SwarmCode

The missing networking layer for Claude Code. Real-time communication between Claude Code instances across machines, workspaces, and conversations.

While Claude Desktop gives you one AI in one window, SwarmCode gives you a distributed team of Claude agents that talk to each other, share context, and coordinate work — across your desktop, laptop, server, or any machine on your network.

Desktop (VS Code)          Laptop (VS Code)           Server
  Claude A ───────────────── Claude B ───────────────── Claude C
       \                      |                       /
        -------- Redis (single instance) ------------
                       |
                  Web Dashboard
              (monitor & control)

What Can It Do?

• Cross-machine messaging — Claude on your desktop sends a message, Claude on your laptop receives it instantly
• Real-time push — no polling, messages delivered via Redis pub/sub + background task notifications
• Workspace awareness — every agent knows what the others are working on
• Artifact sharing — share schemas, configs, interfaces across workspaces
• Web dashboard — monitor all workspaces, send messages from your browser
• Auto-setup — one command initializes any workspace

vs Claude Desktop

	Claude Desktop	SwarmCode
Cross-machine communication	No	Yes
Multi-workspace coordination	No — each window isolated	Yes — agents talk to each other
Real-time push notifications	No	Yes
Artifact/schema sharing	No	Yes
Web dashboard	No	Yes
Works in VS Code	No	Yes
Cross-platform	Mac only	Mac, Windows, Linux
Open source	No	Yes (MIT)

Quick Start

1. Install

npm install -g swarmcode-mcp

2. Start Redis (or use an existing one)

docker run -d --name redis -p 6379:6379 redis:alpine

3. Initialize a workspace

swarmcode-mcp init my-workspace --redis redis://your-redis:6379

That's it. Restart Claude Code. Your workspace is connected.

Repeat on any other machine/workspace — all pointing at the same Redis.

How It Works

Real-time message loop

1. Background listener subscribes to Redis pub/sub channel
2. Message arrives → listener exits → task-notification fires in VS Code
3. Claude reads the message → swarm_receive() → swarm_send() reply
4. New listener started → back to step 1

No polling. No cron. True event-driven push in VS Code.

Per-workspace isolation

swarmcode:ws:desktop-api       ← only desktop-api hears this
swarmcode:ws:laptop-frontend   ← only laptop-frontend hears this
swarmcode:ws:broadcast         ← everyone hears this (to="*")

Backup polling

A 5-minute CronCreate runs alongside the listener as a safety net.

Tools

Tool	Description
swarm_send	Send a message to a workspace or broadcast (to: "*")
swarm_receive	Read and mark pending messages as read
swarm_status	See all registered workspaces
swarm_register	Register/update this workspace's description

Web Dashboard

Monitor and control all workspaces from your browser.

docker run -d -p 4200:4200 \
  -e SWARMCODE_REDIS_URL=redis://your-redis:6379 \
  -e DASHBOARD_USER=admin \
  -e DASHBOARD_PASS=your-password \
  ghcr.io/spranab/swarmcode-dashboard:latest

Features:

• All workspaces with active/idle status
• Per-workspace inbox viewer
• Global message log (real-time via SSE)
• Send messages to any workspace
• Dark theme

Architecture

src/
├── channel.js          # MCP server — tools + Redis pub/sub + instructions
├── listener.js         # One-shot Redis listener → task-notification push
├── check-inbox-http.js # UserPromptSubmit hook — inbox check on each prompt
├── init.js             # CLI — one-command workspace setup
└── server.js           # CLI entry point

dashboard/
├── server.js           # Express app with SSE, basic auth, REST API
└── index.html          # Real-time dashboard UI

Configuration

Variable	Default	Description
SWARMCODE_REDIS_URL	redis://localhost:6379	Redis connection
SWARMCODE_WORKSPACE_ID	(from .mcp.json)	Workspace identifier
DASHBOARD_USER	admin	Dashboard username
DASHBOARD_PASS	bridge	Dashboard password
DASHBOARD_PORT	4200	Dashboard port

Kubernetes

Redis + Dashboard manifests in k8s/:

kubectl apply -f k8s/namespace.yml
kubectl apply -f k8s/redis.yml       # includes NodePort on 30379
kubectl apply -f k8s/dashboard.yml
kubectl apply -f k8s/ingress.yml     # edit hostname

Example: Two Agents Collaborating

Desktop (building API):

> swarm_register("Building user auth REST API")
> swarm_send(to: "laptop", type: "info", content: "POST /api/users is live, schema: {id, email, role}")

Laptop (building frontend — receives in real-time):

[task-notification] New message from "desktop": POST /api/users is live...

> swarm_receive()
> swarm_send(to: "desktop", type: "question", content: "Does /api/users support pagination?")

Desktop (receives instantly):

[task-notification] New message from "laptop": Does /api/users support pagination?

> swarm_receive()
> swarm_send(to: "laptop", type: "answer", content: "Yes, use ?page=1&limit=20")

All automatic. No user intervention needed.

Built With

• Model Context Protocol (MCP) — tool interface
• Redis — pub/sub + message storage
• ioredis — Redis client
• Claude Code — the agents

License

MIT — Pranab Sarkar