Contrabass

A project-level orchestrator for AI coding agents
Go + Charm stack reimplementation of OpenAI's Symphony (openai/symphony) — manage work, not agents

Contrabass is a terminal-first orchestrator for issue-driven agent runs, with an optional local web dashboard for live visibility.

Current scope

Today Contrabass ships with:

• A Cobra CLI with TUI, headless, and optional embedded web dashboard modes
• A WORKFLOW.md parser with YAML front matter, Liquid prompt rendering, and $ENV_VAR interpolation
• Issue tracker adapters for Linear, GitHub Issues, and a built-in Internal Board (local filesystem, no external service required)
• Agent runners for Codex app-server, OpenCode, oh-my-opencode, OMX (oh-my-codex), and OMC (oh-my-claudecode)
• Git-worktree-based workspace provisioning under workspaces/<issue-id> with non-git fallback for repositories without git
• Teams: multi-agent coordination with a local task board, phased pipeline (plan → exec → verify), live TUI team table, and dual worker modes (tmux-based multi-process or goroutine-based in-process)
• An orchestrator with claim/release, BlockedBy gating, orphan claim recovery, branch advance verification, stall detection, deterministic retry backoff, liveness snapshots with agent stage classification and ETA estimation
• A Charm v2 terminal UI built with Bubble Tea, Bubbles, and Lip Gloss
• Ziikoo — a React dashboard (neo-brutalism theme, shadcn + Tailwind v4) with a three-pane IDE-style layout, live SSE streaming, queue navigation, stage progression pills, completion ETAs, issue detail sheets with Linear metadata and workflow timelines, team/worker tables, agent logs, and zh-CN localization
• Go unit/integration tests, TUI snapshot tests, and dashboard component/hook tests
• A tmux-based multi-process worker mode (default) alongside the in-process goroutine mode, with JSONL event logging, file-based heartbeats, dispatch queue, governance policies, and crash recovery

Requirements

• Go 1.25+
• Bun 1.3+ for the dashboard/landing workspace
• Git (workspace creation uses git worktree)
• tmux (required for the default tmux worker mode in team runs; not needed for goroutine mode)
• A supported agent runtime:
  • codex app-server
  • opencode serve
  • oh-my-opencode
  • omx (oh-my-codex team runtime)
  • omc (oh-my-claudecode team runtime)
• Tracker credentials for the backend you use:
  • Linear: LINEAR_API_KEY
  • GitHub: GITHUB_TOKEN

From a fresh clone, run bun install once before using the JS/landing build and test commands.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install junhoyeo/contrabass/contrabass

Download from GitHub Releases

Pre-built binaries for macOS and Linux (amd64/arm64) are available on the Releases page.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/junhoyeo/contrabass.git
cd contrabass
bun install
make build

make build first builds packages/dashboard/dist/ and then embeds it into the Go binary.

Note: go install github.com/junhoyeo/contrabass/cmd/contrabass@latest works for the CLI and TUI, but the embedded web dashboard (--port) will be empty because go install does not run the JS build step.

Quick start

Run with the demo workflow

LINEAR_API_KEY=your-linear-token \
./contrabass --config testdata/workflow.demo.md

Run with the embedded web dashboard

LINEAR_API_KEY=your-linear-token \
./contrabass --config testdata/workflow.demo.md --port 8080

Then open http://localhost:8080.

Run headless

LINEAR_API_KEY=your-linear-token \
./contrabass --config testdata/workflow.demo.md --no-tui

CLI flags

--config string      path to WORKFLOW.md file (required)
--dry-run            exit after first poll cycle
--log-file string    log output path (default "contrabass.log")
--log-level string   log level (debug/info/warn/error) (default "info")
--no-tui             headless mode — skip TUI, log events to stdout
--port int           web dashboard port (0 = disabled)

Team subcommand flags

contrabass team run --config workflow.md [flags]

--worker-mode string   override worker mode (goroutine|tmux, default from config)

How Contrabass works

1. Poll the configured tracker for candidate issues.
2. Skip issues with unresolved BlockedBy dependencies (BlockedBy gating).
3. Claim an eligible issue, recording the workspace HEAD SHA at claim time.
4. Create or reuse a git worktree in workspaces/<issue-id> (falls back to plain directory when git is unavailable).
5. Render the prompt body from WORKFLOW.md using issue data.
6. Launch the configured agent runner.
7. Stream agent events, classify agent stage (Exploration → Editing → Testing → Reviewing → Wrapping), track token consumption, and estimate completion ETAs.
8. On completion, verify the workspace branch advanced beyond the claim HEAD before marking success.
9. On failure, retry with deterministic exponential backoff + FNV-hash jitter.
10. Recover orphaned claims on restart — issues marked Claimed but not actively running are reset to Unclaimed.
11. Mirror state into the TUI, the Ziikoo dashboard (via SSE), and the JSON snapshot API.

