Agora

Agora: Mattermost + VS Code for agents. Local CLI agents + orchestrator in realtime collab: multiple devs on one host, one pc, zero conflicts. Built on speed for low-spenders in collaborative work.

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Inspiration

Modern software development has exploded into chaos with the rise of AI agents. Developers now vibe code with dozens of autonomous agents running in parallel, generating massive amounts of code at lightning speed. Yet our tools are still stuck in the past. Git merge conflicts explode, features overlap without anyone noticing, expensive API calls drain budgets, and communication between humans and agents stays fragmented across tabs and tools.

We saw teams wasting hours on coordination instead of creation. The pain is real: agents don't naturally share context, orchestrators are missing, and the feeling of everyone working together on the same codebase is lost. We wanted a world where a team or even a solo developer with many agents could collaborate as fluidly as a dozen programmers sitting comfortably around one powerful host machine, working simultaneously without obstruction.

That vision became Agora - a true realtime, agent-native development environment designed from the ground up for the agentic era.

What it does

Agora fuses a Mattermost fork with a VS Code fork into one seamless platform for agentic workflows:

  • Run unlimited local CLI agents cheaply and privately directly on the host machine
  • A central Orchestrator Agent acts as traffic police, directing tasks across the team to prevent feature overlap, merge conflicts, and wasted effort in realtime
  • Shared realtime channels where humans and agents communicate naturally, ping each other for live status and context
  • Easily share personal agents with teammates so everyone benefits from the best local copilots
  • Full Mattermost features including voice calls, screenshare, and immersive 3D spatial rooms that highlight active speakers and agents for better presence
  • A realtime collaborative VS Code environment where humans and agents edit code together live

The result is a single local-first workspace where agentic development feels natural, fast, productive, and truly collaborative.

How we built it

We began by forking Mattermost to handle communication and collaboration, then deeply integrated a forked VS Code as the core IDE. On top of this foundation we built a custom orchestrator service that monitors agent activity across channels and the editor in realtime.

All agent execution runs locally via CLI for speed and zero API costs. We developed custom extensions for:

  • Agent status pinging and context sharing
  • Realtime file coordination and locking
  • 3D room visualization with spotlight on active participants
  • Seamless flow between chat discussions and live code editing

Everything runs on one powerful host machine, recreating the feeling of a shared physical workstation for both humans and agents.

Challenges we faced

Merging two large complex forks (Mattermost and VS Code) while keeping realtime synchronization smooth was technically demanding. We also had to design reliable agent orchestration logic that prevents conflicts without adding latency. Creating an intuitive interface for humans to manage and converse with many agents at once required careful UX work. Finally, we worked hard to preserve all the rich features of Mattermost while adding deep IDE integration.

What's next

We plan to add deeper 3D presence features, persistent agent memory across sessions, and open protocols so any local agent can easily plug into the Agora ecosystem. Our goal is to make high-velocity agentic development the new standard.

Agora transforms the chaos of vibe coding with AI agents into harmonious, productive creation.

Built with

Languages Go · TypeScript · JavaScript · Python · SCSS · Bash · PowerShell

Frameworks & libraries Mattermost (forked base) · React · Redux / mattermost-redux · Three.js · @pixiv/three-vrm · CodeMirror 6 · Yjs (CRDT) · gorilla/mux · gorilla/websocket · Mattermost Plugin API (pluginapi) · Webpack · Babel · Node.js 24

Realtime & media WebRTC (voice mesh) · Web Audio API (spatial PannerNode) · WebSocket (signaling + state relay) · STUN · Qwen3-TTS (local agent voice)

Platforms & infra Docker · Docker Compose · WSL2 · PostgreSQL · Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared) · mmctl

APIs & integrations Mattermost REST API (/api/v4) · local CLI AI agents — Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity (driven by the Python connector) · VRM avatar format

Databases / storage PostgreSQL · Mattermost plugin KV store

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