Claude Collab

Real-time team collaboration between Claude Code terminals via MCP (Model Context Protocol).

Overview

Claude Collab enables multiple Claude Code terminals to communicate with each other in real-time. Perfect for teams where frontend and backend developers need their Claude Code instances to share context, ask questions, and coordinate on complex debugging sessions.

┌─────────────────┐         ┌─────────────────┐
│  Frontend       │◄───────►│  Backend        │
│  Claude Code    │   Hub   │  Claude Code    │
│  Terminal       │         │  Terminal       │
└─────────────────┘         └─────────────────┘

Features

• Real-time Communication: Instant message exchange between Claude Code terminals
• Team Channels: Organize communication by team (frontend, backend, devops, etc.)
• Question & Answer: Ask questions to other teams and receive responses
• Markdown Support: Share code snippets and formatted text
• Auto-Hub: Hub server starts automatically when needed
• Zero Config: Works out of the box with sensible defaults

Installation

No cloning required! Install directly via npx:

# Start the hub server
npx @dolusoft/claude-collab hub start

# Or add to Claude Code with auto-hub
claude mcp add claude-collab -- npx @dolusoft/claude-collab client --team frontend --auto-hub

Quick Start

1. Start the Hub (one-time setup)

npx @dolusoft/claude-collab hub start

The hub runs on localhost:9999 by default.

2. Add to Claude Code

Frontend Terminal:

claude mcp add claude-collab -- npx @dolusoft/claude-collab client --team frontend

Backend Terminal:

claude mcp add claude-collab -- npx @dolusoft/claude-collab client --team backend

3. Start Collaborating

In your Claude Code session, you can now use these tools:

# Join a team
> Ask Claude to join the frontend team

# Ask a question to another team
> "Ask the backend team: What's the response format for the /users endpoint?"

# Check incoming questions
> "Check my inbox for questions from other teams"

# Reply to a question
> "Reply to question q_123: The endpoint returns JSON with id, name, email fields"

MCP Tools

| Tool | Description | Example | |------|-------------|---------| | join | Join a team channel | join("frontend") | | ask | Ask a question (waits 30s for response) | ask("backend", "API format?") | | inbox | List incoming questions | inbox() | | reply | Reply to a question | reply("q_123", "Here's the answer...") |

Use Cases

Bug Coordination

Frontend: "Backend team, we're seeing duplicate SignalR messages.
          Can you check if OnConnectedAsync is being called multiple times?"

Backend:  "Found it! Logs show 2 connection IDs for the same user:
          conn_abc123 - 10:00:01
          conn_xyz789 - 10:00:01
          Looks like React StrictMode is causing double connections."

API Design Sync

Frontend: "What should the request payload look like for the new checkout flow?"

Backend:  "Here's the schema:
          ```json
          {
            \"items\": [{\"id\": string, \"quantity\": number}],
            \"paymentMethod\": \"card\" | \"paypal\"
          }
          ```"

Configuration

Environment Variables

| Variable | Default | Description | |----------|---------|-------------| | CLAUDE_COLLAB_PORT | 9999 | Hub server port | | CLAUDE_COLLAB_HOST | localhost | Hub server host |

CLI Options

# Hub server
npx @dolusoft/claude-collab hub start --port 9999 --host localhost

# Client
npx @dolusoft/claude-collab client --team frontend --port 9999 --host localhost --auto-hub

Architecture

Claude Collab uses a hub-and-spoke architecture:

                    ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
                    │           HUB SERVER            │
                    │     (WebSocket, port 9999)      │
                    │                                 │
                    │  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────────┐   │
                    │  │ Teams   │  │  Questions  │   │
                    │  │ Members │  │  Answers    │   │
                    │  └─────────┘  └─────────────┘   │
                    └──────────┬──────────────────────┘
                               │
              ┌────────────────┼────────────────┐
              │                │                │
              ▼                ▼                ▼
       ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐
       │   MCP    │     │   MCP    │     │   MCP    │
       │ Client 1 │     │ Client 2 │     │ Client N │
       │(frontend)│     │(backend) │     │ (devops) │
       └──────────┘     └──────────┘     └──────────┘
              │                │                │
              ▼                ▼                ▼
       ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐
       │  Claude  │     │  Claude  │     │  Claude  │
       │   Code   │     │   Code   │     │   Code   │
       │Terminal 1│     │Terminal 2│     │Terminal N│
       └──────────┘     └──────────┘     └──────────┘

Domain-Driven Design

The codebase follows DDD principles with 4 layers:

src/
├── domain/          # Entities, Value Objects, Domain Events
├── application/     # Use Cases, DTOs
├── infrastructure/  # WebSocket, Repositories
└── presentation/    # MCP Tools, CLI

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• pnpm (recommended) or npm

Setup

git clone https://github.com/dolusoft/claude-collab.git
cd claude-collab
pnpm install

Commands

pnpm build        # Build the project
pnpm dev          # Watch mode
pnpm test         # Run tests
pnpm lint         # Lint code
pnpm format       # Format code

Testing

pnpm test              # Run all tests
pnpm test:watch        # Watch mode
pnpm test:coverage     # With coverage

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide first.

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

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

• Built with Model Context Protocol (MCP)
• Inspired by the need for better AI-assisted team collaboration
• Created by Dolusoft

Note: This project is in active development. Features may change.