Orchestrator features

Runtime notes

• WORKFLOW.md is watched with fsnotify; on parse errors, Contrabass keeps the last known good config.
• The Codex runner speaks newline-delimited JSON (JSONL) to codex app-server rather than Content-Length framed messages. See docs/codex-protocol.md.
• The Codex runner handles -32001 server overload errors with exponential backoff retry (up to 5 attempts) and detects stalled streams via configurable read timeouts.
• The workflow parser already accepts more Symphony-shaped fields than the runtime fully consumes today. For example, workspace, hooks, and some codex settings are parsed, but the current runtime mainly uses tracker selection, timeouts, retry settings, binary paths, and prompt/template fields.

Team worker modes

Teams support two worker modes, configured via team.worker_mode in the workflow file or the --worker-mode CLI flag:

tmux mode (default) provides:

• Process isolation — each agent CLI runs in its own tmux pane
• JSONL event log for cross-process event streaming
• File-based heartbeat monitoring with stale detection
• Dispatch queue with ack tracking and timeout redelivery
• Governance policies with role routing heuristics
• Crash recovery with state diagnosis and automatic cleanup
• Advisory file locking via flock(2) for safe concurrent access

goroutine mode runs all workers in-process using Go's errgroup and sync.Mutex. It requires no external dependencies but shares the process address space.

Team state is persisted as JSON files under .contrabass/state/team/{teamName}/.

Workflow file format

Contrabass reads a Markdown workflow file with YAML front matter followed by the prompt template body.

---
max_concurrency: 3
poll_interval_ms: 2000
max_retry_backoff_ms: 240000
model: openai/gpt-5-codex
project_url: https://linear.app/acme/project/example
agent_timeout_ms: 900000
stall_timeout_ms: 60000
tracker:
  type: linear
linear:
  issue_details:
    enabled: true
  sync_comments:
    enabled: false
    mode: reply_thread
agent:
  type: codex
codex:
  binary_path: codex app-server
---
# Workflow Prompt

Issue title: {{ issue.title }}
Issue description: {{ issue.description }}
Issue URL: {{ issue.url }}

Produce code and tests that satisfy the issue requirements.

Linear detail and timeline sync settings

When tracker.type: linear is used, the dashboard can load richer issue metadata through the Contrabass backend without exposing Linear credentials to browser code.

linear:
  issue_details:
    enabled: true
  sync_comments:
    enabled: false
    mode: reply_thread # reply_thread by default; top_level is the fallback-safe mode

• linear.issue_details.enabled controls backend issue detail reads used by the issue detail sheet. Candidate polling remains lean.
• linear.sync_comments.enabled is opt-in and defaults to false; when enabled, durable workflow timeline nodes are projected to Linear comments.
• Comment sync is best-effort and asynchronous. It records retry/sync status in local timeline state and does not block issue completion, retry queueing, or dashboard rendering.
• Disable linear.sync_comments.enabled to preserve legacy direct completion comments and avoid any Linear comment projection.

Template bindings

The current prompt renderer exposes:

• issue.title
• issue.description
• issue.url

Environment-variable interpolation

String values in YAML front matter can reference environment variables using $NAME syntax.

Examples:

• tracker.token: $GITHUB_TOKEN
• opencode.password: $OPENCODE_SERVER_PASSWORD
• omx.binary_path: $OMX_BINARY
• omc.binary_path: $OMC_BINARY

Linear issue details and workflow timeline

For Linear trackers, Contrabass can load richer issue metadata for the dashboard and maintain a local workflow timeline that is projected back to Linear comments only when explicitly enabled.

tracker:
  type: linear
linear:
  issue_details:
    enabled: true
  sync_comments:
    enabled: false
    mode: reply_thread # or top_level

• linear.issue_details.enabled defaults to enabled for Linear trackers and is ignored for non-Linear trackers.
• linear.sync_comments.enabled defaults to false; comment sync is best-effort and opt-in.
• linear.sync_comments.mode defaults to reply_thread; use top_level when threaded replies are unsupported or undesired.
• Workflow timeline files are local Contrabass state and remain the source of truth even when Linear sync is disabled or temporarily fails.

