hcom
Connect independent coding agents across terminals and machines. They can message each other, monitor activity, react to events, and launch more agents. Start an agent with hcom in front, then prompt normally.
Use it to coordinate multi-agent pipelines, run different AI CLIs as each other's subagents, or just to avoid copy-pasting.
Works with claude codex opencode grok hermes pi omp agy copilot qoder cursor kimi kilo gemini
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1ce23ed9-f529-4be0-8124-816aa4c2fd43
Install
macOS, Linux, Windows:
uv tool install hcom
or: brew install aannoo/hcom/hcom
or install script
macOS, Linux, Android:
curl -fsSL https://github.com/aannoo/hcom/releases/latest/download/hcom-installer.sh | sh
Windows:
irm https://github.com/aannoo/hcom/releases/latest/download/hcom-installer.ps1 | iex
Quickstart
|
Terminal 1: hcom claude
|
Terminal 2: hcom codex
|
Prompt:
ask the other agent their favorite cake
-
review what claude did and send it fixes -
spawn 3x opencode, split work, collect results -
fork yourself to investigate the bug and report back -
when codex goes idle, send it the next task -
find the agent that worked on that feature, resume it and ask it why it's bad
Open the TUI dashboard:
hcom
What agents can do
-
Message each other in real time. Messages arrive mid-turn (after tool calls) or wake idle agents immediately.
-
Observe who's running and what they're doing: status, transcripts, tool results, file edits, commands, live terminal screens, context/token usage. Search past conversations.
-
Subscribe to status changes, commands, file edits, collisions, and session events, then react automatically.
-
Control: spawn, fork, resume, kill agents in any terminal emulator or headless.
How it works
Hooks record activity to a local SQLite database and deliver messages from it.
agent → hooks → db → hooks → other agent
Hooks activate only when an agent is launched with hcom in front. Normal usage is unaffected.
Any other AI tool without hooks can join by running hcom start
In any CLI tool, prompt:
> run: `hcom start --help` follow what it says and stay connected
Any process can wake agents with hcom send
Send messages from any process/script:
hcom send -b @luna -- "wake up and do this task"
Chain with hcom events:
hcom events --idle luna --wait 600 && hcom send -b @nova -- "luna is done, review it"
Terminals
Every agent runs in a real terminal you can see, scroll, and interrupt. Any emulator works for spawning (hcom auto-detects). kitty, wezterm, tmux, zellij, waveterm, cmux, herdr also support closing panes from hcom kill.
To configure a custom terminal open/close setup, tell an agent to run:
hcom config terminal --info
Cross-device
Connect agents across machines via MQTT relay.
hcom relay new # get token
hcom relay connect <token> # on each device
Check with hcom relay status, toggle with hcom relay off / on.
Treat the token like an API/SSH key. See SECURITY.md
Reference
Full reference: hcom run docs
Tools
Supported tools
| Tool | Message delivery | Connect |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | automatic | hcom claude |
| Gemini CLI | automatic | hcom gemini |
| Codex CLI | automatic | hcom codex |
| Antigravity CLI | automatic | hcom agy |
| OpenCode | automatic | hcom opencode |
| Kilo Code | automatic | hcom kilo |
| Pi | automatic | hcom pi |
| Oh My Pi | automatic | hcom omp |
| Cursor CLI | automatic | hcom cursor-agent |
| Kimi | automatic | hcom kimi |
| Copilot CLI | automatic | hcom copilot |
| Qoder CLI | automatic | hcom qoder |
| Grok Build | automatic | hcom grok |
| Hermes Agent | automatic | hcom hermes |
| Anything else | manual via hcom listen |
hcom start (run inside tool) |
hcom r <session_id> # Resume a session started outside hcom
hcom f <session_id> # Fork a session in hcom
Claude Code headless and subagents
Detached background processes in print mode stay alive. Manage through the TUI.
hcom claude -p 'say hi in hcom' # print mode (separate Agent SDK credits)
hcom claude --headless # Run normal claude in background pty (works for any tool)
For subagents, run hcom claude, then prompt:
run 2x task tool and get them to talk to each other in hcom
Hermes chats
A Hermes gateway chat (Telegram, Discord, etc) can join hcom:
hcom hooks add hermes # plugin into the active profile (HERMES_HOME picks another); a running gateway loads it
In the chat: /hcom start connects, /hcom stop disconnects.
hcom hooks remove hermes disconnects and removes its plugin.
CLI
CLI commands
What you might type from a shell. Agents run their own commands that they learn from the hcom CLI primer (~700 tokens) at launch. hcom <command> --help for full flags.
