubkey` identity is marked unsigned and is never an enforce proof, so shadow records it as a `nip98` would-deny. On bridge and Blossom routes, the strict proof check (payload tag, Blossom `Strict`) runs as a separate pure check that consumes no replay entry and records on its own series, so it never counts as an admission verdict. Shadow records exactly one verdict for every identity, community or credential refusal enforce would make, with Off's status, body and challenge unchanged: bridge, workflows, Blossom, Git transport and settings, GIF search and share, and invite minting record the `community` would-deny when the Host is unmapped. Git's missing or malformed credentials still reject before any database work, and shadow records the enforce verdict for that failed proof. The router guard stays transparent in shadow. - **WebSocket, root and audio.** The upgrade check evaluates the attached assertion once. An upgrade enforce would refuse records that would-deny; otherwise the assertion goes into a shadow-only session object and the upgrade returns as in Off. The assertion never reaches the connection, the identity registries, the admission gate, terminal frames or cancellation. Each session records at most one admission verdict. **Pairing** is recorded on both ingresses right after a valid NIP-42 proof, before ordinary relay policy, where enforce pairs: a key mismatch or claimless assertion is a `pairing` denial. **The deny-set check** runs where enforce runs it, after registration: a hit is a `deny_set` denial, and a clean read keeps the session pending and registered. **The admit** is recorded only when the connection is actually admitted: on root at the AUTH commit, after ordinary policy; on audio when the participant join transaction commits, after relay membership, channel membership, the final ban and membership decision, mesh routing and the join's own checks, and before publication. A NIP-42 failure, which comes before pairing, and any refusal between pairing and the admit (ordinary policy, mesh, or a join refusal inside the join transaction) retires the observer when the refusal is decided, before any refusal frame, rollback or cleanup is awaited, so it leaves no record even if the deadline passes during that cleanup. A record-only deadline task, armed at upgrade with enforce's `compute_session_deadline`, records `expired` when enforce would have closed an admitted session. If the deadline passes while the session is still pending, that is its single admission verdict, a denial with `stage=deadline`, and a later AUTH records nothing. A deny for the key (admin or cross-pod) records `revoked` on an admitted session; if it arrives after the deny-set check but before the admit, including a deny refused for capacity, the session keeps a pending-revocation mark and records the admit followed by exactly one `revoked` end, matching enforce's phase-independent close, and the deadline cannot take that end. The phase, the mark and retirement change together under one session lock. Each session records at most one end. The session holds the socket's cancellation token for recording only: once the socket is cancelled, no transition records anything, even while connection references remain (a cancel fence; the token never feeds a close action). Upgrade would-denies carry the ingress route, `ws` or `audio`. - **Admin disconnect.** Shadow verifies the command and records the deny entry, so later admissions record would-denies, but closes no session; the response stays `{"disconnected": true}`. Shadow publishes cross-pod on its own channel, `buzz:nip-fi:shadow-disconnect`, which only shadow pods subscribe to, so no enforce pod (including older builds that know only `buzz:nip-fi:disconnect`) acts on a shadow command. Shadow pods also keep listening on `buzz:nip-fi:disconnect`, so their deny record includes enforce's real disconnects. Shadow claims command replays under `buzz:nip-fi:shadow-command:{hash}`: replays are still rejected within shadow, and a shadow accept never uses up the enforce claim. Enforce and Off keep the same channel, keys and close behavior. - **NIP-11.** Shadow serves the same document as enforce, including `limitation.federated_identity`, because clients only attach evidence to a relay that advertises it. ## Recording | Series | Labels | One increment per | |---|---|---| | `buzz_nip_fi_shadow_total` | `route` (`http`, `ws`, `audio`), `stage`, `outcome`, `community` | decision enforce would make: an HTTP admission, a refused upgrade, a session's NIP-FI AUTH decision, or its deadline passing before AUTH (`stage=deadline`) | | `buzz_nip_fi_shadow_strict_proof_total` | `route` (`bridge`, `blossom`), `outcome` (`pass`, `rejected`), `community` | strict NIP-98 side check | | `buzz_nip_fi_shadow_session_end_total` | `route` (`ws`, `audio`), `reason` (`expired`, `revoked`), `community` | admitted session enforce would have ended (admitted sessions only) | | `buzz_nip_fi_shadow_disconnect_total` | `route` (`admin`, `cross_pod`), `outcome` | disconnect-path event, in place of the real disconnect, lag, capacity and poison counters | `community` is the configured canonical URI or `unmapped`, never the raw `Host`; an unmapped or empty Host records `stage=community, outcome=unavailable`. A shadow pod never moves an enforce disconnect or failure counter. Strict-proof rates use their own `pass + rejected` total, and session-end rates divide by the `admit` count for the same route. There is no per-verdict `info` log; a would-deny writes a `debug` line with no token, claim or issuer. The pre-existing enforce `debug` line for the proven NIP-98 key is shared and also fires in shadow. Admin commands rejected for a bad header, body or proof, a replay, or a dependency error record no shadow verdict; only capacity rejection is counted. ## Not observed - Handler-side path-validation exits: an invalid Git owner or repo name on default-branch, a media path that is not a valid hash, and a Git pack URL with a query string record nothing from the handler. The router guard still records what enforce would refuse at the guard (for example a missing assertion), because enforce refuses those requests before it validates the path. - A refusal that is not a NIP-FI decision, such as a tenant-binding 404 behind a passing guard, or an ordinary WebSocket refusal after pairing (a ban, membership or join refusal before admission). ## Follow-ups - A bounded `route` label per HTTP surface (bridge, Blossom, Git, …) on `buzz_nip_fi_shadow_total`; today every HTTP verdict carries `route=http`. - One shared helper for the ten copied `observe_unbound` recording hooks, stacked on this PR. The shadow recorder and session suites and the root pairing witness run in `just test-unit` and the `scripts/run-tests.sh` fallback; the `AppState::new` shadow witness, which exercises the command verifier against real Redis, runs in the `external_infra_redis` lane. NIP-FI env tests recover a poisoned env lock so one panic cannot cascade. --------- Signed-off-by: Will Pfleger <pfleger.will@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Will Pfleger <wpfleger@block.xyz> Signed-off-by: Duncan <dcfd242e557282d7a1e2cf2e6877522682f1e5c6156dc92ca7d90eaedd3b0f95@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz> Signed-off-by: Hayt <211b96e6a2b7f45fd4047988976c7bbbeeda0c15f3ae7b32eec20834b5a55118@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz> Co-authored-by: Duncan <dcfd242e557282d7a1e2cf2e6877522682f1e5c6156dc92ca7d90eaedd3b0f95@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz> Co-authored-by: Hayt <211b96e6a2b7f45fd4047988976c7bbbeeda0c15f3ae7b32eec20834b5a55118@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
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
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.