OMC / OMX workflow sections

For team-runtime-backed runners, set agent.type to omx or omc and configure the corresponding section.

agent:
  type: omx
omx:
  binary_path: omx
  team_spec: 2:executor
  poll_interval_ms: 1500
  startup_timeout_ms: 22000
  ralph: true

agent:
  type: omc
omc:
  binary_path: omc
  team_spec: 2:claude
  poll_interval_ms: 1200
  startup_timeout_ms: 21000

Notes:

• binary_path can point to the installed CLI wrapper, for example omx or omc.
• team_spec is passed directly to the team runtime, such as 1:executor, 2:executor, or 2:claude.
• Contrabass writes the rendered task prompt into .contrabass/runner/<runner>/... inside the workspace and instructs the team runtime to execute from that file.
• OMC/OMX team runners generally require the underlying toolchain prerequisites those CLIs expect, especially tmux-based team support.

Team configuration

The team section configures multi-agent coordination:

team:
  max_workers: 5
  max_fix_loops: 3
  claim_lease_seconds: 300
  state_dir: .contrabass/state/team
  execution_mode: team    # team | single | auto
  worker_mode: tmux       # tmux (default) | goroutine

• worker_mode: Controls how agent workers are spawned. tmux (default) uses separate tmux panes with process isolation. goroutine runs workers in-process.
• execution_mode: Controls coordination strategy. team uses the full phased pipeline, single runs one agent at a time, auto selects based on task count.

Example workflow files

• testdata/workflow.demo.md — demo Linear + Codex workflow
• testdata/workflow.github.md — GitHub + OpenCode workflow
• testdata/workflow.ohmyopencode.md — oh-my-opencode workflow
• testdata/workflow.omx.md — OMX workflow
• testdata/workflow.omc.md — OMC workflow
• testdata/workflow.md — realistic Linear fixture

Supported integrations

Trackers

• Linear
  • GraphQL-based issue fetch, claim, release, state update, and comment posting
  • Can auto-resolve the assignee from the API token when tracker.assignee_id is omitted
• GitHub Issues
  • REST-based issue fetch, assign/unassign, comment, and close-on-release behavior
  • Pull requests are skipped when fetching issues
• Internal Board
  • File-based local issue tracking under .contrabass/board/ — no external service required
  • Supports team-scoped boards for multi-agent coordination
  • See docs/local-board.md for format details

Agent runners

• Codex
  • Launches codex app-server with JSONL protocol (newline-delimited JSON, not Content-Length framed)
  • Performs initialize → initialized → thread/start → turn/start
  • Streams notifications and token usage updates in real time
  • Handles -32001 server overload with exponential backoff retry (up to 5 attempts)
  • Detects stalled streams via configurable read timeout (WithStreamReadTimeout)
  • Closes stdin on terminal events (turn/completed, turn/failed, turn/cancelled) for clean exit
  • Supports Codex 0.128+ thread/tokenUsage shape
  • Forwards workflow-level codex config as -c key=value overrides (model, approval policy, sandbox)
• OpenCode
  • Starts or reuses an opencode serve process
  • Creates sessions over HTTP and streams events over SSE
• oh-my-opencode
  • Wraps the oh-my-opencode agent binary
  • HTTP session creation with SSE event streaming
• OMX (oh-my-codex)
  • Launches omx team ... with a workspace-scoped task file
  • Polls omx team api get-summary and omx team api list-tasks for status and results
  • Tracks per-session token usage (input/output/total) and rate limit proximity (5-hour, weekly)
  • Monitors worker liveness via file-based heartbeats with stale detection
  • Shuts down the team with omx team shutdown ... --force (and --ralph when configured)
  • Supports OMX v0.16+ native worker supervisor protocol
• OMC (oh-my-claudecode)
  • Launches omc team ... with a workspace-scoped task file
  • Polls omc team api get-summary and omc team api list-tasks for status and results
  • Same token/heartbeat monitoring as OMX
  • Shuts down the team with omc team shutdown ... --force

Web dashboard (Ziikoo) and HTTP API

When --port is set, Contrabass serves Ziikoo — a React dashboard embedded in the Go binary — alongside a JSON/SSE API for programmatic access.

