@yibie: The author of “Clean Code” breaks software engineering discipline into an agent pipeline—each quality gate is an independent role, and chained together they form a complete development workflow. SwarmForge (Uncle Bob’s new project): the entire coordination mechanism is the file system, with agents communicating via git commits…

The author of “Clean Code” breaks software engineering discipline into an agent pipeline—each quality gate is an independent role, and when chained together, it forms a complete development flow. SwarmForge (Uncle Bob’s new project): the entire coordination mechanism is the file system. Agents talk to each other through git commits and handoff files, and each role gets its own isolated workspace. SwarmForge: Uncle Bob’s tmux multi-agent orchestration — everything is a file What it is Robert C. Martin’s (author of “Clean Code”) project: an orchestration layer for multi-agent collaboration built on tmux. It’s in the same lane as herdr and Agent Relay, but with a completely different approach: • herdr: Rust binary, agents in a single process, controlled via socket API • Agent Relay: channels + DM messages • SwarmForge: bash + tmux + git worktree + prompt files. Everything is a file The tech stack is extremely minimal: zsh + git + tmux + Babashka. No Rust, no Postgres, no socket API. All configuration consists of prompt text files. Core mechanics 1. Role = git worktree Each agent role gets its own git worktree so they never step on each other—git worktree’s native isolation means you don’t need to invent file locks: • coordinator → master (main workspace) • coder → .worktrees/coder/ • architect → .worktrees/architect/ 2. Configuration = one conf file One window per line: role name, agent CLI, worktree, receive mode. Each role gets a prompt file: window coordinator codex master window coder codex coder window architect claude architect task --dangerously-skip-permissions 3. Communication = file handshake Agents don’t talk directly. Three scripts: swarm_handoff.sh (submit handoff), ready_for_next.sh (accept next task), done_with_current.sh (finish current task). A background daemon does the delivery—copying A’s outbox into B’s inbox. Agents never touch the tmux socket; the daemon is the only owner of tmux. 4. Three pipelines (branches) • two-pack (2 roles): coder → cleaner → coder—fast iteration on small tasks • four-pack (4 roles): specifier → coder → refactorer → architect—medium projects • six-pack (6 roles): specifier → coder → cleaner → architect → hardender → QA—full quality gates 5. Constitution A constitution.prompt points to multiple articles in constitution/articles/ (engineering standards, handoff protocols, workflow rules), which are injected into every agent’s context. Shared articles live on the main branch; local overrides use local-*.prompt. Uncle Bob’s unique philosophy The most interesting part is the discipline design of the roles—they map to classic software engineering practices: • specifier writes Gherkin acceptance specs and confirms them with you first • coder implements with TDD • cleaner does CRAP/DRY review (complexity metrics) • hardender runs mutation testing (deliberately altering code to see if tests catch it) • QA turns acceptance workflows into executable scripts This is the “Clean Code” textbook broken down into agent roles. Uncle Bob uses an agent swarm to implement his ideal software development discipline—each quality gate is an independent agent, chained into a pipeline. How to get started BRANCH=four-pack # two-pack / four-pack / six-pack curl -L "https://github.com/unclebob/swarm-forge/archive/refs/heads/…${BRANCH}.tar.gz" | tar -xz --strip-components=1 ./swarm Dependencies: zsh, git, tmux, Babashka, plus an agent backend (codex/claude/copilot/grok). The windows open automatically; the first window is the cleanup window (closing it = shutting down the whole swarm). In one sentence SwarmForge is the ultimate expression of the “files as state” philosophy—no database, no API, no message queue. Agents communicate via git commit + handoff files; each role has one worktree, one tmux window, one prompt file. It’s the exact opposite direction from herdr (API-driven): reducing coordination to the simplest form bash can express. It’s great for local multi-agent collaboration experiments and also works as a teaching tool—every layer is visible and tangible. Original: https://github.com/unclebob/swarm-forge… #multi-agent-orchestration #tmux #UncleBob