Patrick Buckley
e60c19befd
Wake path: - Denial metacog nudge moves to the tool channel so it drains with the denied tool batch instead of the next user-message seam. - wake_workstream_if_pending: shared wake gate for watch fires on already-idle workstreams (no IDLE transition for the watcher to observe), wired as wake_fn at every set_watch_runner site via the shared _watch_fire_wake_fn helper (closes over the Workstream OBJECT — after eviction+restore an id-keyed manager lookup would miss). - session_worker exit backstop re-runs the wake gate the moment worker ownership clears: IDLE fans out on the worker thread, so transition-time wakes always landed on the reuse path and no-op'd (the coordinator idle_children strand). - deliver_wake_nudge_from_queue contains GenerationCancelled — it is the wake worker's run() closure and only Exception is caught downstream. Watch delivery: - Terminal fires that cannot reach their workstream are HELD and redelivered on min(interval, 60s) without re-running the command, bounded by MAX_DELIVERY_ATTEMPTS per cycle and the watch's own max_polls across cycles; the poll charge commits durably at hold time so restarts stay budget-bounded. - Restore admission control: per-ws dedup + MAX_CONCURRENT_RESTORES cap, presence-only re-check under the lock, detection-only stall alerts (reclaiming a wedged admission would trade capped degradation for total poll-pool collapse). - Permanent-vs-transient restore taxonomy: corrupt persona stamp and genuinely-missing history (confirmed by a raising storage probe — the resume loader swallows read blips into []) deactivate the watch immediately; everything else holds and retries. - Cancel-race defense: delivery paths re-check is_watch_active before stashing/dispatching, cancel paths write the row BEFORE forget_terminal_dispatched, the HTTP cancel endpoint clears runner state, and a per-tick sweep bounds the residual stash-after-clear interleaving to one check_interval. - Abandon/exhaustion commits are write-then-clear so storage that can read but not write retries the row write instead of re-running the command every cycle; the fresh-fire unrestorable path stashes before its deactivation write for the same reason. Registry follows identity: - The dispatch registry is keyed by _ws_id at registration time; every rebind now moves it: non-fork resume() and /new go through _follow_watch_registration (new key live before the old is removed, never stealing a registration another live session holds), removals are owner-checked so tearing down a watch-restore shell or a resumed-away session cannot unregister a live pane, the restore shell yields to a registration that appears mid-restore, CLI --resume registers after the successful resume, and both the open path and the detail-GET lazy rehydrate wire the registration. Teardown gating and backpressure honesty: - cleanup_session_ui marks ws._closed FIRST under ws._lock — every teardown path (close, close_idle, evict, delete, discard) funnels through it — and session_worker.send re-checks under the same lock, so a wake can never spawn a worker on a torn-down workstream. - Create responses carry initial_message_status when the initial message could not be delivered (queue_full / refused_closed) instead of reading as success; staged attachments survive for the retry; /send surfaces a closed workstream as 404 rather than queue_full. Docs/spec: OpenAPI artifacts regenerated; api-reference documents the new create-response field; TS SDK type extended. Tests: ~30 new pins (cancel races, budget durability across restarts, owner-checked registry moves, teardown gating, stall alerts, backpressure surfaces, wait_until final re-check); wide subsystem sweep green (2353 passed).
Turnstone
Self-hosted, local-first orchestration for tool-using AI agents. Give LLMs real tools — shell, files, search, web — and run them across your own cluster with direct HTTP routing and interactive interfaces. Your code, your models, your data stay on hardware you control: no telemetry, no phone-home.
Named after the Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) — a shorebird that flips stones to discover what's hiding underneath.
What is a harness?
ℋ : s_{n+1} ~ T(s_n) for n < τ*, T = ρ ∘ (M_W ∘ π, E)
Release Tracks
| Track | Install | Docker | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stable | pip install turnstone |
ghcr.io/turnstonelabs/turnstone:stable |
Production-grade. Bugfixes only. |
| Experimental | pip install turnstone --pre |
ghcr.io/turnstonelabs/turnstone:experimental |
New features. May have rough edges. |
See docs/releasing.md for the full release process.
What it does
Turnstone gives LLMs tools — shell, files, search, web, planning — and orchestrates multi-turn conversations where the model investigates, acts, and reports.
- Local-first & private — runs entirely on hardware you control, with no telemetry and no phone-home. Point it at local models (vLLM, llama.cpp) or commercial APIs you hold the keys to — your prompts and data never transit a third party you didn't choose.
