Published v0.26.1 is the stable install (brigade-cli==0.26.1). Current main / 0.27 beta adds per-repo parallel-safe work waves, cross-repo ready-work campaigns, Memory Operations, activity and cloud status, code-graph views, bounded recall, and declared budgets. Cross-repo wave composition remains deferred. Cells below mark that split.

What it does

  • Ready work and claim safety. Brigade lists unblocked tasks and uses atomic claims so two agents cannot take the same item. Stable in v0.26.1.
  • Declared run limits and registered cloud activity. Current main / 0.27 beta enforces declared wall-clock and worker-dispatch ceilings and reconciles registered cloud work against provider and GitHub state.
  • Verification receipts. A check run through Brigade writes the command, the real exit code, and the Git state. Stable in v0.26.1. Not every Brigade command writes a receipt.
  • Owner-mediated handoffs and bounded recall. Handoffs are linted and routed by the memory owner. Safe targeted notes may auto-file, while ambiguous or risky notes wait for review. Current main / 0.27 beta adds capped session-start recall.
  • Explicit dry-run-first harness projection. MCP servers, tools, and skills are previewed before Brigade writes them into a harness. Stable in v0.26.1.

Learning in Brigade is outcome-based skill scoring, promotion, and rollback from captured verification receipts. It is not autonomous reflective memory learning.

Install

Install with pipx install brigade-cli or uv tool install brigade-cli, then follow the install guide, QUICKSTART.md, or give first 10 minutes and docs/agents-guide.md to your coding agent.

Stable channel: published v0.26.1. Preview channel: brigade update --channel beta for 0.27.0.devYYYYMMDD wheels. Details: update channels.

How it compares

Brigade overlaps several categories. Most adjacent projects specialize in one layer. Brigade connects those layers around trackable coding-agent work. Where a neighbor is stronger, that cell says so. Dated sources and longer notes: docs/comparison.md (2026-08-13).

Comparison key: Supported · Partial · Not documented

Work and orchestration

Project Ready work Claim safety Parallel and run control Task-store boundary Verification
Brigade Stable ready set Fail-closed CAS claims 0.27: per-repo waves, cross-repo ready aggregation, declared limits Local JSON files, no shared store Command receipts
Beads Built in Atomic claim Agent workflow + Dolt sync Dolt-backed distributed store Task history
Gas Town Beads-backed Not documented Multi-agent runtime Beads ledger Operational state
nWave Wave artifacts Not documented 7 reviewed phases + TDD gates Git-tracked artifacts Phase validation
ActiveGraph Reactive graph Application-defined Behaviors + runs Append-only event log Replay, fork, and diff

Memory

Project Durable memory Capture and recall Care and operations Learning Provenance
Brigade Shared files + cards Handoffs. 0.27: bounded recall Owner policy. 0.27: Memory Operations Outcome score + promote + rollback Work receipts + sources
Mem0 / OpenMemory User + agent + session Automatic + hybrid search History + metadata Extraction + retrieval Timestamps + entities
Letta Agent state + blocks Agent-managed tools Editable state Persistent agent runtime Persistent agent state
agentmemory Shared coding-agent memory Hooks + MCP + REST Lifecycle + decay Not documented Searchable memory
Hindsight Facts + experiences + models Retain + recall Reflect + feedback Reflective memory learning Temporal + causal links
Built-in harness memory Tool-specific Rules + auto memories Varies by harness Harness-specific Harness-specific
OpenClaw Plain files + index Keyword + optional vector search File-owned memory Not documented Files + source paths

Tools and configuration

Project MCP Reviewed rules and skills Projection behavior Source of truth Audit and rollback
Brigade MCP + tools catalog Skills + adapters Dry-run-first, then apply Brigade catalog Preserve + gate + rollback
add-mcp MCP servers Not documented Maps fields into native files Registry + native files Warnings for dropped fields
Rulesync Supported Rules + skills + hooks Per-target generation Rulesync project Generated outputs
config-sync Not documented Rules for 12 tools Generated rule files Single config Generated outputs
chezmoi As files As files Templates + apply Git-backed source dir Diff + templates + merge
agentsync Many agent targets Skills + hooks + commands Native/lossy/skipped report Canonical config Native/lossy/skipped report

Evidence and operations

Project Receipts Code impact Agent activity Cloud state Learning / replay
Brigade Command + Git + optional impact Stable impact. 0.27: code-graph views 0.27: center activity 0.27: registered cloud status Score + promote + rollback
ActiveGraph Event trace Not documented Reactive behaviors Not documented Replay, fork, and diff
CocoIndex Data lineage Not documented Not documented Not documented Incremental recompute
Graphiti Episode provenance Not documented Not documented Not documented Temporal fact updates
Hindsight Not documented Not documented Not documented Not documented Reflective memory learning
Neo4j Agent Memory Reasoning + tool traces Not documented Not documented Not documented Similar-task retrieval

"Not documented" means the capability was not found in the project's official README or documentation on 2026-08-13. It is not proof that the capability is absent. An event trace, memory history, data lineage, and a command verification receipt answer different questions.

Scope

Brigade is a local file-first control plane for coding agents. There is no Brigade daemon. Scheduling stays external, except optional operator-owned, target-scoped care registrations (brigade care install). The work ledger is machine-local JSON and is not a distributed task database. Ordinary runs have no hard run-budget unless one is declared. When declared, only wall-clock and worker-dispatch ceilings are enforced today. Model, tool, token, and cost dimensions stay observed unless an adapter owns an enforcement boundary. Campaigns aggregate ready work across repos, but do not yet compose parallel cross-repo waves. Center is read-only. External activity observations are best-effort. Cloud registry commands track work that another provider runs. Safe targeted handoffs may auto-file under owner policy. Ambiguous or risky notes wait for review.

Brigade is not a hosted memory service, automatic release bot, or full autonomous fleet runtime. It does not push to GitHub, publish packages, or send chat messages unless the operator uses an explicit send action. Name collisions: this is brigade-cli from escoffier-labs/brigade, not the archived CNCF/Microsoft Kubernetes Brigade, Spinabot Brigade, or the 2017 Python package that became Nornir.

Docs

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Project identity: GitHub escoffier-labs/brigade, website brigade.tools, PyPI brigade-cli, command brigade.