middleman

[!IMPORTANT] Middleman is being superseded by bb, an agentic IDE that orchestrates Claude Code, Codex, and Pi in long-lived threads you can follow live and steer at any turn. Try it with npx bb-app@latest, then open http://localhost:38886. Requires Node 22.12.0+ on macOS/Linux, or Windows via WSL2.

👔 Middleman

A local-first multi-agent orchestration platform. One manager, many workers, zero tab-juggling.

[!WARNING] Middleman is pre-v1, experimental, and updated constantly. Expect breaking changes.

If you're using agentic coding tools, you've probably hit this wall: you start with one agent, then two, then five. You're branching, worktree-ing, reviewing, merging, context-switching. The agents are cranking out code. But your entire day is spent managing them, sequencing work, checking output, nudging things along.

You're not an IC anymore. You've become a project manager. You need a middle manager.

Middleman gives you one. You talk to a single persistent manager agent per project. You describe what needs to be done, whether it's a feature, a batch of bug fixes, or a refactor, and the manager dispatches workers, parallelizes where it makes sense, and surfaces only the things that need your attention.

Quick Start

npx middleman-app

That's it. Open http://localhost:47187, go to Settings, sign in with your OpenAI or Anthropic key, create a new manager, and start talking.

Development

git clone https://github.com/SawyerHood/middleman.git
cd middleman
pnpm i
pnpm dev
# http://127.0.0.1:47187

Key Features

• Persistent managers. Onboard once, work for days. Managers remember your preferences, workflow, and project context across sessions via compacting memory.
• Worker dispatch. The manager spawns workers (Codex, Pi/Opus, etc.) and routes messages between them. You describe work at a high level; it handles the breakdown.
• Parallel execution. Dump a list of tasks and the manager figures out what can run concurrently.
• Dashboard. A Conductor-style UI for watching agents work, chatting with your manager, and managing settings.
• Skills & automation. Built-in skills for web search, image generation, browser automation, cron scheduling, and more. Extensible via the pi skill system.

Architecture

Middleman is three things running on your machine:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Dashboard UI (TanStack + Vite SPA)         │
│  Chat, agent status, settings, artifacts    │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                   │ WebSocket
┌──────────────────▼──────────────────────────┐
│  Backend Daemon (Node.js)                   │
│  HTTP + WS server, agent orchestration,     │
│  message routing, persistence, scheduler    │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                   │ spawns & messages
┌──────────────────▼──────────────────────────┐
│  Agents (pi / Codex)                        │
│  Manager → Workers → Merger                 │
│  Each in its own worktree                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

• apps/backend is the daemon. HTTP + WebSocket server, swarm orchestration runtime, persistence, and scheduler.
• apps/ui is the dashboard. Real-time agent monitoring, chat interface, and settings management.
• The manager agent is built on pi, is event-driven, and never blocks. Always ready for the next message.

How It Works in Practice

1. Create a manager for your project from the dashboard.
2. Onboard it by chatting. Tell it your preferred workflow, what tools to use, how you want work sequenced.
3. Dump tasks on it. A feature spec, a list of bugs, a vague idea.
4. The manager spawns workers, assigns tasks, and orchestrates execution in parallel where possible.
5. You review when you want, or let it roll.

A Note

This is a vibecoded project. It's here to inspire, not to be a polished product. Fork it, tear it apart, or use it as a starting point to build your own middle manager.

License

Apache-2.0