TORCH
TORCH turns a Git repository into a persistent, coordinated team of domain-specialized AI development sessions.
The new TORCH is being extracted from the agent-fleet operating model proven
in COMBATRIG. It is local-first, provider-independent, worktree-isolated, and
designed to manage its own development. The former Nostr lock/scheduler product
is preserved on the legacy/nostr-torch branch and is not part of this
architecture.
Current status
The rewrite is under active development on rewrite/portable-agent-fleet.
Stage 1 currently provides the first portable kernel:
- read-only Git repository inspection;
- repository inventory and check discovery;
- evidence-linked architecture graphs and domain-collision proposals;
- owner-reviewed organizational proposals required before installation;
- explicit install approval;
- tracked
.torch/project configuration; - XDG-local runtime state;
- installation ownership manifest;
- health diagnostics;
- conservative, reversible purge.
Session orchestration, worktree generation, messaging, checks, integration, runtime adapters, self-hosting, and the Fleet Console remain staged work.
The canonical architecture and delivery plan is docs/PORTABLE_AGENT_FLEET_SPEC.md.
Development
Requirements:
- Node.js 22 or later
- Git
Run the current verification suite:
npm test
npm run lint
npm run check
Inspect a repository without modifying it:
node bin/torch.mjs init --json
node bin/torch.mjs analyze --json
node bin/torch.mjs domains --output fleet-proposal.json --json
Review the evidence in fleet-proposal.json, edit its review.status to
approved, and identify the reviewer. Then inspect and apply the installation:
node bin/torch.mjs install --proposal fleet-proposal.json --dry-run --json
node bin/torch.mjs install --proposal fleet-proposal.json --yes --json
node bin/torch.mjs doctor --json
The alpha kernel is not yet a working multi-agent fleet. Its install format may change before the first usable release.
Product principles
- Git is required; GitHub is optional.
- The repository is durable organizational memory; chat sessions are workers.
- Every persistent domain owns one branch and one worktree.
- Every domain has explicit scope and explicit exclusions.
- Peers coordinate directly; the Session Manager controls priority and ownership.
- Monitoring may be automatic; active worktrees are changed intentionally.
- Verification belongs to an exact commit.
- The TORCH engine runs outside the repository it manages.
- Installation is reversible and refuses unsafe deletion.
- Stable TORCH must be able to build its successor.
License
MIT