Agent Coordinator

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables multiple AI agents to coordinate their work seamlessly across codebases without conflicts. Built with Elixir for reliability and fault tolerance.

🎯 What is Agent Coordinator?

Agent Coordinator is a MCP proxy server that enables multiple AI agents to collaborate seamlessly without conflicts. As shown in the architecture diagram above, it acts as a single MCP interface that proxies ALL tool calls through itself, ensuring every agent maintains full project awareness while the coordinator tracks real-time agent presence.

The coordinator operates as a transparent proxy layer:

• Single Interface: All agents connect to one MCP server (the coordinator)
• Proxy Architecture: Every tool call flows through the coordinator to external MCP servers
• Presence Tracking: Each proxied tool call updates agent heartbeat and task status
• Project Awareness: All agents see the same unified view of project state through the proxy

This proxy design orchestrates four core components:

• Task Registry: Intelligent task queuing, agent matching, and automatic progress tracking
• Agent Manager: Agent registration, heartbeat monitoring, and capability-based assignment
• Codebase Registry: Cross-repository coordination, dependency management, and workspace organization
• Unified Tool Registry: Seamlessly proxies external MCP tools while adding coordination capabilities

Instead of agents conflicting over files or duplicating work, they connect through a single MCP proxy interface that routes ALL tool calls through the coordinator. This ensures every tool usage updates agent presence, tracks coordinated tasks, and maintains real-time project awareness across all agents via shared task boards and agent inboxes.

Key Features:

• 🔄 MCP Proxy Architecture: Single server that proxies ALL external MCP servers for unified agent access
• 👁️ Real-Time Activity Tracking: Live visibility into agent activities: "Reading file.ex", "Editing main.py", "Sequential thinking"
• 📡 Real-Time Presence Tracking: Every tool call updates agent status and project awareness
• 📁 File-Level Coordination: Track exactly which files each agent is working on to prevent conflicts
• 📜 Activity History: Rolling log of recent agent actions with timestamps and file details
• 🤖 Multi-Agent Coordination: Register multiple AI agents (GitHub Copilot, Claude, etc.) with different capabilities
• 🎯 Transparent Tool Routing: Automatically routes tool calls to appropriate external servers while tracking usage
• 📝 Automatic Task Creation: Every tool usage becomes a tracked task with agent coordination context
• ⚡ Full Project Awareness: All agents see unified project state through the proxy layer
• 📡 External Server Management: Automatically starts, monitors, and manages MCP servers defined in mcp_servers.json
• 🛠️ Universal Tool Registry: Proxies tools from all external servers while adding native coordination tools
• 🔌 Dynamic Tool Discovery: Automatically discovers new tools when external servers start/restart
• 🎮 Cross-Codebase Support: Coordinate work across multiple repositories and projects
• 🔌 MCP Standard Compliance: Works with any MCP-compatible AI agent or tool

🚀 How It Works

The Agent Coordinator acts as a transparent MCP proxy server that routes ALL tool calls through itself to maintain agent presence and provide full project awareness. Every external MCP server is proxied through the coordinator, ensuring unified agent coordination.

🔄 Proxy Architecture Flow

1. Agent Registration: Multiple AI agents (Purple Zebra, Yellow Elephant, etc.) register with their capabilities
2. External Server Discovery: Coordinator automatically starts and discovers tools from external MCP servers
3. Unified Proxy Interface: All tools (native + external) are available through a single MCP interface
4. Transparent Tool Routing: ALL tool calls proxy through coordinator → external servers → coordinator → agents
5. Presence Tracking: Every proxied tool call updates agent heartbeat and task status
6. Project Awareness: All agents maintain unified project state through the proxy layer

👁️ Real-Time Activity Tracking - FANTASTIC Feature! 🎉

See exactly what every agent is doing in real-time! The coordinator intelligently tracks and displays agent activities as they happen:

🎯 Live Activity Examples

{
  "agent_id": "github-copilot-purple-elephant",
  "name": "GitHub Copilot Purple Elephant",
  "current_activity": "Reading mix.exs",
  "current_files": ["/home/ra/agent_coordinator/mix.exs"],
  "activity_history": [
    {
      "activity": "Reading mix.exs",
      "files": ["/home/ra/agent_coordinator/mix.exs"],
      "timestamp": "2025-09-06T16:41:09.193087Z"
    },
    {
      "activity": "Sequential thinking: Analyzing the current codebase structure...",
      "files": [],
      "timestamp": "2025-09-06T16:41:05.123456Z"
    },
    {
      "activity": "Editing agent.ex",
      "files": ["/home/ra/agent_coordinator/lib/agent_coordinator/agent.ex"],
      "timestamp": "2025-09-06T16:40:58.987654Z"
    }
  ]
}