Dashboard features

Ziikoo uses a three-pane IDE-style layout:

1. Left sidebar — queue navigation (running, backoff, todo, backlog, recently done, canceled) with live counts
2. Main content — responsive data tables with aggregate metric cards
3. Right detail sheet — slide-out panel with issue metadata, workflow timeline, and agent controls

Key capabilities:

• 5-step agent stage pill showing progression: Exploration → Editing → Testing → Reviewing → Wrapping
• Completion ETA with confidence bands (low/medium/high)
• Activity indicators with freshness coloring (fresh/warm/stale based on heartbeat age)
• Live metrics — running load, queued count, archived count, token consumption (in/out)
• Issue detail sheets — Linear metadata (assignee, creator, team, project, cycle, estimate, due date, relations), workflow timeline with sync status badges, debug info (PID, session ID, workspace path)
• Blocked queue panel — issues deferred by BlockedBy with blocker identifiers
• Retry queue — backoff entries with live countdown timers
• Team table — team phase, worker counts, task counts, fix loop progress
• Worker table — per-worker status (busy/idle/stopped), current task, PID
• Agent logs — streaming stdout/stderr with worker filter dropdown
• Board view — CRUD interface for the internal board tracker (create/edit issues, change state)
• Stop agent button — terminate running agents directly from the detail sheet
• zh-CN localization — full Simplified Chinese interface

HTTP API

SSE event stream

Connect to /api/v1/events for real-time updates. The initial event is a full snapshot, followed by incremental events:

Heartbeat events are filtered server-side and never reach clients. Keep-alive comments are sent every 15 seconds.

Development

Build and test

make build            # build dashboard, then build ./contrabass
make build-dashboard  # build packages/dashboard/dist only
make build-landing    # build packages/landing/dist only
make test             # go test ./... -count=1
make test-dashboard   # bun test in packages/dashboard
make test-landing     # astro check in packages/landing
make test-quick       # recommended local validation path
make test-all         # Go + dashboard tests + landing checks
make ci               # lint + test-quick + binary/dashboard build + landing build
make lint             # go vet ./...
make clean            # remove built artifacts
make release-dry      # dry-run GoReleaser locally (skips publish)

For day-to-day local validation, use make test-quick. For a fuller pre-push or CI-style pass, use make ci.

Dashboard development

make dev-dashboard
make dev-landing

The repository is a root Bun workspace with packages/dashboard and packages/landing. The Astro landing site renders README.md, so this file is both repo documentation and site content.

Running from source

go run ./cmd/contrabass --config testdata/workflow.demo.md --port 8080

Docs and fixtures

• docs/codex-protocol.md — notes on the Codex app-server framing and lifecycle used here
• docs/local-board.md — internal board tracker file format and schema
• docs/test-plan.md — ported test-plan notes from the Elixir codebase
• testdata/snapshots/ — golden snapshots for the TUI renderer

Charm stack

Direct dependencies from the Charm v2 ecosystem:

Logo	Library	Import Path	Purpose
	Bubble Tea	charm.land/bubbletea/v2	TUI framework (Elm architecture)
	Lip Gloss	charm.land/lipgloss/v2	Styling & layout
	Bubbles	charm.land/bubbles/v2	Reusable TUI components
	Log	github.com/charmbracelet/log	Structured logging
	x	github.com/charmbracelet/x	x/mosaic for terminal image rendering

Plus:

• github.com/charmbracelet/log for structured logging
• github.com/fsnotify/fsnotify for config watching
• github.com/osteele/liquid for prompt templating
• github.com/stretchr/testify for Go test assertions

Releasing

CI and release workflows run automatically via GitHub Actions:

• CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml) — runs on every push and PR: lint, test, build
• Release (.github/workflows/release.yml) — triggered by pushing a version tag

To ship a new release:

git tag v0.4.1
git push origin v0.4.1

This builds cross-platform binaries (macOS/Linux, amd64/arm64) via GoReleaser, publishes a GitHub Release with grouped changelogs, and updates the Homebrew tap.

After GoReleaser publishes the release, scripts/generate-release-notes.ts appends contributor attribution — each change is tagged with the author's @username and linked PR, and first-time contributors get a dedicated shout-out section.

Notes for contributors

For detailed contribution guidelines, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

• The dashboard assets must exist before the Go binary is built because the binary embeds packages/dashboard/dist.
• packages/landing renders README.md, so README changes also affect the landing site.
• If workspace package resolution looks broken in packages/dashboard or packages/landing, rerun bun install at the repository root to refresh workspace links.
• TUI snapshots live in testdata/snapshots/ and are exercised by internal/tui tests.