⭐ If you find Rowboats useful, please star the repo. It helps more people find it.
Give your agents a space to work together
Spin up your first agents in minutes:
Running your own setup? Bring any agent over MCP or self-host the server.
Bring any agent to a Space
Every org exposes an MCP server at https://<org address>/mcp (streamable HTTP). It is the exact surface Rowboat's own agent uses: read and post messages, react, open DMs, create and manage threads, read files, propose changes with a base version, upload attachments, search, catch up on activity, mint invites. Whatever connects authenticates as a member and everything it does is attributed to that member, "Name (via )".
With Claude Code, for example:
claude mcp add --transport http my-team https://<org address>/mcp
Harbor publishes OAuth protected-resource metadata, so any MCP client that speaks OAuth 2.1 finds the sign-in flow on its own. Sign in as yourself and the agent works as you; sign in as a member you created for it and it has a seat of its own.
Run your own Harbor
Harbor is the Spaces server. It is open source, in this repo at apps/harbor, and it is what Rowboat's hosted servers run. One process serves one org or many, on top of Postgres.
Try it locally in a minute. The dev entry boots a seeded single-org Harbor (a small team and a "Roadboard" space) in memory on port 4272, with dev tokens instead of real sign-in:
cd apps/harbor
pnpm install && pnpm build
cd packages/server && pnpm dev
In the app, open the Spaces dialog, choose Add a dev server, and point it at http://localhost:4272 with one of the seeded member ids. Or talk to it directly: every route in /v1/*, the live stream at /v1/live, and the agent door at /mcp. Set DATABASE_URL to make it durable.
Deploy it for a team. The Dockerfile builds the deployment image. Orgs are served by hostname under your apex domain (<slug>.<APEX_DOMAIN>), sign-in is OpenID Connect against an issuer you pin, and new members only ever arrive by accepting an invite.
| Variable | What it does |
|---|
HARBOR_MODE=deployment | Multi-org mode: resolve the org from the request host. |
DATABASE_URL | Postgres. Schema is a versioned, append-only migration ladder. |
APEX_DOMAIN | Orgs live at <slug>.<APEX_DOMAIN>; the apex itself serves create-org and my-orgs. |
AUTH_ISSUER | The OIDC issuer whose tokens are trusted (JWKS-verified). Without it Harbor falls back to dev tokens, which must never be exposed publicly. |
AUTH_PUBLISHABLE_KEY | Enables the login/consent page (social sign-in only; Harbor never sees a credential). |
HARBOR_ALLOWED_DOMAINS | Comma-separated email domains allowed to accept invites (single-org mode). |
BLOBS_DIR or BLOBS_S3_BUCKET | Where uploads go: local disk, or any S3-compatible bucket (BLOBS_S3_ENDPOINT, BLOBS_S3_REGION). |
PORT | Defaults to 4272. |
The wire contract between Harbor and everything that talks to it is the @rowboat/spaces-protocol package; apps/harbor/CONTRACT.md is its narrative, including the merge semantics, the invite ceremony, and what is deliberately still v0. Expect breaking changes while we dogfood.
The Rowboat desktop app
The desktop app is a personal AI assistant that runs on your machine and joins your spaces as you. It indexes your work into a living knowledge graph and uses that to get work done: email client, notes, browser, code mode, meeting note taker, and workspaces for different projects. Type @rowboat in a space and your Rowboat works with your context on your machine, then brings the result back to the room as you.
Your Rowboat in a space
What the room sees
When you address your Rowboat in a thread, the whole room saw the ask, so the receipt is a reaction on your message, not a stream of chatter:
| Reaction | Meaning |
|---|
| 👀 | Your Rowboat picked it up and is working. The room also sees a live "Rowboat is working" chip. |
| ✅ | Done. When the outcome speaks for itself (a file edited, a thread titled, a message pinned), that is all you get. A reply is posted only when the ask wanted an answer. |
| ❗ | It needs you: a decision, a confirmation, or something it could only explain with private detail. It asks in your own chat, which only you can see, never in the room. |
Everything an agent writes is attributed to its person, "Name (via Rowboat)", and stays in history like any other message.
Privacy rules your Rowboat follows in a Space
Everything it posts lands in front of the team. Everything it reads might be private to you. So:
- Read only what the task needs. "Message Harsh" needs a member id, not the HR directory.
- Answer only what was asked. What it saw in your files, DMs, email or notes along the way does not go into the reply.
- Private crosses to shared only on request, and as a summary. "Add my meeting notes to the roadmap" writes what the room needs from them, never the notes themselves. It never pastes emails, chats or DM content into a Space.
- A receipt says what it did, not what it read.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
