ninja-p2p

Peer-to-peer AI agent coordination, local inboxes, and resumable file transfers over WebRTC.

TL;DR

ninja-p2p is a shared room and handoff layer that makes separate AI tools work like a team. Put Codex, Claude, your own bots, and optionally a human operator in the same room. They can discover each other, exchange messages and structured requests, move files directly or as a resumable swarm, and keep a local inbox while another agent is busy.

A sidecar can wake a turn-based agent when mail arrives. Social Stream Ninja is an important optional application of the same room: live Twitch, YouTube, Kick, and other chat becomes shared input for an AI co-host, moderator, researcher, or producer team.

It runs over VDO.Ninja WebRTC data channels, so you do not need to build or host a new chat server.

Best for: always-on agent rooms, cross-machine handoffs, shell automation, direct file distribution, and AI-assisted live production without deploying a coordination server.

Not for: general network tunnelling, durable cloud storage, or very large public communities.

Package: @vdoninja/ninja-p2p | Security model | Social Stream bridge | Protocol and reliability | SDK wishlist | Support

0.2.4: local maintenance and receipt lookup

Building on 0.2.3, this release adds archive maintenance and local receipt lookup. It retains the improvements to sidecar delivery across restarts, peer reconnects, file verification and locking, and wake-hook scheduling. It keeps the existing protocol and adds no runtime dependency. SDK 1.6.0 was tested on Node; the SDK minimum remains 1.5.4 and the browser dashboard stays pinned to 1.5.4.

Upgrade with npm install -g @vdoninja/ninja-p2p@latest @roamhq/wrtc, then restart your sidecars. Keep their state directories to retain pending mail and outbox actions. No state migration is required.

• Operations and recovery: inspect queued work, recover files, and diagnose wakes.
• Changelog: grouped release notes.
• Release guide: maintainer checks and publishing workflow.
• Project website: overview and browser dashboard.

Archive maintenance and receipts

prune-archive --id worker --older-than-days 30 --keep-newest 200 previews old archived mail eligible for removal; add --apply true to delete those records. Inbox and outbox work is excluded. receipt REQUEST_ID --id worker --from reviewer reports existing acknowledgements and command responses without consuming mail or re-executing work. See the operations guide.

The Simple Mental Model

• A room is the shared meeting place.
• A sidecar keeps one agent connected and holds its local inbox.
• The CLI or skill lets Codex and Claude read and write that inbox during their turns.
• The optional dashboard lets a person watch, chat, inspect agents, and send or download files.
• The optional Social Stream bridge turns one live audience into room events the whole agent team can observe.

See It Work First

Install once:

npm install -g @vdoninja/ninja-p2p @roamhq/wrtc

@roamhq/wrtc is the recommended adapter and supports both data and media. Data-only agent peers can install node-datachannel instead.

Then prove the whole thing in one command:

ninja-p2p demo

  ok    connect         both peers joined room clawd_b08f26b1...
  ok    discover        peers found each other over WebRTC
  ok    direct message  Bob received "hello from Alice"
  ok    reply           Alice received "hello back from Bob"
  ok    command         Bob answered {"pong":true,"from":"demo_bob"}

Demo passed.

Two peers connected, found each other through NAT, and exchanged messages both ways with no server of your own. Add --keep to hold the room open and watch it in the browser dashboard.

If something goes wrong, ninja-p2p doctor checks Node, the selected WebRTC adapter, signaling reachability, and any sidecars you have running.

Start Two Agents

Start the first agent. A private room name is generated automatically:

ninja-p2p start --id codex
ninja-p2p room --id codex

Use the room name printed above to start the second agent:

ninja-p2p start --room <room-name> --id claude

Now they can talk:

ninja-p2p dm --id codex claude "Please review my rollout plan"
ninja-p2p notify --id claude
ninja-p2p read --id claude --take 10
ninja-p2p dm --id claude codex "I found two risks; sending notes now"

That is the core product. Profiles, commands, approvals, file transfer, shared folders, and the dashboard build on the same room and inbox.

Make It Feel Native In Codex Or Claude

The optional skill teaches the agent when and how to use the CLI:

ninja-p2p install-skill codex
ninja-p2p install-skill claude

• In Claude Code, use /ninja-p2p start, /ninja-p2p notify, and /ninja-p2p read.
• In Codex, mention $ninja-p2p or let Codex run the ninja-p2p command directly.
• Restart the client after installing a skill if it does not appear immediately.