- Bring your own models — OpenAI-compatible APIs (vLLM, llama.cpp, NIM), the Anthropic Messages API, and Google Gemini, mixed freely per role
- Interactive sessions — terminal CLI or browser UI with parallel workstreams
- Cluster dashboard — real-time view of every node and workstream, with a rendezvous routing proxy
- Intent validation — an LLM judge (your model) grades every tool call with a risk assessment and evidence before it runs
- MCP support — external tool servers with native deferred loading (Anthropic/OpenAI) or BM25 fallback
- Team controls when you need them — optional RBAC, SSO, tool policies, and audit logs, all stored in your own database
Quickstart
pip install turnstone
# Terminal REPL
turnstone --base-url http://localhost:8000/v1
# Browser UI
turnstone-server --port 8080 --base-url http://localhost:8000/v1
# Cluster dashboard
turnstone-console --port 8090
For PostgreSQL (recommended for production):
export TURNSTONE_DB_BACKEND=postgresql
export TURNSTONE_DB_URL="postgresql+psycopg://user:pass@localhost:5432/turnstone"
turnstone-server --port 8080 --base-url http://localhost:8000/v1
Docker
One-line install — autodetects Ubuntu/Debian, Fedora/RHEL, Arch, and WSL, installs git + Docker if missing, generates secrets, and starts the stack:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/turnstonelabs/turnstone/main/run.sh | bash
Or, if you already have Docker, clone the repo and run it yourself:
docker compose up
That builds one image and brings up a full local cluster — PostgreSQL, console,
Caddy, channel gateway, and 10 server nodes — with no .env required (it ships
with insecure dev defaults). Open the dashboard at https://localhost:8443 (Caddy
serves it over TLS with its own local CA — trust it once). Nodes boot without an
LLM; add model backends from the console UI.
For production (released images from ghcr.io, real secrets required), use the
bundled stack: docker compose -f turnstone/deploy/compose.yaml up.
See QUICKSTART.md for the install + troubleshooting walkthrough and docs/docker.md for Docker configuration.
Programmatic (SDK)
from turnstone.sdk import TurnstoneServer
with TurnstoneServer("http://localhost:8080", token="tok_xxx") as client:
ws = client.create_workstream(name="demo")
result = client.send_and_wait("Analyze the error logs", ws.ws_id, auto_approve=True)
print(result.content)
Tools
Built-in tools for shell, files, search, web, memory, notifications, and autonomous sub-agents — plus external tools via MCP with native deferred loading. See docs/tools.md for the full reference and docs/mcp-registry.md for MCP configuration.
Architecture
Single-node: Client → Server (direct HTTP + SSE). No external dependencies beyond the database.
Multi-node: Client → Console (rendezvous routing proxy) → Server nodes. The console picks the target node for each workstream via rendezvous (HRW) hashing over the live service registry — pure function of (ws_id, live_nodes), no stored bucket state, deterministic across readers. A node join or drop only re-routes the keys that score highest on the affected node.
| Component | Purpose |
|---|---|
turnstone |
Terminal CLI (REPL) |
turnstone-server |
Web UI + REST API + SSE events |
turnstone-console |
Cluster dashboard + routing proxy + admin panel |
turnstone-channel |
Channel gateway (Discord and Slack adapters) |
turnstone-admin |
User/token management CLI |
turnstone-eval |
Headless measurement — scores tool-use against expected actions |
turnstone-optimizer |
Prompt/tool optimizer (UCB self-modify loop over the eval substrate) |
turnstone-doctor |
LLM-backed cluster diagnostics |
Diagrams
UML diagrams in docs/diagrams/:
| Diagram | Description |
|---|---|
| System Context | Components and external dependencies |
| Package Structure | Python modules and dependency graph |
| Core Engine | SessionUI, ChatSession, LLMProvider |
| Conversation Turn | Message lifecycle through the engine |
| Tool Pipeline | Prepare / approve / execute |
| Workstream States | State machine transitions |
| Console Data Flow | Dashboard data collection |
| Deployment | Docker Compose topology |
| Auth | JWT, scopes, login flows |
| Channels | Discord / Slack adapters + routing |
| Judge | Intent validation pipeline |
| OIDC | SSO authorization code flow |
Documentation
| Topic | Link |
|---|---|
| Configuration reference | docs/settings.md |
| API reference | docs/api-reference.md |
| Docker deployment | docs/docker.md |
| Intent validation (judge) | docs/judge.md |
| Governance & RBAC | docs/governance.md |
| OIDC SSO | docs/oidc.md |
| TLS / mTLS | docs/tls.md |
| Channel integrations | docs/channels.md |
| Console dashboard | docs/console.md |
| Eval harness | docs/eval.md |
| Tools reference | docs/tools.md |
| MCP integration | docs/mcp-registry.md |
Requirements
- Python 3.11+
- An OpenAI-compatible API endpoint, Anthropic API key, or Google Gemini API key
- Optional: Discord / Slack channel integrations (
pip install turnstone[discord,slack]) - Git LFS for cloning (diagram PNGs)
Support
Turnstone is free, Apache-2.0, and self-hosted — no paid tier, no telemetry, no upsell. If it saves you time or you'd like to help keep development moving, you can sponsor the project:
❤ Sponsor Turnstone → · one-off via PayPal
Sponsorship is entirely optional and funds maintenance, new features, and infrastructure. Prefer to contribute in other ways? Filing issues, improving docs, and pull requests help just as much.
Community
Questions, ideas, or want to show what you're building? Join us on Discord: discord.gg/Nh3bWMacaq.
License
Apache License 2.0, as of version 1.6.0. Versions 1.5.x and earlier remain under the Business Source License 1.1 they shipped with.