Agent = Model + Harness. The model writes; the harness gives it tools, memory, loops, sandboxes, and controls so it can actually work. Ruflo is the harness — the execution layer around Claude Code and Codex that adds 100+ specialized agents, coordinated swarms, self-learning memory, federated comms across machines, and enterprise security guardrails. So agents don't just run, they collaborate.

One npx ruflo init gives Claude Code a nervous system: agents self-organize into swarms, learn from every task, remember across sessions, and — with federation — securely talk to agents on other machines without leaking data. You keep writing code. Ruflo handles the coordination.

Self-Learning / Self-Optimizing Agent Architecture

User --> Ruflo (CLI/MCP) --> Router --> Swarm --> Agents --> Memory --> LLM Providers
                          ^                           |
                          +---- Learning Loop <-------+

New to Ruflo? You don't need to learn 314 MCP tools or 26 CLI commands. After init, just use Claude Code normally — the hooks system automatically routes tasks, learns from successful patterns, and coordinates agents in the background.

_{The /ruflo console running in Claude Code, full screen in a 9:11 frame (the cockpit docked beside Claude, cropped to the cockpit): the dial-up boot that brings every area online, then all 26 pages in order (a mission goal typed and planned along the way): each page is bordered cards under a grouped nav, a Start here card leads the pages that have an order, and each page can launch its plugin commands in Claude or ask Claude about what you see. A wide-terminal tour with Claude beside it is also kept. npx ruflo init, restart Claude Code, then /ruflo.}

Install the mods from the ruflo marketplace (Claude Code 2.1.287 or later; mods run with your account's permissions and are not sandboxed, so read the code first):

/plugin marketplace add ruvnet/ruflo
/plugin install ruflo-console@ruflo
/plugin install ruflo-mods@ruflo
/reload-plugins

ruflo-console is the cockpit above, ruflo-mods routes prompts and enforces policy in-process, ruflo-swarm shows the swarm in a pane, and ruflo-ruos adds the ruOS status segment. Open /plugin to confirm they appear in the active mods line. Inside the console, /ruflo market is the Plugin Catalog: every ruflo plugin, mod and skill with what it ships, and buttons to install, enable, disable and update (each asks first).

There are two different install paths with very different surface areas. Pick based on what you need (#1744):

# Add the marketplace
/plugin marketplace add ruvnet/ruflo

# Install core + any plugins you need
/plugin install ruflo-core@ruflo
/plugin install ruflo-swarm@ruflo
/plugin install ruflo-rag-memory@ruflo
/plugin install ruflo-neural-trader@ruflo

This adds slash commands and agent definitions. ruflo-core (installed above) does register its own MCP server on install — its tools are callable as mcp__plugin_ruflo-core_ruflo__* (e.g. mcp__plugin_ruflo-core_ruflo__memory_store), not the bare memory_store/swarm_init/agent_spawn names the CLI-track scaffold uses. Other plugins generally don't ship their own MCP server. For the full loop with the CLI-track tool names, use Path B below.

macOS / Linux / WSL / Git-Bash:

# One-line install (POSIX shells only — see Windows note below)
curl -fsSL https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/ruvnet/ruflo@main/scripts/install.sh | bash

All platforms (including native Windows PowerShell / cmd):

# Interactive setup wizard — runs identically on every platform
npx ruflo@latest init wizard

# Quick non-interactive init
# npx ruflo@latest init

# Or install globally
npm install -g ruflo@latest

💡 Windows users: the curl ... | bash form needs a POSIX shell (Git-Bash, WSL, MSYS). The npx ruflo@latest init wizard line works natively in PowerShell and cmd. If you hit an 'bash' is not recognized error, use the npx line instead — both end up running the same init flow.

# Add Ruflo as an MCP server in Claude Code
claude mcp add claude-flow -- npx ruflo@latest mcp start

Your Agent --> [ Remove secrets ] --> [ Sign message ] --> [ Encrypted channel ]
                 Emails, SSNs,        Proves it came       No one reads it
                 keys stripped         from you              in transit
                                                                |
                                                                v
Their Agent <-- [ Block attacks ] <-- [ Check identity ] <------+
                 Stops prompt          Rejects forgeries
                 injection

                          Audit trail on both sides.
                  Trust builds over time. Bad behavior = instant downgrade.

Slack gave teams channels. Federation gives agents the same thing — shared workspaces across trust boundaries, where agents on different machines, orgs, or cloud regions can discover each other, prove who they are, and collaborate on tasks.

The difference: some channels are trusted, some aren't. @claude-flow/plugin-agent-federation handles that automatically. Your agents join a federation, get verified via mTLS + ed25519, and start exchanging work — with PII stripped before anything leaves your node and every message auditable. Untrusted agents can still participate at lower privilege: they see discovery info, not your memory. As they prove reliable, trust upgrades. If they misbehave, they get downgraded instantly — no human in the loop required.

You don't configure handshakes or manage certificates. You federation init, federation join, and your agents start talking. The protocol handles identity, the PII pipeline handles data safety, and the audit trail handles compliance.

📘 Full user guide: docs/federation/ — setup, MCP tools, trust levels, circuit breaker, and the (opt-in) WireGuard mesh layer that ties packet-layer reachability to federation trust. ADR-111 deep-dive at docs/federation/phase7-mesh-bringup.md.

# Team A: initialize federation and generate keypair
npx claude-flow@latest federation init

# Team A: join Team B's federation endpoint
npx claude-flow@latest federation join wss://team-b.example.com:8443

# Team A: send a task — PII is stripped automatically before it leaves
npx claude-flow@latest federation send --to team-b --type task-request \
  --message "Analyze transaction patterns for account anomalies"

# Team A: check peer trust levels and session health
npx claude-flow@latest federation status

See issue #1669 for the complete architecture, trust model, and implementation roadmap.

# Claude Code plugin
/plugin install ruflo-federation@ruflo

# Or via CLI
npx claude-flow@latest plugins install @claude-flow/plugin-agent-federation

User --> Claude Code / CLI
          |
          v
    Orchestration Layer
    (MCP Server, Router, 27 Hooks)
          |
          v
    Swarm Coordination
    (Queen, Topology, Consensus)
          |
          v
    100+ Specialized Agents
    (coder, tester, reviewer, architect, security...)
          |
          v
    Memory & Learning
    (AgentDB, HNSW, SONA, ReasoningBank)
          |
          v
    LLM Providers
    (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Cohere, Ollama)

Four docs for four audiences:

Benchmark internals (for reproduction): sota-workload-spec.md · SOTA-PROGRESS.md · raw matrix JSON: darwin · linux

User Guide section index:

MIT - RuvNet