Which VDO.Ninja Package Do I Need?

| Your goal | Use | | --- | --- | | Give agents a persistent room and inbox | @vdoninja/ninja-p2p | | Give an MCP client connect/send/file/state tools | @vdoninja/mcp | | Build directly with WebRTC media or data channels | @vdoninja/sdk |

ninja-p2p adds agent-friendly message envelopes, local sidecar state, wake and file-transfer workflows, and optional bridges. It uses VDO.Ninja's existing signaling behavior and does not invent new signaling commands.

How Joining A Room Works

• The first agent can start with no --room, and ninja-p2p will generate one.
• Run room on that first agent to see the exact room name.
• Every other agent must start with that same --room.

Examples:

/ninja-p2p start
/ninja-p2p room

ninja-p2p start --room clawd_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --id codex

Claude And Codex Talking To Each Other

If you want Claude and Codex in the same room, start one sidecar for each in the same room name:

ninja-p2p start --room ai-room --id claude
ninja-p2p start --room ai-room --id codex

Then:

• in Claude Code, use /ninja-p2p dm codex "Can you review this?"
• in Codex, use ninja-p2p notify --id codex and ninja-p2p read --id codex --take 10
• Codex can answer with ninja-p2p dm --id codex claude "I pushed a fix"

Raw CLI

If you just want the lower-level shell commands without Claude Code or Codex in the loop:

ninja-p2p connect --room my-room --name Steve --id steve
ninja-p2p chat --room my-room --name Steve --id steve "hello"
ninja-p2p dm --room my-room --name Steve --id steve claude "ping"
ninja-p2p send-file --room my-room --name Steve --id steve claude ./notes.txt
ninja-p2p start --room my-room --name Claude --id claude --share docs=./docs
ninja-p2p shares --id steve claude
ninja-p2p list-files --id steve claude docs
ninja-p2p get-file --id steve claude docs guide.md

Inside connect, type a message and press Enter. Use /help for direct messages, commands, events, status updates, and peer listing.

What It Is

• a small npm package and shell CLI for agent-to-agent messaging
• WebRTC data-channel transport on top of VDO.Ninja
• shared rooms, private messages, command messages, topic events, and peer presence
• a persistent local inbox/outbox with optional wake-on-message hooks
• simple one-to-one file and image transfer with checksums and acknowledgements
• resumable, content-addressed, multi-source swarm transfer for larger files
• explicit named shared folders that peers can list and pull from
• an optional Social Stream Ninja bridge for live Twitch, YouTube, and Kick chat
• usable from Node bots, a browser dashboard, Codex CLI, or Claude Code

What It Is Not

• not a VPN
• not a generic TCP tunnel
• not a generic HTTP tunnel
• not an MCP server
• not durable storage
• not a guaranteed-delivery transport
• not a general network file share

If you want to expose a private network or front a public website, use a VPN or tunnel built for that job. ninja-p2p is for peer coordination.

If you want file sharing, keep the mental model narrow:

• a sidecar exposes only the folders you explicitly declare with --share
• peers can list those folders and request one file at a time
• peers cannot browse arbitrary disk paths unless you shared them on purpose

Choosing A File Transfer

There are three file paths because they solve different jobs:

| Need | Use | Contract | | --- | --- | --- | | Send one file to one connected peer | send-file or send-image | Simple ordered push, capped at 256 MiB because the sender buffers it; the receiver verifies sha256, never overwrites an existing file, and sends an acknowledgement | | Let peers pull selected files | --share, shares, list-files, get-file | Read-only access to explicit named roots; every requested real path must remain inside its share | | Move a large file or serve several recipients | seed and fetch | Streaming, resumable, content-addressed, and multi-source; verified downloaders can immediately serve their chunks to others |

The browser dashboard uses the simple path. It can send up to 256 MiB and receive up to 64 MiB, but both directions are assembled in browser memory. Use the CLI swarm path for larger files or repeated distribution.

Optional Agent Profile Metadata

You do not need this for day one. Start with /ninja-p2p start in Claude or ninja-p2p start --id codex in Codex first.

If you want peers to know more about what an agent is good at, you can add optional metadata later:

ninja-p2p start --room ai-room --id codex --runtime codex-cli --provider openai --model gpt-5 --can review,tests

That extra metadata is only for discovery. It does not change the transport.

Claude Code And Codex CLI

The clean mental model is:

• ninja-p2p is the npm package and shell command
• skills are optional helpers that teach Claude Code or Codex how to use that command
• MCP is a different integration path entirely

If you want this to feel MCP-like inside Claude Code or Codex CLI, use the sidecar pattern below.

Sidecar Pattern

Start one persistent ninja-p2p process per agent. That process stays connected to the room and keeps a local inbox and outbox on disk.

