brigade

What Brigade actually tracks

Brigade is a local file first control plane for coding agents. It keeps work trackable across tools, repositories, and sessions by recording tasks, receipts, shared memory, and synced tools. There is no Brigade daemon, and the work ledger is machine local JSON rather than a distributed task database. The stable release is version 0.26.1, installed as brigade-cli, and the current main branch is a 0.27 beta that adds per repository parallel safe work waves, cross repository ready work campaigns, memory operations, activity and cloud status, code graph views, bounded recall, and declared budgets. The core capabilities in the stable release are ready work with atomic claims so two agents cannot take the same item, verification receipts that record the command, the real exit code, and the Git state, and an explicit dry run first harness projection that previews MCP servers, tools, and skills before writing them. Owner mediated handoffs and bounded recall route notes by memory owner, with safe targeted notes auto filed and ambiguous or risky notes waiting for review. Learning in Brigade is outcome based skill scoring, promotion, and rollback from captured verification receipts, and the README is clear that this is not autonomous reflective memory learning. The project is written in Python with a Rust code graph engine and a Go evidence log engine, and it is MIT licensed.

How work and memory stay consistent

Brigade lists unblocked tasks and uses atomic claims so two agents cannot take the same item, which the README calls fail closed compare and swap claims. The 0.27 beta enforces declared wall clock and worker dispatch ceilings and reconciles registered cloud work against provider and GitHub state. A check run through Brigade writes a verification receipt with the command, the real exit code, and the Git state, although not every Brigade command writes a receipt. Handoffs are linted and routed by the memory owner, and safe targeted notes may auto file while ambiguous or risky notes wait for review. The 0.27 beta adds capped session start recall so memory does not overflow the context. The README compares Brigade with neighboring projects across work and orchestration, memory, tools and configuration, and evidence and operations, and it is honest about where a neighbor is stronger. For example it notes that Beads has a Dolt backed distributed store while Brigade uses local JSON files with no shared store, and that Hindsight has reflective memory learning while Brigade's learning is outcome based from receipts. Brigade's scope section states it is not a hosted memory service, not an automatic release bot, and not a full autonomous fleet runtime, and it does not push to GitHub, publish packages, or send chat messages unless the operator uses an explicit send action.

Installing and fitting it into a workflow

Installation uses pipx install brigade-cli or uv tool install brigade-cli, after which you follow the install guide, the QUICKSTART, or the first ten minutes and agents guide documents. The stable channel is the published 0.26.1 release, and the preview channel is reached with brigade update --channel beta for 0.27 development wheels. Brigade is a local file first control plane with no daemon, and scheduling stays external except for optional operator owned, target scoped care registrations through brigade care install. Ordinary runs have no hard run budget unless one is declared, and when declared only wall clock and worker dispatch ceilings are enforced today, while model, tool, token, and cost dimensions stay observed unless an adapter owns an enforcement boundary. Campaigns aggregate ready work across repositories and compose parallel safe waves at query time from each member's per repository partition, and the center is read only. The README also clarifies a name collision: this is brigade-cli from escoffier-labs/brigade, not the archived CNCF or Microsoft Kubernetes Brigade, the Spinabot Brigade, or the 2017 Python package that became Nornir. Documentation covers an overview, technical guide, comparison, execution model, work closeout, outcome scoring, memory care, memory operations, code intelligence, MCP sync, an agents guide, security, and a command inventory.

Editorial conclusion

Brigade is a local file first control plane for coding agents, licensed under MIT and installed as brigade-cli version 0.26.1. It records tasks, verification receipts, and shared memory in machine local JSON with no daemon.