🚀 Activity Types Tracked

• 📂 File Operations: "Reading config.ex", "Editing main.py", "Writing README.md", "Creating new_feature.js"
• 🧠 Thinking Activities: "Sequential thinking: Analyzing the problem...", "Having a sequential thought..."
• 🔍 Search Operations: "Searching for 'function'", "Semantic search for 'authentication'"
• ⚡ Terminal Commands: "Running: mix test...", "Checking terminal output"
• 🛠️ VS Code Actions: "VS Code: set editor content", "Viewing active editor in VS Code"
• 🧪 Testing: "Running tests in user_test.exs", "Running all tests"
• 📊 Task Management: "Creating task: Fix bug", "Getting next task", "Completing current task"
• 🌐 Web Operations: "Fetching 3 webpages", "Getting library docs for React"

🎯 Benefits

• 🚫 Prevent File Conflicts: See which files are being edited by which agents
• 👥 Coordinate Team Work: Know when agents are working on related tasks
• 🐛 Debug Agent Behavior: Track what agents did before encountering issues
• 📈 Monitor Progress: Watch real-time progress across multiple agents
• 🔄 Optimize Workflows: Identify bottlenecks and coordination opportunities

Every tool call automatically updates the agent's activity - no configuration needed! 🫡😸

🏗️ Architecture Components

Core Coordinator Components:

• Task Registry: Intelligent task queuing, agent matching, and progress tracking
• Agent Manager: Registration, heartbeat monitoring, and capability-based assignment
• Codebase Registry: Cross-repository coordination and workspace management
• Unified Tool Registry: Combines native coordination tools with external MCP tools

External Integration:

• MCP Servers: Filesystem, Memory, Context7, Sequential Thinking, and more
• VS Code Integration: Direct editor commands and workspace management
• Real-Time Dashboard: Live task board showing agent status and progress

Example Proxy Tool Call Flow:

Agent calls "read_file" → Coordinator proxies to filesystem server →
Updates agent presence + task tracking → Returns file content to agent

Result: All other agents now aware of the file access via task board

🔧 MCP Server Management & Unified Tool Registry

Agent Coordinator acts as a unified MCP proxy server that manages multiple external MCP servers while providing its own coordination capabilities. This creates a single, powerful interface for AI agents to access hundreds of tools seamlessly.

📡 External Server Management

The coordinator automatically manages external MCP servers based on configuration in mcp_servers.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "mcp_filesystem": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/home/ra"],
      "auto_restart": true,
      "description": "Filesystem operations server"
    },
    "mcp_memory": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-memory"],
      "auto_restart": true,
      "description": "Memory and knowledge graph server"
    },
    "mcp_figma": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:3845/mcp",
      "auto_restart": true,
      "description": "Figma design integration server"
    }
  },
  "config": {
    "startup_timeout": 30000,
    "heartbeat_interval": 10000,
    "auto_restart_delay": 1000,
    "max_restart_attempts": 3
  }
}

Server Lifecycle Management:

1. 🚀 Startup: Reads config and spawns each external server process
2. 🔍 Discovery: Sends MCP initialize and tools/list requests to discover available tools
3. 📋 Registration: Adds discovered tools to the unified tool registry
4. 💓 Monitoring: Continuously monitors server health and heartbeat
5. 🔄 Auto-Restart: Automatically restarts failed servers (if configured)
6. 🛡️ Cleanup: Properly terminates processes and cleans up resources on shutdown

🛠️ Unified Tool Registry

The coordinator combines tools from multiple sources into a single, coherent interface:

Native Coordination Tools:

• register_agent - Register agents with capabilities
• create_task - Create coordination tasks
• get_next_task - Get assigned tasks
• complete_task - Mark tasks complete
• get_task_board - View all agent status
• heartbeat - Maintain agent liveness

External Server Tools (Auto-Discovered):

• Filesystem: read_file, write_file, list_directory, search_files
• Memory: search_nodes, store_memory, recall_information
• Context7: get-library-docs, search-docs, get-library-info
• Figma: get_code, get_designs, fetch_assets
• Sequential Thinking: sequentialthinking, analyze_problem
• VS Code: run_command, install_extension, open_file, create_task

Dynamic Discovery Process:

1. 🚀 Startup: Agent Coordinator starts external MCP server process
2. 🤝 Initialize: Sends MCP initialize request → Server responds with capabilities
3. 📋 Discovery: Sends tools/list request → Server returns available tools
4. ✅ Registration: Adds discovered tools to unified tool registry

This process repeats automatically when servers restart or new servers are added.