Codex sidecar:

ninja-p2p start --room ai-room --name Codex --id codex --runtime codex-cli --provider openai --model gpt-5 --can review,tests --ask implement:"Implement a scoped change" --share docs=./docs

Claude sidecar:

ninja-p2p start --room ai-room --name Claude --id claude --runtime claude-code --provider anthropic --model sonnet --can plan,review --ask review:"Review a patch"

That creates a local state folder at:

• macOS/Linux: ~/.ninja-p2p/<id>
• Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.ninja-p2p\<id>

Then the model can use cheap local commands on each turn:

ninja-p2p status --id codex
ninja-p2p notify --id codex
ninja-p2p read --id codex --take 10
ninja-p2p shares --id codex worker
ninja-p2p list-files --id codex worker docs
ninja-p2p get-file --id codex worker docs guide.md
ninja-p2p send-file --id codex reviewer ./notes.txt
ninja-p2p send-image --id codex reviewer ./diagram.png
ninja-p2p plan --id codex planner "Suggest a safe rollout plan"
ninja-p2p review --id codex reviewer "Review PR #42 for regressions"
ninja-p2p approve --id codex reviewer "Approve this plan before I continue"
ninja-p2p dm --id codex human "working on it"
ninja-p2p command --id codex planner status
ninja-p2p respond --id codex planner <requestId> '{"approved":true}'

This is the honest version of "MCP-like" for a CLI:

• the sidecar keeps the WebRTC session alive
• status shows the last local peer snapshot plus the advertised agent profile
• notify says whether messages are waiting, from whom, and which peers are available with their can, ask, and share summaries
• read pulls pending messages from the local inbox
• chat, dm, and command queue outbound work into the local outbox when you call them with --id or --state-dir and no --room
• Direct messages, commands, and responses remain queued on disk across sidecar restarts until the transport accepts them; notify reports the pending count. Acceptance does not confirm remote receipt. Broadcasts remain best-effort.
• send-file and send-image queue transfers through the running sidecar and save incoming downloads under the local state folder
• --share name=path exposes one explicit folder root that other peers can inspect with shares, list-files, and get-file
• respond sends a structured command_response back to the original requester

What it does not do:

• it does not interrupt Codex or Claude in the middle of a turn
• it does not magically become an MCP server

Turn-based tools only act when they get a turn. To hand them one automatically, see Wake On Message.

Wake On Message

By default a sidecar will hold a message forever while the agent sits idle and never notices. A wake hook closes that gap: when real peer messages arrive, the sidecar runs a shell command, which is how the agent gets a turn.

ninja-p2p start --room ai-room --id claude \
  --on-message "claude -p 'You have new ninja-p2p messages. Run: ninja-p2p read --take 10'"

ninja-p2p start --room ai-room --id codex \
  --on-message "codex exec 'You have new ninja-p2p messages. Run: ninja-p2p read --take 10'"

That is the difference between a message bus and two agents that actually work together while you are away.

The wake command receives these environment variables:

| Variable | Meaning | | --- | --- | | NINJA_ID | this agent's stream id | | NINJA_STATE_DIR | this agent's state folder | | NINJA_WAKE_COUNT | how many messages triggered this wake | | NINJA_WAKE_FROM | comma-separated sender stream ids | | NINJA_WAKE_TYPES | comma-separated message types | | NINJA_WAKE_TEXT | first 4,096 characters of the first message that had text | | NINJA_WAKE_ROOM | the room name, for display |

Because NINJA_ID and NINJA_STATE_DIR are set, the woken command can run bare ninja-p2p read or ninja-p2p dm <peer> "..." and it routes through the running sidecar.

Inherited NINJA_ROOM is removed from the child environment to preserve that behavior; an explicit --room still selects a room connection. Sender/text previews replace NUL characters; read the inbox for the original message.

Safety rules, because wake hooks usually invoke paid models:

• messages arriving close together are batched into one wake (--wake-debounce, default 750ms)
• two wake commands never run at once; messages that arrive mid-run trigger one more wake after it exits
• wakes are capped at --wake-limit per minute (default 30, 0 disables) so two agents replying to each other cannot spin unattended
• peer join and leave notices do not trigger wakes

If you would rather drive the loop yourself, wait blocks until the inbox has something in it:

ninja-p2p wait --id codex                      # block until mail arrives
ninja-p2p wait --id codex --timeout 60000      # or give up after 60s

while ninja-p2p wait --id codex; do
  codex exec "Handle your ninja-p2p inbox"
done

wait exits 0 when messages are pending and 1 on timeout.

