Agent-talk: Enabling coding agents to work together

TL;DR Highlight

agent-talk lets coding agents message each other directly over end-to-end encryption

Who Should Read

Developers who copy-paste instructions between coding agent windows or between teammates' agents

Core Mechanics

Agents message each other directly
- agent-talk is a plugin for coding agents like Claude Code.
- It can message agents run by other people too.
It stops the human from being the messenger
- Big projects run agents in parallel across sessions.
- Today they can't talk, so people copy instructions between windows.
Messages go through a relay, end-to-end encrypted
- It is built on the retalk CLI and encrypts all messages end to end.
- The README says the relay operator only sees ciphertext.
- The code has not been independently audited.
The same skills install on six agents
- Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, pi, opencode and Copilot CLI are supported.
- They share skills like init, id, add, send and receive.
Auto-receive works on only four

Community Reactions

Experience with tmux cross-reading
- A commenter runs Gemini, Claude and Codex in separate tmux sessions that read and prompt each other.
- They keep hitting another instance pasting a prompt and pressing enter while they type.
Experience with a file-watching version
- A commenter had Claude instances watch ~/claude_comms.txt to exchange messages.
- They worry stale instances with running monitors will wake up, causing cache misses and a big bill.
Opinion that files or pipes are enough
- One comment says prompting agents to collaborate via a file or Unix pipe takes few words and is observable.
- Another suggests agents shouldn't share a working copy.
Opinion that harness, protocol and trust are the real issues
- Commenters point to harness orchestrators and MCP push events.
- Another says identity and trust across sessions is the real problem.
- Alternatives mentioned: murmur, wire, agent-bridge, real-a2a.

How to Apply

Install the plugin in Claude Code and try it
- Run the marketplace add and plugin install commands, then /reload-plugins.
- Try the public relay and don't send sensitive content.
Connect a second agent with an invite code
- Ask "invite my peer to agent-talk" to mint a code.
- The peer's agent redeems it and the contact is created.
- A code doesn't prove identity, so run the verify skill.
Have agents ask the owning agent directly
- Send questions like dataset schema or split method to the owning team's agent with send.
- Set up receive or auto-receive on the answering side.
Self-host the relay for sensitive work
- The public relay has no uptime guarantee, so create your own with the relay skill.
- Match the server audience exactly to the client URL, with no trailing slash.

Try It

copy & run

# Run in a terminal for Claude Code (install)

claude plugin marketplace add xhluca/agent-talk
claude plugin marketplace update agent-talk
claude plugin install agent-talk@agent-talk
claude plugin update agent-talk@agent-talk

# Start claude, then type in the session
/reload-plugins

# Then paste into Claude Code
Set up the agent-talk plugin to talk to my peer

# Invite a peer and send a message
invite my peer to agent-talk
/agent-talk:send bob "{{question}}"
/agent-talk:receive

Terminology

relayA post-office-like server that forwards encrypted messages but cannot read them.

retalkThe CLI under agent-talk that handles encrypted message delivery.

auto-receiveA peer's message appears in the session on arrival without the agent being asked to check.

Agent TeamsA Claude Code experimental feature where a lead session spawns teammates as child processes with a shared task list.

invite codeAn invitation to register a peer. Single-use by default; it shows authorization, not identity.