🎯 Intelligent Tool Routing

When an AI agent calls a tool, the coordinator intelligently routes the request:

Routing Logic:

1. Native Tools: Handled directly by Agent Coordinator modules
2. External Tools: Routed to the appropriate external MCP server
3. VS Code Tools: Routed to integrated VS Code Tool Provider
4. Unknown Tools: Return helpful error with available alternatives

Automatic Task Tracking:

• Every tool call automatically creates or updates agent tasks
• Maintains context of what agents are working on
• Provides visibility into cross-agent coordination
• Enables intelligent task distribution and conflict prevention

Example Tool Call Flow:

Agent calls "read_file" → Coordinator routes to filesystem server →
Updates agent task → Sends heartbeat → Returns file content

🛠️ Prerequisites

Choose one of these installation methods:

Option 1: Docker (Recommended - No Elixir Installation Required)

• Docker: 20.10+ and Docker Compose
• Node.js: 18+ (for external MCP servers via bun)

Option 2: Manual Installation

• Elixir: 1.16+ with OTP 26+
• Mix: Comes with Elixir installation
• Node.js: 18+ (for external MCP servers via bun)

⚡ Quick Start

Option A: Docker Setup (Easiest)

1. Get the Code

git clone https://github.com/your-username/agent_coordinator.git
cd agent_coordinator

2. Run with Docker Compose

# Start the full stack (MCP server + NATS + monitoring)
docker-compose up -d

# Or start just the MCP server
docker-compose up agent-coordinator

# Check logs
docker-compose logs -f agent-coordinator

3. Configuration

Edit mcp_servers.json to configure external MCP servers, then restart:

docker-compose restart agent-coordinator

Option B: Manual Setup

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/agent_coordinator.git
cd agent_coordinator
mix deps.get

2. Start the MCP Server

# Start the MCP server directly
./scripts/mcp_launcher.sh

# Or in development mode
mix run --no-halt

3. Configure Your AI Tools

For Docker Setup

If using Docker, the MCP server is available at the container's stdio interface. Add this to your VS Code settings.json:

{
  "github.copilot.advanced": {
    "mcp": {
      "servers": {
        "agent-coordinator": {
          "command": "docker",
          "args": ["exec", "-i", "agent-coordinator", "/app/scripts/mcp_launcher.sh"],
          "env": {
            "MIX_ENV": "prod"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

For Manual Setup

Add this to your VS Code settings.json:

{
  "github.copilot.advanced": {
    "mcp": {
      "servers": {
        "agent-coordinator": {
          "command": "/path/to/agent_coordinator/scripts/mcp_launcher.sh",
          "args": [],
          "env": {
            "MIX_ENV": "dev"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
  }
}

4. Test It Works

Docker Testing

# Test with Docker
docker-compose exec agent-coordinator /app/bin/agent_coordinator ping

# Run example (if available in container)
docker-compose exec agent-coordinator mix run examples/full_workflow_demo.exs

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f agent-coordinator

Manual Testing

# Run the demo to see it in action
mix run examples/full_workflow_demo.exs

🐳 Docker Usage Guide

Available Docker Commands

Basic Operations

# Build the image
docker build -t agent-coordinator .

# Run standalone container
docker run -d --name agent-coordinator -p 4000:4000 agent-coordinator

# Run with custom config
docker run -d \
  -v ./mcp_servers.json:/app/mcp_servers.json:ro \
  -p 4000:4000 \
  agent-coordinator

Docker Compose Operations

# Start full stack
docker-compose up -d

# Start only agent coordinator
docker-compose up -d agent-coordinator

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f agent-coordinator

# Restart after config changes
docker-compose restart agent-coordinator

# Stop everything
docker-compose down

# Remove volumes (reset data)
docker-compose down -v

Development with Docker

# Start in development mode
docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml up

# Interactive shell for debugging
docker-compose exec agent-coordinator bash

# Run tests in container
docker-compose exec agent-coordinator mix test

# Watch logs during development
docker-compose logs -f

Environment Variables

Configure the container using environment variables:

# docker-compose.override.yml example
version: '3.8'
services:
  agent-coordinator:
    environment:
      - MIX_ENV=prod
      - NATS_HOST=nats
      - NATS_PORT=4222
      - LOG_LEVEL=info

Custom Configuration

External MCP Servers

Mount your own mcp_servers.json:

docker run -d \
  -v ./my-mcp-config.json:/app/mcp_servers.json:ro \
  agent-coordinator