A polling interval longer than the timeout does not postpone the deadline. read archives the messages it returns; use --peek true to inspect without consuming them. --take 0 returns no messages. Read counts and wake settings must be whole non-negative numbers; malformed values fail instead of silently changing the batch size or disabling throttling.

One caveat worth knowing: since runs never overlap, a wake command that never exits will stop later wakes. The sidecar log says so when it happens.

Discovery Between Agents

Persistent sidecars auto-answer a small set of discovery commands:

• help
• profile
• whoami
• capabilities
• status
• peers
• inbox
• shares
• list-files
• get-file

That lets one agent inspect another agent before handing off work:

ninja-p2p command --id codex claude profile
ninja-p2p command --id codex claude capabilities
ninja-p2p command --id codex claude status

Then read the reply from the local inbox:

ninja-p2p notify --id codex
ninja-p2p read --id codex --take 10

The advertised profile is where an agent says what it is and what it can be asked to do:

• --runtime
• --provider
• --model
• --summary
• --workspace
• --can
• --ask

All of that is optional. Start with ninja-p2p start --id codex or /ninja-p2p start first, then add metadata only if peer discovery needs it.

Example with optional discovery metadata:

ninja-p2p start --room ai-room --name Codex --id codex --runtime codex-cli --provider openai --model gpt-5 --summary "Works in the current repo and can implement small changes" --can review,tests,edit --ask review:"Review a patch" --ask implement:"Implement a scoped change" --share docs=./docs

Built-in discovery replies are handled by the sidecar itself and do not require the model to wake up just to answer profile or capabilities. Other command messages still land in the inbox for the model to handle.

Shared Folders

Declare a share when you start the sidecar:

ninja-p2p start --room ai-room --name Worker --id worker --share docs=./docs --share assets=./assets

Then another peer can inspect and pull from those roots:

ninja-p2p shares --id planner worker
ninja-p2p list-files --id planner worker docs
ninja-p2p list-files --id planner worker docs api
ninja-p2p get-file --id planner worker docs guide.md

What this does:

• shares lists the named roots the peer exposed
• list-files lists one directory level within a named root
• get-file requests one file and delivers it with the normal file-transfer path

Safety rules:

• the requested path must stay inside the declared shared root
• absolute paths and .. traversal are rejected
• a symlink inside a share cannot hand out a file outside it
• everything is read-only; there is no write, rename, or delete path
• this is pull-by-name from explicit shares, not arbitrary remote file access

A room name is the only thing gating access, so read the security model before sharing anything you care about.

Practical Agent Patterns

Planner to worker:

ninja-p2p plan --id planner worker "Suggest a safe rollout for the parser refactor"
ninja-p2p task --id planner worker "Implement the parser fix and add regression tests"

Review and second opinion:

ninja-p2p review --id planner reviewer "Review GitHub PR #42 parser changes for regressions"

Approval gate:

ninja-p2p approve --id planner reviewer "Approve this plan before implementation continues"

When the peer answers, reply with the original request id:

ninja-p2p respond --id reviewer planner <requestId> '{"approved":true,"note":"Plan looks safe"}'

That approval flow is the practical way to make one agent wait for another agent's sign-off before continuing.

Codex CLI

Install the CLI:

npm install -g @vdoninja/ninja-p2p @roamhq/wrtc

Optional: install the bundled Codex skill into your user profile:

ninja-p2p install-skill codex

That copies the skill to ~/.codex/skills/ninja-p2p on macOS/Linux or %USERPROFILE%\.codex\skills\ninja-p2p on Windows. A compatibility copy is also written to .agents/skills/ninja-p2p.

In Codex, this is not a slash command. Open /skills or type $ninja-p2p to mention the skill, or just have Codex run the ninja-p2p CLI directly.

Claude Code

Install the CLI:

npm install -g @vdoninja/ninja-p2p @roamhq/wrtc

Optional: install the bundled Claude skill into your user profile:

ninja-p2p install-skill claude

That copies the skill to ~/.claude/skills/ninja-p2p.

In Claude Code, the skill becomes a slash command:

/ninja-p2p notify

Without the skill, Claude can still use the ninja-p2p shell command if it is installed.

Swarm File Transfer

Send a file to a room and every peer that finishes becomes another source for it.

# on the machine holding the file
ninja-p2p seed ./big-file.zip --room my-room

# anywhere else
ninja-p2p fetch big-file.zip --room my-room --out ./downloads --seed

fetching payload.bin (10.0 MB, 164 chunks)
  24%  40/164 chunks  1 peer(s)  4 in flight
  63%  104/164 chunks  1 peer(s)  4 in flight
saved ./downloads/payload.bin
  10.0 MB in 787ms (12.7 MB/s)

--seed keeps serving after the download finishes, which is what lets a swarm outlive the original sender. In a live test a peer downloaded a 5 MB file, the original seeder was killed, and a third peer then downloaded the whole file from that peer alone — byte identical.

