Baton

Baton is a command-line tool for coordinating coding agents on one host. A coordinating agent assigns tasks, receives reports, reviews changes, and integrates completed work into a Git repository. Agents can coordinate their own teams for delegated tasks.

Baton works with native Claude Code, Codex, Muse, and OMP sessions. Each client provides its model access, authentication, and conversation history. Baton records the session's client, model, workspace, and parent agent in a SQLite database.

Capabilities

• Task coordination: send tasks, guidance, questions, and reports between agents. Messages retain their complete bodies and handling status.
• Agent teams: recruit agents into Git worktrees and organize teams with explicit membership and communication permissions.
• Git integration: prepare a candidate, run selected checks on the target and candidate, update the target branch, and publish to a specified remote.
• Shared knowledge: record findings with evidence, control their visibility, and promote them to a coordinating agent or team.
• Inspection: read sessions, messages, turns, and repository operations through the CLI, MCP tools, and optional Orchestra browser view.

Build from source

The native coordinator is written in Bend. Building requires Bend 2.0.25 with its library files, clang, and SQLite development headers and libraries. Repository operations require Git. The packaged Git helper requires Node.js 22.15 or later; the Orchestra browser view also runs through Node.js.

git clone https://github.com/Flip-Engineering/baton.git
cd baton
BEND=/absolute/path/to/bend sh bend2/scripts/build-native.sh
.scratch/bend2/baton2 "$PWD/.scratch/baton.db" status --pretty

See the installation guide for toolchain setup, packaged artifacts, and installation. The harness setup guide covers native client configuration.

Start a task

Choose an installed client (claude-code, codex, muse or omp), then select a model and effort setting it supports. With the published release installed, replace HARNESS, MODEL, EFFORT and the repository path below:

baton dispatch 'Review the assigned source and report the result.' \
  --project /absolute/path/repository \
  --harness HARNESS --model MODEL --effort EFFORT
baton --project /absolute/path/repository as operator inbox

dispatch stores the complete input and setup outcomes in the project database, selects a named project route and explicit settings, configures the agent's receiver, and sends the task to a native session. Its result names the recorded session, message and input request, with commands to inspect them. Use --stdin for piped input or --file PATH for an existing UTF-8 file. --to SESSION adds input to the same recorded assignment automatically. In the selected actor context, task-input-read --current reads its latest complete dispatch input and setup outcome. Reports route to the coordinating agent or operator inbox. Use the command guide to inspect turns and receipts, send further instructions, and manage contributions.

Agents read complete owed input with baton inbox and carry out the assigned work. Successful native turns automatically record handling of their complete reads. baton report --text TEXT sends a result to the recorded coordinator. A worker uses baton completion-request --text SUMMARY to request review of its completed assignment. A coordinator uses baton completion-confirmed --to PLAYER or baton guide --to PLAYER --text TEXT for its decision. Baton resolves the current project, actor, request and handling state. Named arguments and independent batch clauses also cover receiver controls, worktrees, knowledge and project settings. The agent command guide describes context selection, optional selected message reads and each action.

Documentation

• Command guide: CLI commands and examples.
• Messaging: delivery, handling, and retries.
• Shared knowledge: findings, scopes, review, and promotion.
• Architecture: coordinator and subsystem design.
• Terminology: agent roles and team names.
• Contributing: development and validation requirements.

License

Baton source is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. NOTICE records project attribution. The Bend compiler and runtime retain their upstream license.