About Index Network
Index Network is a private, intent-driven discovery protocol. You or your agent tell it your intents — what you're looking for or what you can offer — and, in the background, agents negotiate over each other's intents: whether there's mutual interest, whether the timing is right, whether it's valuable to both sides, and everything in between.
When there's alignment between agents, that's called an opportunity — surfaced to you along with the reasoning for why it's worth your time.
Protocol Overview
Four primitives make up the protocol:
- Intent — What you're looking for or what you can offer, declared to the protocol by you or your agent. Intents are the primary unit of coordination: discovery runs on declared, current wants rather than static profile attributes. Each intent has a visibility property that governs its exposure:
networks_only — members of the networks it is shared into can find it and see it listed.mutuals_only — the network introduces the two people when the interest is mutual both ways.private — your agent keeps it, and can negotiate from it.
- Negotiation — What agents do in the background over each other's intents: a bilateral, turn-based exchange that probes whether there's mutual intent, whether the timing is right, whether it's valuable to both sides, and everything in between. Each agent advocates for its own user — accepting, countering, questioning, or rejecting — so weak matches die before they cost anyone's attention.
- Network — The context and privacy boundary within which discovery happens: a community, event, or workspace whose members share intents with one another, where negotiations run within and across networks according to membership and access rules. An intent can belong to multiple networks at once.
- Opportunity — What emerges when negotiating agents align. When both sides' agents converge — mutual interest confirmed and value established for both — the alignment is surfaced to you as an opportunity, along with the reasoning for why it's worth your time. You can confirm or decline it; the protocol never connects two people unless both humans explicitly commit.
CLI
The Index CLI lets you interact with the protocol directly from your terminal — chat with the AI agent, manage intents, review opportunities, and message other users.
Installation
npm install -g @indexnetwork/cli
Quick Start
# login + setup
index login
index profile
# 1. express intent
index intent create "federated learning collaboration"
# 2. check what the agents negotiated
index negotiation list --since 1h
index negotiation show <negotiation-id>
# 3. review outcomes (opportunities) and decide
index opportunity list --status pending
index opportunity show <opportunity-id>
index opportunity accept <opportunity-id>
Inspect the Protocol
Intent detail:
$ index intent show <intent-id>
Intent Details
────────────────────────────────────────
Status active
Summary Build a secure identity layer for autonomous agents
Confidence ########-- 82%
Network Assignments
* AI Research Collaborations (0.92)
* Crypto & Identity (0.78)
Negotiation detail:
$ index negotiation show <negotiation-id>
Negotiation Details
────────────────────────────────────────
Counterparty Alex Chen
Outcome agreed
Your Role helper
Turns 3
Turn-by-Turn
Turn 1 Your Agent propose Shared intent and complementary expertise.
Turn 2 Alex's Agent counter Reframed this as a peer collaboration.
Turn 3 Your Agent accept Strong alignment on verification mechanisms.
Opportunity detail:
$ index opportunity show <opportunity-id>
Opportunity
────────────────────────────────────────
Status: pending
Category: Research Collaboration
Confidence: ########-- 87%
Parties:
You Seeker
Alex Chen Helper
David Kim Peer
Reasoning:
Shared interest in decentralized identity protocols,
with complementary research and infrastructure expertise.
Presentation:
Alex specializes in zero-knowledge proofs relevant to
your verification work.
Documentation
Protocol documentation lives in apps/docs. CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md are local
contributor notes and are not part of the clone.
Per-package detail lives in the package itself:
Development
Prerequisites
- Bun 1.2+ (runtime and package manager)
- PostgreSQL 14+ with pgvector 0.5+ extension
- Redis 6+ (cache, locks, and SSE)
- Git 2.30+
Setup
Environment variables are documented in the root .env.example; the database and Neon topology are covered in CLAUDE.md.
- Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/indexnetwork/index.git
cd index
- Install dependencies
bun install
- Set up environment variables
cp .env.example .env.development
# Edit .env.development: set DATABASE_URL, OPENROUTER_API_KEY, BETTER_AUTH_SECRET
- Initialize the database
cd services/api
bun run db:migrate
bun run db:seed # optional: populate sample data
- Start the development servers
# Terminal 1: API service (port 3001)
cd services/api
bun run dev
# Terminal 2: Web dev server (port 3000, proxies /api to API service)
cd apps/web
bun run dev
Visit http://localhost:3000 to see the application.
Project Structure
index/
├── apps/
│ ├── web/ # Vite + React Router v7 SPA (React 19, Tailwind CSS 4)
│ └── mac/ # Native Apple client subtree → indexnetwork/mac-client
├── services/
│ └── api/ # Backend API and agent engine (Bun, TypeScript)
├── packages/ # Shared protocol, CLI, Claude plugin, and Hermes plugin packages
├── apps/docs/ # Protocol documentation
└── scripts/ # Worktree helpers, hooks, dev launcher
Development Commands
The full command list, including maintenance scripts, is in CLAUDE.md.
cd services/api
# Database operations
bun run db:generate # Generate migrations after schema changes
bun run db:studio # Open Drizzle Studio (DB GUI)
# Code quality
bun run lint # Run ESLint
Contributing
We welcome contributions! Before submitting a Pull Request:
- Get Assigned: Comment on an existing issue or create a new one
- Fork & Branch: Create a feature branch from
dev (not main)
- Use Worktrees: Work in a git worktree to keep
dev stable
- Document: Update relevant documentation
- Submit: Open a PR targeting
dev with a clear description
Development Setup
# Clone your fork
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/index.git
cd index
# Create and set up a standalone worktree
git fetch origin dev
git worktree add -b feat/your-feature .worktrees/feat-your-feature origin/dev
bun run worktree:setup feat-your-feature
herdr worktree open --path "$PWD/.worktrees/feat-your-feature" \
--label feat-your-feature --no-focus --json
# Start dev servers from the worktree
bun run worktree:dev feat-your-feature
# Submit PR targeting dev
gh pr create --base dev --title "feat: your feature" --body "..."
Resources
License
Index Network is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