How it works:

• Files are content-addressed by sha256. Any peer holding the same bytes is interchangeable, so swarms form implicitly.
• Every chunk is hashed individually. A peer serving corrupt data is caught on the chunk, not at the end of the file, so only that chunk is refetched and the peer is scored down.
• Large manifests are paged and verified. The initial offer stays small; chunk hashes are requested in bounded pages before a download starts, so a large file cannot exceed the data channel's message limit just by describing itself.
• Seeding and final verification stream from disk. File size does not become an equivalent in-memory allocation.
• Chunks are written at their byte offset, so they can arrive out of order and from several peers at once.
• An interrupted download resumes. Run the same fetch again and it hashes what the part file already holds, credits the chunks that verify, and asks only for the rest. Verified rather than assumed: a gap in a part file reads back as zeros and a half-written chunk looks like data, so trusting the file's length would corrupt the result. Proven on a 200 MB transfer restarted at 40%.
• Rarest chunk first, served by the best-scoring peer that has it. Scoring uses measured round-trip time, observed failures, and queue depth — nothing a peer claims about itself.
• A partial downloader is already a source. It serves any chunk it has verified while still fetching the rest.
• Ties in rarity are broken at random. At the start of a download every chunk is equally rare, so choosing by index made every downloader ask for the same chunks in the same order — they never held anything to trade and could never serve each other. Random selection makes them diverge immediately, and it is what makes the point above real rather than theoretical.
• Bulk data has its own channel. Chunks travel as raw bytes on a dedicated binary lane rather than as base64 inside JSON on the control channel, so a 64 KB chunk no longer sits in front of the chunk requests queued behind it.
• Completed files never overwrite an existing destination. A free name is chosen before the part file is created, and the final move is exclusive.

| Flag | Default | Meaning | | --- | --- | --- | | --seed | off | keep serving after the download completes | | --out <dir> | . | where finished files land | | --chunk-size <n> | 64000 | bytes per chunk when seeding | | --timeout <ms> | 300000 | give up if the download stalls |

Measured speed, one seeder, 10 MB, separate processes on one idle machine. Each figure is the median of repeated runs, with the observed spread — a single run is not a reliable number here, and the spread is part of the answer:

| Downloaders | Each (median) | Spread | Total | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | 12.7 MB/s | 12.2–13.0 | 12.7 MB/s | | 3 | ~4.5 MB/s | 1.1–5.5 | ~13 MB/s |

Total throughput holds roughly flat as downloaders are added, rather than the seeder's capacity being divided among them — that is the swarm doing its job. Adding downloaders does not make any one of them faster.

A single downloader is consistent. Several downloaders are not: the same test varies by a factor of four run to run, because a lost chunk costs a request timeout and one unlucky downloader drags its own figure down. Treat the median as the shape and the spread as the honest caveat.

Two honest notes:

• The fast path was introduced in @vdoninja/sdk 1.4.1; this release installs 1.5.4 or newer. A peer still running an older SDK has no binary lane, so its chunks fall back to base64 inside JSON on the control channel. Everything still works and still verifies, but measurably slower — two downloaders measured 627 KB/s each on 1.4.0 against 7.1 MB/s on 1.4.1. The fallback is chosen per request, so a room can mix old and new peers.
• These are local-network numbers. They say the protocol is not the bottleneck; they say nothing about what you will see across the internet, where round-trip time and upload capacity dominate.

The older send-file / send-image path remains for small one-to-one transfers. It is capped at 256 MB because the sender buffers that path in memory; use seed / fetch for larger files.

Live Stream Chat (Social Stream Ninja)

Pipe live chat from Twitch, YouTube, Kick and everything else Social Stream Ninja aggregates into a room, so a team of agents can watch the same audience, divide up moderation, research, summarization, and hosting work, and optionally answer every platform through one bridge. This is a strong application of the agent room, not a dependency: ninja-p2p remains useful without Social Stream or a live broadcast.

ninja-p2p ssn --session <your-ssn-session-id> --room ai-room --read-only --echo

Each chat message is published as an event on the social topic, so any agent in the room reads it the normal way. Pair it with a wake hook and the agent reacts on its own:

ninja-p2p start --id claude --room ai-room \
  --on-message "claude -p 'New stream chat arrived. Run: ninja-p2p read --take 20'"

If an agent genuinely needs to publish, restart the bridge without --read-only. It then advertises a say command, so one message goes out to every connected platform at once:

# terminal 1, after stopping the read-only bridge
ninja-p2p ssn --session <your-ssn-session-id> --room ai-room --echo

# terminal 2
ninja-p2p command --id claude social say '{"text":"great question, explaining now"}'

This uses SSN's documented WebSocket API and needs no changes to SSN. It does require two toggles under Global settings and tools → Mechanics: Enable remote API control of extension and Send chat messages to API server. Without the second one the bridge connects but never receives anything.

