tether-ai 0.2.5

Control your AI coding agents from your phone when you're away from your desk

Tether Agent

Control your AI coding agents from your phone when you're away from your desk.

You start a coding agent, walk away for lunch, and come back to find it stuck waiting for input for an hour. Tether fixes that. Get notified when your agent needs you, respond from anywhere.

Features

• Local-first — Runs on your machine, your data stays yours
• Multi-agent — Supports Claude and Codex, more to come
• Web UI — Monitor sessions from your phone or desktop
• External Agent API — WebSocket and REST API for connecting any AI agent
• Messaging Platform Integrations — Telegram, Slack, and Discord bridges
• MCP Server — Model Context Protocol server for Claude Desktop and other MCP clients
• No API keys required — Uses Claude / Codex local OAuth by default

Installation

pip install tether-ai

Optional Platform Integrations

Install platform-specific dependencies as needed:

# Telegram bridge
pip install tether-ai[telegram]

# Slack bridge
pip install tether-ai[slack]

# Discord bridge
pip install tether-ai[discord]

# All bridges
pip install tether-ai[telegram,slack,discord]

# Development tools
pip install tether-ai[dev]

Quick Start

Run the Agent Server

# Start the server
tether start

Then open http://localhost:8787 in your browser.

Use with MCP (Claude Desktop)

Add Tether as an MCP server in your Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tether": {
      "command": "tether-mcp",
      "env": {
        "TETHER_API_URL": "http://localhost:8787"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Set environment variables to configure:

Variable	Description	Default
TETHER_AGENT_HOST	Host to bind to	0.0.0.0
TETHER_AGENT_PORT	Port to listen on	8787
TETHER_AGENT_TOKEN	Auth token (optional; if set, API/UI/MCP require bearer auth)	—
TETHER_AGENT_DEV_MODE	Enable dev mode (no token required)	0
TETHER_AGENT_ADAPTER	AI adapter to use	claude_auto
TETHER_AGENT_DATA_DIR	Data storage directory	./data

AI Adapters

Adapter	Description
claude_auto	Auto-detect (prefer OAuth, fallback to API key)
claude_subprocess	Claude via Agent SDK in subprocess (CLI OAuth)
claude_api	Claude via API key (set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY)
codex_sdk_sidecar	Codex via sidecar

Messaging Platform Bridges

Configure bridges to get notifications on your preferred platform:

Telegram

export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN="your_bot_token"
export TELEGRAM_FORUM_GROUP_ID="your_group_id"

Slack

export SLACK_BOT_TOKEN="xoxb-your-token"
export SLACK_CHANNEL_ID="C01234567"

Discord

export DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN="your_bot_token"
export DISCORD_CHANNEL_ID="1234567890"

External Agent API

Tether exposes a WebSocket and REST API for external agents to connect and interact with users through messaging platforms.

REST API Endpoints

Create a Session

POST /external/sessions
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "agent_metadata": {
    "name": "My Custom Agent",
    "type": "custom",
    "icon": "🤖",
    "workspace": "my-workspace"
  },
  "session_name": "Code Review Task",
  "platform": "telegram"
}

Response:

{
  "session_id": "sess_abc123",
  "platform": "telegram",
  "thread_info": {
    "thread_id": "123456",
    "platform": "telegram"
  }
}

Send Output

POST /external/sessions/{session_id}/output
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "text": "Agent output text here",
  "metadata": {}
}

Request Approval

POST /external/sessions/{session_id}/approval
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "title": "Approve Changes?",
  "description": "Ready to commit these changes",
  "options": ["Approve", "Reject", "Review"]
}

Check for Input

GET /external/sessions/{session_id}/input?timeout=30

Response:

{
  "type": "human_input",
  "data": {
    "text": "User's message",
    "timestamp": "2025-01-01T12:00:00Z"
  }
}

WebSocket API

Connect to /external/sessions/{session_id}/ws for bidirectional communication:

Agent → Tether events:

• output: Send text output to user
• approval_request: Request user approval
• status: Update agent status (thinking, executing, done, error)

Tether → Agent events:

• human_input: User sent a message
• approval_response: User responded to approval request

Example WebSocket message:

{
  "type": "output",
  "data": {
    "text": "Processing your request...",
    "metadata": {}
  }
}

Development

Run Tests

pytest tests/

Database Migrations

# Create a new migration
alembic revision --autogenerate -m "description"

# Apply migrations
alembic upgrade head

Documentation

For full documentation, see github.com/larsderidder/tether.

License

Apache 2.0. See LICENSE for details.