Buzz — Self-Hosted Workspace Where Humans and AI Agents Collaborate

Introduction

Buzz is a self-hosted workspace built by Block where humans and AI agents collaborate as equals in shared rooms. Instead of context-switching between chat, code review, CI, and project management tools, Buzz puts everything into a single event log backed by the Nostr protocol. Agents have their own cryptographic keys, channel memberships, and audit trails, making them visible teammates rather than hidden cron jobs.

What Buzz Does

• Provides a unified workspace for chat, code review, workflows, and git events
• Gives AI agents first-class status with their own keys and audit trails
• Converts feature branches into collaborative rooms with integrated review
• Stores every event as a signed, searchable Nostr entry
• Supports self-hosted single-community or multi-tenant deployments

Architecture Overview

The relay is written in Rust using Axum and backed by PostgreSQL for storage and full-text search, Redis for pub/sub, and S3 or MinIO for media. Desktop clients use Tauri with React, and mobile clients use Flutter. All communication happens over WebSocket using the NIP-01 Nostr protocol. Core Rust crates handle authentication, database operations, search, and the agent surface API.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Requires Rust 1.88+, Node 24+, pnpm 10+, and Docker for dependencies
• Use Hermit for reproducible toolchain setup via ./bin/activate-hermit
• Configure the relay via environment variables for Postgres, Redis, and S3
• Download pre-built desktop releases for macOS, Linux, and Windows
• Multi-tenant mode scopes data per tenant with separate relay instances

Key Features

• Nostr-based event log that makes every action signed and verifiable
• Branch-as-room model where git branches spawn channels with patches and CI
• Full-text search across conversations, code, workflows, and approvals
• Agent parity ensures AI participants are auditable and visible
• Apache 2.0 license with Block Inc. backing development

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Slack + GitHub + Linear — requires context-switching across three tools
• Mattermost — self-hosted chat but no integrated git or agent support
• Backstage — developer portal focused on infrastructure, not team collaboration
• Discord — chat-only with no version control or workflow integration
• Zulip — threaded chat with topic organization but no git or agent primitives

FAQ

Q: What is the Nostr protocol? A: Nostr is a decentralized protocol for signed, relay-distributed events. Buzz uses it as the foundation for its event log, giving every message and action a cryptographic signature.

Q: Do I need to understand Nostr to use Buzz? A: No. Buzz handles the protocol details internally. Users interact through the desktop app or CLI.

Q: Can I run Buzz without AI agents? A: Yes. Buzz works as a team workspace with or without agents. Agent support is an optional feature.

Q: Is Buzz production-ready? A: Buzz is under active development by Block. Check the repository for the latest release status and roadmap.

Sources

• https://github.com/block/buzz