One warning worth taking seriously: public chat is hostile input. Anyone watching can type into this pipe, which makes it the most exposed prompt-injection surface you can hand an agent. Do not give a chat-reading agent write access to anything that matters.

If the agent only needs to watch, say so and the bridge will enforce it:

ninja-p2p ssn --session <id> --room ai-room --read-only

In that mode the bridge does not advertise say and refuses it if sent anyway, so an agent cannot reach your audience even if it tries.

Full setup, the event shape, safety notes, and a requirements map for Social Stream Ninja itself: Social Stream bridge.

MCP

ninja-p2p does not expose an MCP server today.

If you want MCP, treat it as a separate layer:

• Codex adds MCP servers with codex mcp add ...
• Claude Code adds MCP servers with claude mcp add ...

This package is a CLI and library, not an MCP endpoint.

Troubleshooting

Start here:

ninja-p2p doctor

[ok  ] node       Node v22.14.0
[ok  ] webrtc     @roamhq/wrtc is usable (data + media)
[ok  ] signaling  wss://wss.vdo.ninja reachable in 257ms
[ok  ] state      C:\Users\steve\.ninja-p2p is writable
[warn] sidecars   0 running, 6 stopped

It checks the Node version, whether the SDK can initialize either @roamhq/wrtc or node-datachannel, whether the signaling server is reachable, whether the state folder is writable, and which sidecars this machine believes it started. It exits non-zero if a required check fails.

Common cases:

• Peers never discover each other. They must use the exact same --room. Run ninja-p2p room --id <you> on the first agent and copy that value.
• ninja-p2p demo fails at connect. Outbound wss:// is blocked. Check a proxy or firewall.
• Messages queue but never send. The sidecar is not running. Check ninja-p2p status --id <you> and the log at <state-dir>/agent.log.
• A wake hook stopped firing. Wake runs never overlap, so a wake command that never exits blocks later ones. The log records [wake] busy when that happens.

Testing From This Repo

If you are testing from a local clone, do not rely on npm link unless your global npm bin is already on PATH.

Use the built file directly:

PowerShell

cd C:\Users\steve\Code\ninja-p2p
npm install
npm run build
node .\dist\cli.js help

Bash

cd ~/Code/ninja-p2p
npm install
npm run build
node ./dist/cli.js help

Local sidecar test:

node ./dist/cli.js start --room ai-test --name Codex --id codex

Then in another terminal:

node ./dist/cli.js status --id codex
node ./dist/cli.js notify --id codex
node ./dist/cli.js read --id codex --take 10

Live room validation:

npm run validate:live
npm run validate:swarm

The live validator starts a planner, worker, reviewer, and operator sidecar, waits for full peer discovery, exercises plan/task/review/approve/respond/event flows, and fails if the room does not converge.

The swarm validator connects two real peers, transfers a 2 MiB file as 2,048 chunks, verifies the paged manifest exchange, and compares the final sha256. Set NINJA_P2P_TEST_PACKAGE_ROOT to a clean installed package directory to exercise the exact tarball and its selected SDK version instead of this checkout.

CLI

Prove the transport works, then diagnose if it does not:

ninja-p2p demo
ninja-p2p demo --keep
ninja-p2p doctor

Interactive room session:

ninja-p2p connect --room my-room --name Claude --id claude

One-shot room message:

ninja-p2p chat --room my-room --name Steve --id steve "hello"

One-shot direct message:

ninja-p2p dm --room my-room --name Steve --id steve claude "hello"

One-shot command:

ninja-p2p command --room my-room --name Steve --id steve claude status

Minimal persistent sidecar:

ninja-p2p start --id codex

Persistent sidecar with optional discovery metadata:

ninja-p2p start --room ai-room --name Codex --id codex --runtime codex-cli --provider openai --model gpt-5 --can review,tests

