flock is a free, open source version control & collaboration project written in Go and released under MIT. It has 506 GitHub stars, 5 forks and 2 open issues, and was last pushed 3 days ago. On this registry it ranks #35 of 37 tracked projects in Version Control & Collaboration, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available.

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Flock

Run a Claude Code AI dev team on your server and drive it from chat. Describe a feature in Telegram, VK or LO; the team plans it, builds it on a branch, tests it, reviews it, and opens a PR — each chat in its own isolated workspace.

CI License: MIT Go 1.26 image: ghcr.io

It runs on your Claude Pro/Max subscription (no per-token billing) or an Anthropic API key, ships as prebuilt Docker images (no build step), and keeps every chat in its own sandboxed workspace.

Quick start (Docker)

git clone https://github.com/duckbugio/flock
cd flock/adapters/telegram
cp .env.example .env        # fill in the REQUIRED block (4 values)
docker compose up -d

That pulls the prebuilt image ghcr.io/duckbugio/flock-telegram — no build, no Ansible — then message your bot. The minimum .env:

Variable What
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN from @BotFather
TELEGRAM_BOT_USERNAME your bot's @username (no @)
ALLOWED_USERS comma-separated Telegram user IDs allowed to use the bot
CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN claude setup-token (subscription) — or set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

Everything else in .env.example has sensible defaults. Update later with docker compose pull && docker compose up -d.

Region: host in an Anthropic-supported region (some countries, e.g. RU/CN, are geo-blocked) — otherwise Claude calls fail.

VK is the same pattern under adapters/vk/, built on the same core and published as ghcr.io/duckbugio/flock-vk. It ships only an env template (no compose file): cp .env.example .env, then docker run --env-file .env ghcr.io/duckbugio/flock-vk. Claude auth and core settings match Telegram; only the three transport vars change:

Variable What
VK_BOT_TOKEN community access token (VK community → Manage → API usage → access token)
VK_GROUP_ID your community's numeric id (long-poll server + mention parse)
VK_ALLOWED_USERS comma-separated VK user IDs allowed to use the bot

LO has a text-first adapter with its own allow-list and workspace namespace. Its image is published as ghcr.io/duckbugio/flock-lo; start it using adapters/lo/. The LO entry point supports interrupted-run recovery, optional CI watch and Gitea PR-comment polling restricted to its own checked-out branches. Voice input uses the shared transcription providers when enabled. See the LO / Telegram compatibility audit for supported commands, optional streaming, and platform gaps.

Highlights

  • The conversation is the task source — describe what you want in chat and review the PR that comes back; the agent's shell and editor are sandboxed inside the container.
  • A real dev-team pipeline, not a single prompt — spec-first acceptance criteria, build/regression gates, and an arbiter that breaks loops.
  • Autonomy loops — the bot verifies its own "done" by re-running the repo's check gate itself; /goal arms an independent evaluator that loops the team until your criterion actually holds; /schedule runs recurring jobs; an optional CI watch reacts to red builds (and can auto-merge green PRs) — all under a per-chat daily autonomy budget. See Autonomy loops.
  • Multi-transportTelegram, VK and a text-first LO adapter on the same core; a new platform is a thin adapter, not a fork.
  • PR reactions without inbound webhooks — the bot polls your git host for new review comments and routes each back to the chat that opened the PR.
  • Subscription-friendly — authenticate with a Claude Pro/Max token (no per-token cost) or an Anthropic API key.

How it works

You (in a chat): "implement X across the api + web services"
  → bot's Claude (Lead) → planner → confirm scope → coder ⇄ tester → PR per repo
                                                      → reviewer (inline comments) ⇄ coder → arbiter
                                                                                        ├ APPROVE → you merge
                                                                                        └ ESCALATE → asks you

The five subagents — planner → coder → tester → reviewer → arbiter — run as native Claude Code subagents in core/agents/. A plain question is just answered; a build request triggers the team. The arbiter is the risk-aware, cycle-limited loop-breaker so agents never spin forever. Branches are named duck// so PR-webhook/poll events route back to the right chat.

The team is built for a microservices workspace: a feature can span several services, and it coordinates branches and one cross-linked PR per repo. The full pipeline, guardrails, and role table live in core/README.md.

Autonomy loops

Four opt-in loops move you up the delegation ladder — from "the agent checks its own work" to "the agent runs without you" — each with a hard stop condition (env keys in .env.example):

  • Post-run verification (ENABLE_POST_VERIFY, default on) — after a run reports done, the bot itself re-runs the changed repos' own check gate (task/make/npm check/test/lint) and, on red, sends the team back with the real failure output — up to POST_VERIFY_MAX_FIXES consecutive rounds. The agent's "tests pass" is verified, not trusted.
  • /goal evaluator/goal all list views paginate correctly arms a goal; after every completed run an independent, fresh-session judge (no shared context with the working session) inspects the workspace, re-runs checks, and returns a strict verdict. Not met → the unmet points are injected back as a fix-up; met → 🎯 and the goal disarms. Bounded by GOAL_MAX_ATTEMPTS; EVALUATOR_MODEL can pick a cheaper judge; /goal off disarms.
  • /schedule cron jobs — durable per-chat recurring prompts with per-chat timezones (see the SCHEDULER block in .env.example); fired as normal team runs, gated by the creator's allow-list status and cost cap at fire time.
  • CI watch (ENABLE_CI_WATCH) — polls CI state on the duck/* branches (GitHub check-runs or Gitea commit status). A red build injects "CI is red — fix and push" into the owning chat; a green build wakes the chat too, so "I'll report when CI finishes" actually happens — each once per commit. With ENABLE_AUTO_MERGE=true a green PR is merged automatically — the full hands-off mode; leave it false to keep the human merge.

Runs can also legally come back later: writing followup/.md (content = the prompt) schedules a durable one-shot return — and a promise nudge fires one corrective run whenever a final answer says "I'll report back" without scheduling anything that actually would, so the bot stops going silent on its own promises.

Two safety rails apply across all of it: AUTO_TASK_MAX_COST_PER_DAY caps what autonomy-originated runs may spend per chat per day (direct messages are unaffected), and AUTO_APPROVE_SCOPE controls which planner complexities may skip the "confirm scope & wait" step (off by default).

Repo layout (monorepo)

The platform-agnostic dev-team brain lives in core/; each platform is a thin adapter under adapters// that shares it.

Adapter Path Prebuilt image
Telegram adapters/telegram/ ghcr.io/duckbugio/flock-telegram
VK adapters/vk/ ghcr.io/duckbugio/flock-vk
LO adapters/lo/ ghcr.io/duckbugio/flock-lo

Future platforms reuse the same core — see docs/multi-transport-plan.md.

Connect a git host (optional but core)

Set these in .env to let the team clone repos and open PRs (works with Gitea/GitHub/GitLab):

GIT_HOST=git.example.com
GIT_USER=...
GIT_TOKEN=...                 # write-scoped PAT
GIT_AUTHOR_NAME=AI Team
[email protected]
# Poll the host for new PR comments (reliable; no inbound webhook needed):
GITEA_API_URL=https://git.example.com/api/v1
GITEA_POLL_INTERVAL=90

For github.com, also set GH_TOKEN (= your GIT_TOKEN) so

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is flock free to use?

flock is open source under the MIT licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does flock do?

Autonomous AI dev-team bot

What is flock written in?

flock is primarily written in Go. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/duckbugio/flock, and it has 506 GitHub stars.