Spawn
hcom [N] claude|gemini|codex|agy|opencode|kilo|pi|omp|cursor-agent|kimi|copilot|qoder|grok|hermes # launch N agents
hcom r <name|session_id> # resume agent
hcom f <name|session_id> # fork session
hcom kill <name|tag:T|all> # kill + close terminal pane
hcom launch flags:
| Flag | Purpose |
|---|---|
--tag <name> |
Group label — agents can be addressed as @tag |
--terminal <preset> |
Where windows open: default (auto-detect), kitty, wezterm, tmux, cmux, iterm, etc… |
--dir <path> |
Directory where the agent launches |
--headless |
Run in background pty with no terminal window |
--device <name> |
Spawn on a remote device (via relay) |
--hcom-prompt <text> |
Initial user prompt |
--hcom-system-prompt <text> |
Append to system prompt |
--json |
Print the outcome as one JSON object (also hcom r, hcom f, hcom kill); an error that stops the command before it acts goes to stderr with a non-zero exit and no JSON |
Anything else is forwarded to the tool: --model sonnet, --yolo, etc.
Other commands
hcom # TUI dashboard
hcom send -b @luna -- hey # one-off message to an agent
hcom list # show all active agents
hcom term [name] # view/inject into an agent's PTY screen
hcom events --wait <filters> # Block until match for scripting
hcom events --follow # Stream events as JSON Lines
hcom update # update hcom version
hcom run docs --cli for all commands.
Config
Configuration
Config lives in ~/.hcom/config.toml. Precedence: defaults < config.toml < env vars.
hcom config # show all values with sources
hcom config <key> # get
hcom config <key> <value> # set
hcom config <key> --info # detailed help for a key
hcom config -i <name> <key> <value> # per-agent override at runtime
Keys
| Key | Purpose |
|---|---|
tag |
Group label — launched agents become tag-name |
hints |
Text appended to every message the agent receives |
notes |
Text appended to bootstrap (one-time, at launch) |
bootstrap_exclude |
Bootstrap parts to omit: identity, messages, capabilities (including tag, relay, headless, and command notices), rules, handoff, or all (default: none). Inspect with hcom config bootstrap show [part]. |
auto_approve |
Auto-approve safe hcom commands (send/list/events/…) |
auto_subscribe |
Event subscription presets: collision, created, stopped, blocked |
name_export |
Export instance name to a custom env var |
title_mode |
Terminal/tab title behavior: combined (default), label, or off |
terminal |
Where new agent windows open (hcom config terminal --info) |
timeout |
Idle timeout for headless Claude (seconds) |
subagent_timeout |
Keep-alive for Claude subagents (seconds) |
claude_args / gemini_args / codex_args / opencode_args / kilo_args / pi_args / omp_args / cursor_args / kimi_args / copilot_args / qoder_args / grok_args / hermes_args |
Default args passed to the tool |
Scope
hcom config tag mycrew # global
hcom config -i luna hints "respond in JSON" # per-agent
HCOM_TAG=dev hcom 3 claude # per-launch env
Per-project isolation
export HCOM_DIR="$PWD/.hcom" # isolate hcom state (db, logs) to this folder
rm -rf "$HCOM_DIR" # clean up
Run hcom config <key> --info or hcom run docs --config for the full per-key reference.
Edit ~/.hcom/env to set external env vars passed to every launched agent.
Workflow Scripts
Multi-agent workflows
Bundled and user scripts (~/.hcom/scripts/) for multi-agent patterns:
hcom run # list available scripts
hcom run debate "topic" # run one
hcom run docs # tell agent to run this to create any new workflow
Included scripts
Tell agent to run them:
-
hcom run confess— An agent (or background clone) writes an honesty self-eval. A spawned calibrator reads the target's transcript independently. A judge compares both reports and sends back a verdict via hcom message. -
hcom run debate— A judge spawns and sets up a debate with existing agents. It coordinates rounds in a shared thread where all agents see each other's arguments, with shared context of workspace files and transcripts. -
hcom run fatcow— headless agent reads every file in a path, subscribes to file edit events to stay current, and answers other agents on demand. -
hcom run onidle— waits for an agent to go idle, then types text into another agent (hcom run onidle luna nova 'luna is done, review it') or launches a new one with it as the prompt (hcom run onidle luna codex 'review what luna just did').
Custom scripts: drop *.sh or *.py into ~/.hcom/scripts/ — auto-discovered, override bundled scripts of the same name. Ask an agent to author one; hcom run docs --scripts is the authoring guide.
Troubleshoot and Uninstall
Troubleshoot
hcom status # diagnostics
hcom reset all # clear and archive: database + hooks + config
Uninstall
Safely remove all hcom hooks:
hcom hooks remove
Then remove binary:
brew uninstall hcom
# or: uv tool uninstall hcom
# or: rm "$(which hcom)"
Contributing
Issues and PRs welcome. Build from source and dev setup: CONTRIBUTING.md
License
Metadata
Release files for hcom 0.7.31
For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.
Built distributions (wheels)
Total release size: 56.7 MB
Release files / hcom-0.7.31-py3-none-win_amd64.whl
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