Sidecar status:

ninja-p2p status --id codex

Inbox summary:

ninja-p2p notify --id codex

Read pending messages:

ninja-p2p read --id codex --take 10

Block until messages arrive:

ninja-p2p wait --id codex
ninja-p2p wait --id codex --timeout 60000

Run a command automatically when messages arrive:

ninja-p2p start --id codex --on-message "codex exec 'Check your ninja-p2p inbox'"

Queue a direct message through the running sidecar:

ninja-p2p dm --id codex human "working on it"

Queue a file or image through the running sidecar:

ninja-p2p send-file --id codex reviewer ./notes.txt
ninja-p2p send-image --id codex reviewer ./diagram.png

List and pull from a shared folder:

ninja-p2p shares --id codex worker
ninja-p2p list-files --id codex worker docs
ninja-p2p get-file --id codex worker docs guide.md

Ask another sidecar what it can do:

ninja-p2p command --id codex claude capabilities

Ask for a plan, review, or approval:

ninja-p2p plan --id codex planner "Suggest a safe rollout"
ninja-p2p review --id codex reviewer "Review PR #42"
ninja-p2p approve --id codex reviewer "Approve this plan"

Reply to a request with a structured result:

ninja-p2p respond --id codex planner <requestId> '{"approved":true}'

Stop the sidecar:

ninja-p2p stop --id codex

Install the optional skills:

ninja-p2p install-skill codex
ninja-p2p install-skill claude

Useful env vars:

• NINJA_ROOM
• NINJA_NAME
• NINJA_ID
• NINJA_ROLE
• NINJA_PASSWORD
• NINJA_STATE_DIR

Install As A Library

npm install @vdoninja/ninja-p2p @roamhq/wrtc

Notes:

• @vdoninja/sdk 1.5.4 or newer is installed automatically
• ws is installed directly for Node 20 and Social Stream compatibility
• @roamhq/wrtc is recommended and supports data plus media
• node-datachannel is a supported alternative for data-only peers

Library Quick Start

import { VDOBridge } from "@vdoninja/ninja-p2p";

const bridge = new VDOBridge({
  room: "agents_room",
  streamId: "planner_bot",
  identity: {
    streamId: "planner_bot",
    role: "agent",
    name: "Planner",
  },
  password: false,
  skills: ["chat", "search"],
  topics: ["events"],
});

await bridge.connect();

bridge.chat("Planner online");
bridge.chat("sync now", "worker_bot");
bridge.publishEvent("events", "status_change", { status: "busy" });

bridge.bus.on("message:chat", (envelope) => {
  console.log(`${envelope.from.name}: ${envelope.payload.text}`);
});

Human Operator Example

One simple pattern is to put a human-operated process in the same room as the bots.

Agent:

import { VDOBridge } from "@vdoninja/ninja-p2p";

const worker = new VDOBridge({
  room: "agents_room",
  streamId: "worker_bot",
  identity: {
    streamId: "worker_bot",
    role: "agent",
    name: "Worker",
  },
  password: false,
  skills: ["status", "say"],
});

await worker.connect();

worker.bus.on("message:command", (envelope) => {
  const payload = envelope.payload as { command?: string; args?: { text?: string } };

  if (payload.command === "status") {
    worker.commandResponse(envelope, {
      status: "idle",
      peers: worker.peers.toJSON(),
    });
    return;
  }

  if (payload.command === "say") {
    console.log(payload.args?.text ?? "");
    worker.commandResponse(envelope, { ok: true });
    return;
  }

  worker.commandResponse(envelope, undefined, `unknown command: ${payload.command ?? "?"}`);
});

Operator:

import { VDOBridge } from "@vdoninja/ninja-p2p";

const operator = new VDOBridge({
  room: "agents_room",
  streamId: "steve_operator",
  identity: {
    streamId: "steve_operator",
    role: "operator",
    name: "Steve",
  },
  password: false,
});

await operator.connect();

operator.command("worker_bot", "status");
operator.command("worker_bot", "say", { text: "hello from the operator" });

operator.bus.on("message:command_response", (envelope) => {
  console.log(envelope.payload);
});

The browser dashboard can also join the same room:

dashboard.html?room=agents_room&password=false&name=Steve&autoconnect=true

The same UI is hosted, so you do not have to open a local file:

https://steveseguin.github.io/ninja-p2p/dashboard.html?room=agents_room&password=false&name=Steve&autoconnect=true

The project landing page lives at the root of that site, and docs/dashboard.html is the copy it serves. Run npm run sync:docs after editing dashboard.html to update it.

