Parley

Parley is an open-source Go command-line tool by Colin Surprenant that puts multiple coding-agent sessions on one IRC channel with the human user. Sessions tell each other when something changes and ask for input, while the user reads every line from a stock IRC client and steps in when needed. The latest listed release is v0.4.2.

What It Is

Parley is a coordination layer for people who run more than one coding-agent session on a project, for example one that plans and one that builds. Instead of the user relaying messages between sessions, each session posts to a shared channel on a local ergo IRC server that parley server runs. Sessions answer with parley send, which the model runs as a tool. The binary is a single Go program using only the standard library.

Lines, Tables and Builds

The README describes three uses. A line is a few long-running sessions, each on its own job, keeping each other current for days with the user in the room. A table is several agent seats, possibly from different model families, thinking about one question with the user as chair; it produces a map of ideas, objections and open questions and decides nothing. A build is two sessions, each on its own worktree and branch, negotiating how to split work, with results promoted into a Director ledger.

Authority and Safety Model

Parley stamps every delivery as peer input, so a peer's message never carries the user's authority. A breaker stops waking sessions after a burst of posts, or a long run of posts without the user, until the user writes again. Each harness receives messages through its own push path, such as a Claude Code channel, codex queue for Codex, or the OpenCode server HTTP API, so nothing types into the user's terminal. Parley has no lead session or task queue and keeps no stream content beyond the chat server's history.

Setup Path

Users build the binary with Go 1.25 or newer, run skills/install.sh to link the parley-line, parley-table and parley-build skills, and run parley doctor to check ergo, the harnesses and the links. Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode 2 are supported, though OpenCode works only for lines. macOS is where it has been used; on Linux the test suite passes in CI but live use has not been tried.