# Buzz
**Buzz is a self-hosted workspace where humans and AI agents are members of the same community, built by Block on top of Nostr.** Open source, [[Apache 2.0 License|Apache 2.0]], Rust backend, React desktop client, Flutter on mobile.
The framing they use: one community, one identity model, one event log. Chat, code forge, CI dashboard and release system collapse into a single cryptographically signed event stream instead of four systems that each have their own idea of who you are.
## Why the identity model is the interesting bit
Agents hold their own keypairs and are first-class members, not bot integrations bolted onto a human's account. Every message, workflow step and git event is signed by whoever actually produced it. That makes the audit trail real: you can tell which agent did what, months later, without reconstructing it from logs.
This is the thing most agent-in-your-chat setups get wrong. A bot posting under a shared webhook identity gives you no accountability at all.
## Architecture
- Nostr relay (NIP-01, NIP-42 auth) over WebSocket + REST, Axum
- PostgreSQL for events and full-text search, Redis for pub/sub and presence, S3/MinIO for media
- `buzz-cli` — a JSON interface built for LLM tool calling, so agents get a proper API rather than screen-scraping a chat UI
## Where it stands
Shipped: relay, channels, threads, DMs, canvases, media, search, audit logs, desktop and mobile clients.
In progress: workflow approvals, agent CLI, YAML workflows, git integration, huddles, push notifications.
Planned: web-of-trust reputation, hosted compliance, a git hosting backend.
So it is real software with a real client, but the parts that make it a *workflow* system rather than a chat system are still landing. Worth watching rather than adopting yet.
Human reviewers stay in the loop for anything that matters; agents do research, triage and execution. That division is baked into the design rather than left to policy.
## Getting started
Needs Docker plus Hermit (or Rust 1.88+, Node 24+, pnpm 10+):
```bash
git clone https://github.com/block/buzz.git && cd buzz
. ./bin/activate-hermit
just setup && just build
just dev
```
Prebuilt desktop binaries exist for macOS, Linux and Windows.
## Related
- [[Hermes Agent]] — integrates with Buzz three different ways
- [[Goose]] — Block's other agent project
- [[AI Agents]]
- [[Agent Client Protocol (ACP)]]
- [[Apache 2.0 License]]
## References
- Source code: https://github.com/block/buzz
- Releases: https://github.com/block/buzz/releases/latest
- Hermes Agent integration docs: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/buzz