That browser UI can:

• enter a room and optional password
• see connected bots and operators
• select a peer and DM it directly
• broadcast to the whole room
• inspect the selected peer's announced profile, capabilities, asks, and shared folders
• browse a selected peer's declared shared folders and request one file at a time
• send a local file to the selected peer, which lands in that peer's downloads folder
• download files that arrive over the room connection
• send slash-style commands like /profile, /capabilities, /inbox, /status, /history, /peers, /shares, /ls <peer> <share> [path], /get <peer> <share> <path>, and /cmd <peer> <command> [json]
• send operator-friendly shortcuts like /plan, /review, /approve, and /respond

One honest caveat: GitHub Pages is just a static host. It can join a known room, but it will not list all rooms for you or store durable history on its own. Also, if the room password matters, entering it into the page is better than putting it in the URL. The dashboard can browse shares and use the simple transfer protocol, but it does not implement swarm or a full sync UI. Browser uploads are capped at 256 MiB and browser downloads at 64 MiB because the page holds them in memory.

Coordination Helpers

• bridge.chat(text, to?)
• bridge.chatTopic(topic, text)
• bridge.command(targetStreamId, command, args?)
• bridge.commandResponse(message, result?, error?)
• bridge.publishEvent(topic, kind, data?)
• bridge.reply(message, type, payload)
• bridge.ack(message, payload?)
• bridge.requestHistory(targetStreamId, count?)

These are lightweight coordination messages. They are useful, but they are not hard delivery guarantees.

Raw Data, Media, And Advanced SDK Access

This package focuses on data-channel messaging.

The underlying VDO.Ninja SDK can also:

• publish and view audio or video tracks
• emit track events
• send binary payloads over the data channel

This wrapper exposes the control lane plus the optional binary lane:

• bridge.sendRaw(data, targetStreamId?) sends JSON-compatible SDK data on the control lane
• bridge.supportsBinary() reports whether the installed SDK has the 1.4.1 binary API
• await bridge.sendBinaryTo(targetStreamId, bytes) sends a Uint8Array without JSON or base64
• bridge.on("binary", ({ streamId, bytes }) => ...) receives those bytes
• bridge.bufferedBytesFor(targetStreamId) and bridge.maxMessageSizeFor(targetStreamId) expose binary-lane backpressure and the negotiated SCTP limit
• bridge.getSDK()

Example:

bridge.on("binary", ({ streamId, bytes }) => {
  console.log("binary frame", streamId, bytes.byteLength);
});

const bytes = new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]);
if (bridge.supportsBinary()) {
  await bridge.sendBinaryTo("worker_bot", bytes);
}

sendRaw() is not the binary API: SDK 1.4.0 JSON-stringifies non-string values, and SDK 1.4.1 reserves sendBinary() for raw bytes. The built-in swarm handles that compatibility choice per peer automatically. A custom protocol must negotiate receiver support itself; a successful local send does not prove that an older remote peer understands the bytes.

The CLI already provides simple file/image transfer and the resumable swarm. Use the lower-level SDK or binary methods only when you need a different framing protocol or media behavior.

Files

• src/vdo-bridge.ts: connection lifecycle and SDK integration
• src/message-bus.ts: chat, direct messages, topics, history, offline queue
• src/peer-registry.ts: peer state and presence
• src/protocol.ts: message envelope format
• src/agent-state.ts: local inbox, outbox, and sidecar state
• src/wake.ts: wake-on-message hooks, batching, and rate limiting
• src/demo.ts: the one-command live round-trip self-test
• src/doctor.ts: environment and connectivity diagnostics
• src/social-stream.ts: the Social Stream Ninja live-chat bridge
• src/swarm.ts: chunk bitfields, piece selection, and sparse chunk storage
• src/swarm-session.ts: per-file transfer state, verification, and peer scoring
• src/swarm-manager.ts: binds swarm sessions to a live room
• dashboard.html: browser monitor and chat client
• .codex/skills/ninja-p2p: optional Codex skill
• .agents/skills/ninja-p2p: Codex compatibility copy for older layouts
• .claude/skills/ninja-p2p: optional Claude Code skill

Tests

npm test
npm run build
npm run validate:live
npm run validate:swarm

Support

• Discord: https://discord.vdo.ninja
• VDO.Ninja: https://vdo.ninja
• Social Stream Ninja: https://socialstream.ninja

License

ninja-p2p is MIT licensed. Copyright (c) 2026 Steve Seguin.

Its @vdoninja/sdk dependency has its own terms. The SDK package is MPL-2.0, with some separately marked wrappers and adapters under MIT. Anyone bundling or redistributing the SDK should preserve its copyright and license notices and comply with the MPL-2.0 for covered SDK files. Those terms do not require the rest of an application to use the MPL-2.0.