Persistent Data

docker run -d \
  -v agent_data:/app/data \
  -v nats_data:/data \
  agent-coordinator

Monitoring & Health Checks

Container Health

# Check container health
docker-compose ps

# Health check details
docker inspect --format='{{json .State.Health}}' agent-coordinator

# Manual health check
docker-compose exec agent-coordinator /app/bin/agent_coordinator ping

NATS Monitoring

Access NATS monitoring dashboard:

# Start with monitoring profile
docker-compose --profile monitoring up -d

# Access dashboard at http://localhost:8080
open http://localhost:8080

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

# Check container logs
docker-compose logs agent-coordinator

# Check NATS connectivity
docker-compose exec agent-coordinator nc -z nats 4222

# Restart stuck container
docker-compose restart agent-coordinator

# Reset everything
docker-compose down -v && docker-compose up -d

Performance Tuning

# Allocate more memory
docker-compose up -d --scale agent-coordinator=1 \
  --memory=1g --cpus="2.0"

🎮 How to Use

Once your AI agents are connected via MCP, they can:

Register as an Agent

# An agent identifies itself with capabilities
register_agent("GitHub Copilot", ["coding", "testing"], codebase_id: "my-project")

Create Tasks

# Tasks are created with requirements
create_task("Fix login bug", "Authentication fails on mobile",
  priority: "high",
  required_capabilities: ["coding", "debugging"]
)

Coordinate Automatically

The coordinator automatically:

• Matches tasks to agents based on capabilities
• Queues tasks when no suitable agents are available
• Tracks agent heartbeats to ensure they're still working
• Handles cross-codebase tasks that span multiple repositories

Available MCP Tools

All MCP-compatible AI agents get these tools automatically:

Tool	Purpose
register_agent	Register an agent with capabilities
create_task	Create a new task with requirements
get_next_task	Get the next task assigned to an agent
complete_task	Mark current task as completed
get_task_board	View all agents and their status
heartbeat	Send agent heartbeat to stay active
register_codebase	Register a new codebase/repository
create_cross_codebase_task	Create tasks spanning multiple repos

🧪 Development & Testing

Running Tests

# Run all tests
mix test

# Run with coverage
mix test --cover

# Try the examples
mix run examples/full_workflow_demo.exs
mix run examples/auto_heartbeat_demo.exs

Code Quality

# Format code
mix format

# Run static analysis
mix credo

# Type checking
mix dialyzer

📁 Project Structure

agent_coordinator/
├── lib/
│   ├── agent_coordinator.ex           # Main module
│   └── agent_coordinator/
│       ├── mcp_server.ex             # MCP protocol implementation
│       ├── task_registry.ex          # Task management
│       ├── agent.ex                  # Agent management
│       ├── codebase_registry.ex      # Multi-repository support
│       └── application.ex            # Application supervisor
├── examples/                         # Working examples
├── test/                            # Test suite
├── scripts/                         # Helper scripts
└── docs/                            # Technical documentation
    ├── README.md                    # Documentation index
    ├── AUTO_HEARTBEAT.md            # Unified MCP server details
    ├── VSCODE_TOOL_INTEGRATION.md   # VS Code integration
    └── LANGUAGE_IMPLEMENTATIONS.md  # Alternative language guides

🤔 Why This Design?

The Problem: Multiple AI agents working on the same codebase step on each other, duplicate work, or create conflicts.

The Solution: A coordination layer that:

• Lets agents register their capabilities
• Intelligently distributes tasks
• Tracks progress and prevents conflicts
• Scales across multiple repositories

Why Elixir?: Built-in concurrency, fault tolerance, and excellent for coordination systems.

🚀 Alternative Implementations

While this Elixir version works great, you might want to consider these languages for broader adoption:

Go Implementation

• Pros: Single binary deployment, great performance, large community
• Cons: More verbose concurrency patterns
• Best for: Teams wanting simple deployment and good performance

Python Implementation

• Pros: Huge ecosystem, familiar to most developers, excellent tooling
• Cons: GIL limitations for true concurrency
• Best for: AI/ML teams already using Python ecosystem

Rust Implementation

• Pros: Maximum performance, memory safety, growing adoption
• Cons: Steeper learning curve, smaller ecosystem
• Best for: Performance-critical deployments

Node.js Implementation

• Pros: JavaScript familiarity, event-driven nature fits coordination
• Cons: Single-threaded limitations, callback complexity
• Best for: Web teams already using Node.js

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Model Context Protocol for the agent communication standard
• Elixir community for the excellent ecosystem
• AI development teams pushing the boundaries of collaborative coding

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Agent Coordinator - Making AI agents work together, not against each other.