OpenTag

Open-source agent mentions for the apps where work happens.

Claude Tag made the interface obvious: mention an agent where work already happens and get the result back in the thread. OpenTag is the open version: GitHub and Slack adapters today, a shared adapter model for more work apps, a thin dispatcher, and local or hosted runners that execute Claude Code, Codex, or your own agent with explicit bindings and audit trails.

OpenTag is not another AI workspace. It brings agents to the work item thread you already use.

OpenTag is not affiliated with Anthropic. It is an open implementation of the agent-mention workflow that Claude Tag made obvious.

Real smoke tests have validated:

• GitHub issue -> OpenTag -> local Claude Code -> commit branch -> pull request -> GitHub callback
• Slack thread -> OpenTag -> local Claude Code -> Slack final callback with audit-only progress

Quick Start

Requires Node 22.x and pnpm 9.x.

pnpm install
pnpm test
pnpm smoke:protocol
pnpm smoke:slack-protocol
pnpm build

The smoke tests start an in-process dispatcher with a temporary SQLite database and exercise the protocol chain through the client SDK. For a full local runner loop, start with examples/github-to-echo.

Why OpenTag

• Bring agents to work threads - mention an approved agent from GitHub, Slack, or future work app adapters instead of copying context into a separate AI chat workspace.
• Control where execution happens - keep coding work local with opentagd, or use hosted/custom runners that implement the same claim and callback contracts.
• Use any approved executor - built-in adapters cover echo, claude-code, and codex; custom runners can implement the same contracts.
• Stay quiet by default - human threads get useful acknowledgements and final results, while detailed progress stays in audit events and metrics.
• Make control explicit - repository bindings, leases, context packets, policies, approvals, and apply plans are first-class protocol objects.

How It Works

flowchart LR
    A["Work app mention<br/>GitHub, Slack, future adapters"] --> B["OpenTag event"]
    B --> C["Thin dispatcher<br/>leases, audit, callbacks"]
    C --> D["Approved runner<br/>local or hosted"]
    D --> E["Executor<br/>Claude Code, Codex, custom"]
    E --> F["Source thread<br/>comment, PR, metrics"]

1. Ingress adapters normalize platform comments or app mentions into one OpenTagEvent.
2. The dispatcher validates scope, persists the run, manages leases, and records audit events.
3. A local or hosted runner claims only work it is explicitly bound to handle.
4. The executor does the work in the mapped checkout and returns structured results.
5. Callback adapters update the source thread without flooding it.

What Works Today

• GitHub and Slack ingress for issue comments, PR review comments, and app mentions.
• Local daemon execution with polling, heartbeats, lease-based claiming, and dirty-worktree protection for coding executors.
• Executor adapters for smoke tests, Claude Code (claude --print), Codex (codex exec), and custom runners.
• Dispatcher persistence for runs, audit events, proposals, approvals, apply plans, policy, mappings, lineage, and metrics.
• Quiet callbacks that update GitHub run comments in place and keep routine Slack progress audit-only.
• Protocol runtime for work items, conversation anchors, context packets, suggested changes, approvals, apply plans, and action hints.

Packages

Current public release: v0.1.0. The npm package family is published under the @opentag scope.

pnpm add @opentag/core @opentag/client @opentag/dispatcher @opentag/github @opentag/slack @opentag/runner @opentag/store

Runnable apps live in apps/dispatcher, apps/opentagd, apps/github-probot, and apps/slack-events.

Examples And Guides

• GitHub to echo - manual end-to-end GitHub-shaped local runner loop.
• Embedded dispatcher - host OpenTag inside another Node service.
• Custom runner - build a third-party runner with @opentag/client and @opentag/runner.
• Configuration - map dispatcher, daemon, ingress, callback, and runner settings.
• Adapter authoring - add new work app adapters without changing the execution model.
• Real integration smoke test - real GitHub and Slack setup, trigger, and debugging order.
• Design - product direction, system shape, package boundaries, and v0 scope.
• Agent Work Protocol - context packets, quiet callbacks, approvals, lineage, and governance semantics.
• Versioning - release and package versioning rules.

Agent Skill

Install the OpenTag skill for any supported agent:

npx skills add https://github.com/amplifthq/opentag --skill opentag --agent '*'

Status

OpenTag is a young v0 project for local evaluation, integration experiments, and early SDK feedback. The current codebase proves the first GitHub and Slack adapter loops: ingress -> dispatcher -> runner -> callback, including package-level SDK usage and real local smoke tests.

Next areas of work:

• richer hosted setup flow
• GitHub Project field mapping for status and priority
• more workspace adapters and adapter compilers
• adapter-specific context packet redaction and classification hooks
• production hardening for multi-tenant dispatcher deployments

License

OpenTag is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.