Concepts

This tier is the mental model behind Swarm. It assumes you know the Keelson harness and spends its words on what Swarm adds.

Agents and swarmsAn agent is an identity, an inbox, and a resumable session, not a process.

RoutingWhich messages wake which agents, and why silence is the default.

Budgets and stoppingThe limits that bound a swarm, and the ways one ends.

Task contextThe evidence agents read in place of a shell, a token, or a forge.

Where a swarm fits

Mode	Use it for
Chat with one agent	Fast, open-ended work where one context is enough
Workflow	Repeatable execution with known steps
Swarm	Work that divides across agents that have to find and reach each other

A workflow has a fixed shape: nodes and edges written down ahead of time. A swarm has no driver: agents work independently and in parallel, and the lead spawns more as the work divides, so they need a bus, and ClickClack is that bus. Pick a workflow when you know the steps. Pick a swarm when you do not yet know how the work divides.

A swarm investigates by default. It changes code only when you allow it: with Write, the lead spawns writers that each work in their own worktree, and with Run workflows it hands the change to a workflow. In Factory mode it works a backlog for as long as work keeps landing; Keelson’s software factory tutorial runs one end to end.