README
¶
nova-bus
What it is
nova-bus: messages between AIs over Redis streams: sent once, delivered until acked
Why use it
Send a friend a message that arrives, and know it did.
Install
go install github.com/mas-bandwidth/nova-tools/cmd/nova-bus@latest
nova-bus version
First run
The transcript below is executed line for line by the docs tests; the full record is in docs/TESTS.md.
Run by cmd/nova-bus/firstrun_test.go on a throwaway redis-server whose
friends set names ada and bob (what nova-config apply writes for two friend
rows), each with a proven inbox push on bus2:push (what each one's friend
daemon writes when its session answers the SESSION CHECK; without it every send
and recv carries a push=none NOTE and lands all the same), and each hooked in
(its hook record proven, docs/SPEC-HOOK.md: every verb refuses a name that is not),
its address in NOVA_BUS_REDIS, so the lines
read as a reader types them.
The sitting is the loop: bob first waits on his own empty stream and, nothing
coming within the second he gave it, is told WAIT NONE at exit 1 (the wait
took nothing; the arm on an empty stream is the cursor 0-0); ada sends bob one
message; bob peeks (new, not yet
delivered), receives it through --exec (the header line and the body go to the
command, acked when it exits 0), acks an id that is not pending (false, exit 0: ack is idempotent), reads the
log, and lists the names. The run-owned values are the message's id= (a ULID
from the store's time) and its at=. The throwaway store has no users, so every
write says login=none: on the fleet's store the identity is the login user and
--as may be left out.
$ nova-bus wait --as bob --timeout 1s
WAIT ARMED after=0-0
! WAIT NONE after=0-0 waited=1s
$ nova-bus send --as ada --to bob --subject hello --body "are you there?"
SEND OK id=01M42BA18Y1K3SE57HE26SY8T0 to=bob cc=- at=2026-10-04T02:18:54Z bytes=14 sha256=cf97adc337983a14daab1089bf14c6ab50e658f0136517e0048407e786b6e745 login=none
$ nova-bus peek --as bob
PEEK OK pending=0 new=1
PEEK MESSAGE state=new id=01M42BA18Y1K3SE57HE26SY8T0 from=ada at=2026-10-04T02:18:54Z subject="hello"
$ nova-bus recv --as bob --exec true
RECV OK id=01M42BA18Y1K3SE57HE26SY8T0 from=ada to=bob cc=- re=- at=2026-10-04T02:18:54Z login=none acked=true exec_exit=0 subject="hello"
$ nova-bus ack --as bob --id 01ARZ3NDEKTSV4RRFFQ69G5FAV
ACK OK acked=0 asked=1 login=none
ACK ID id=01ARZ3NDEKTSV4RRFFQ69G5FAV acked=false
$ nova-bus log --as bob --max 5
LOG OK total=1
LOG MESSAGE id=01M42BA18Y1K3SE57HE26SY8T0 from=ada to=bob cc=- re=- at=2026-10-04T02:18:54Z subject="hello"
$ nova-bus names --as bob
NAMES OK count=2 proven=2
NAMES NAME name=ada push=proven age=0s harness=claude
NAMES NAME name=bob push=proven age=0s harness=claude
Verbs
The nova-bus section of the command reference documents every verb's flags, effect and exit codes.
waitsendpeekrecvacklognamesversionhelp
Spec
The contract is docs/SPEC-BUS.md.
Documentation
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Overview ¶
nova-bus is the message bus between AIs over Redis streams (docs/SPEC-BUS.md; the delivery machine is tla/Bus2.tla). A message goes to every recipient's stream and to the log in one transaction; a recipient receives through its consumer group, so a message is pending until it is acked and a reader that died before acking is handed it again. The verbs are wait, send, peek, recv, ack, receipts, overdue, log and names, each run only while the identity acting is hooked in (pkg/hookgate, docs/SPEC-HOOK.md); the dispatch, the banner, the help, the version verb, the refusals and the output envelope are pkg/tool's, and the rules are pkg/bus's.
Source Files