Ace

A collaborative coding environment where people and agents work together in channels that run on your own machines.

Run

Requires Bun 1.4 or later and a model provider key. Ace reads a key such as OPENAI_API_KEY from ACE_OPENAI_API_KEY, then OPENAI_API_KEY, then the OS keychain (bun ace key set OPENAI_API_KEY).

bun install
bun ace new --project ~/code/my-repo
bun ace ask <channel> "what does this repo do?"
bun ace --help

The app runs in a browser against the host's gateway, or as the macOS desktop app:

bun app build && bun ace serve   # http://127.0.0.1:4140
bun desktop dev                  # the desktop app, hosting channels itself
bun desktop build                # a standalone Ace.app and .dmg in apps/desktop/artifacts

With Tailscale running, the host also shares its channels with the tailnet, and the app shows teammates' channels. See the team.

A hosted channel lives in a Durable Object and runs its tools on the host that created it, while that host runs ace serve or the desktop app. To try one locally, put ACE_SECRET and a model key in services/channel/.dev.vars, then:

bun --filter @ace/channel-service dev                     # http://localhost:8787
printf %s "$SECRET" | bun ace key set ACE_SECRET          # the value in .dev.vars
bun ace new --hosted http://localhost:8787 --project ~/code/my-repo

The team's directory lists every host's channels, so they stay visible while their host sleeps. Run services/directory the same way (bun --filter @ace/directory dev --port 8788), then point each host at it with bun ace directory http://localhost:8788.

To deploy both to your Cloudflare account, give the Workers and every host the same secret:

SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
printf %s "$SECRET" | bun ace key set ACE_SECRET
for s in channel directory; do (cd services/$s && bunx wrangler deploy && printf %s "$SECRET" | bunx wrangler secret put ACE_SECRET); done
(cd services/channel && bunx wrangler secret put ANTHROPIC_API_KEY)   # and any other model keys
bun ace directory https://ace-directory.<your-subdomain>.workers.dev

If bun desktop dev or build exits silently, macOS killed Electrobun's downloaded CLI for an invalid signature. Re-sign it once with codesign --force -s - apps/desktop/node_modules/electrobun/bin/electrobun.

Documentation

• Terms: what Ace's words mean. Binding.
• Architecture: how channels, hosts, and shared services fit together.