Trinity Lite

Local-first multi-agent orchestration for CLI AI agents.

中文 README · Docs · Why Trinity Lite? · Recipes

The problem

You already use Claude Code. Maybe you just installed Codex. You want them to collaborate, review each other, and leave an audit trail you can inspect later. But there is no built-in way to route tasks between local CLI agents, remember who did what, or decide when work is actually accepted. Trinity Lite is the missing layer.

What it does

• Route by capability, not name. You describe the task. The router matches it to the right agent — no hardcoded agent names, no fragile dispatch logic. "Implement a rate limiter" lands on the agent you tagged implement. "Review the auth module" goes to the agent tagged review.
• Give every agent a pull queue. Workers read pending tasks from the shared bus, execute them via CLI, and write results back. Each agent polls on its own schedule. You never copy-paste an output between terminals again.
• Remember every decision. Every task, status change, result, error, and inter-agent message lands in a local SQLite database. Query who did what, when, and what happened — without setting up a logging pipeline.
• Review, verify, then accept. orchestrate runs primary work, routes the required review, runs local verification, and writes acceptance evidence back to SQLite.
• Block footguns before they fire. Self-delegation loops are rejected. Delegation depth has a hard cap. Working directories must be in the allowlist. You ship features, not incident reports.

Quick start

30 seconds, no agents required:

pip install trinity-lite
trinity-lite doctor
trinity-lite orchestrate "implement a hello-world function"

Mock agents are built in. You see the full route → work → review → verify → accept cycle before you wire up anything real.

Not another framework

Trinity Lite doesn't build agents. It connects the agents you already have.

LangGraph and CrewAI give you primitives for building agents from scratch — graph definitions, role abstractions, tool wrappers. Trinity Lite starts from the opposite end: Claude Code is running in one terminal, Codex is running in another, and they need routing, review handoff, durable state, and an acceptance trail. No SDK to learn. No new agent abstraction. Just a local workflow layer for the CLIs you already use.

Who this is for

You are...	Trinity Lite helps you...
Copy-pasting prompts and outputs between two agent terminals all day	Run one orchestrated flow and inspect the evidence afterward
Prototyping a multi-agent pipeline before committing infrastructure	Run the full flow with mock agents — no API keys, no provisioning
Running everything on a single machine with zero server setup	Keep your state in SQLite, your runtime in stdlib, your daemon count at zero
Showing a colleague how multi-agent collaboration works	pip install → trinity-lite orchestrate → they see it run. No explanation needed.

Features

• Route by capability. Tag agents with implement, review, audit — the router matches tasks to the agent that can do them. No agent names in your dispatch logic.
• Dispatch directly when you need control. Bypass the router and send a task straight to claude_code or codex. Best of both worlds.
• Persist everything in SQLite. Tasks, statuses, results, errors, and messages in one local file. Query it with sqlite3 or any tool that speaks SQL.
• Accept with evidence, not vibes. The review flow records route decisions, review links, verification results, acceptance reasons, and accepted_at in SQLite. A reviewed task is accepted only after the local verifier passes.
• Run CLI workers on demand. trinity-lite worker codex --once pulls one queued task, executes the agent's command, and writes the result. Run it in a loop, in cron, or by hand.
• Execute safely, no shell injection. Agent commands are JSON arrays run with shell=False. No string interpolation into a shell. No surprises.
• Test with mock agents. Mock agents simulate the full cycle without real CLIs. Prototype routing, persistence, and review handoffs first. Wire up real agents later.
• Guard against runaway delegation. Self-delegation is blocked. Delegation depth is capped. Working directories are allowlisted. Safe by default.
• Check health in one pass. trinity-lite doctor verifies Python, SQLite, route config, agent config, and publish readiness.
• Zero core dependencies. The default runtime is Python standard library only. YAML pipelines are available through an optional extra.
• 130+ tests guarding the surface area. Mock workflows, safety checks, routing, persistence, MCP, and acceptance gates — all covered.
• Smart model selection. Automatically picks the right LLM for each task. Simple CRUD → cheap model. Architecture design → strong reasoning model. Define your own model pool with tiers and strength tags.

Install

pip install trinity-lite

Python 3.10+. Zero core runtime dependencies. Standard library only unless an optional extra is installed.

Optional extras

pip install "trinity-lite[yaml]"          # YAML pipeline files
pip install "trinity-lite[mcp]"           # MCP server — 12 tools + 3 resources
pip install "trinity-lite[agent-skill]"   # agent-skill-system integration

Workflow example

Route primary work → run the worker → run the reviewer → verify → accept. One command, one audit trail.

trinity-lite orchestrate "implement a rate limiter for the API"

The primary task row records route_json, review_task_id, verification_json, acceptance_status, acceptance_reason, and accepted_at.

Ready for real CLIs when you are:

cp examples/agents.command.example.json agents.local.json
trinity-lite orchestrate "implement a rate limiter for the API" --agents agents.local.json

Prefer manual control? Use the lower-level bus commands:

trinity-lite dispatch-auto "implement a parser"
trinity-lite worker codex --once
trinity-lite tasks

MCP server

Turn the task bus into an MCP server. Let any MCP client dispatch, query, and route tasks.

pip install trinity-lite[mcp]
trinity-lite mcp serve

12 tools:

Tool	What it does
trinity_dispatch	Dispatch a task to a specific agent
trinity_dispatch_auto	Dispatch and let the capability router pick the agent
trinity_orchestrate	Run the default review flow or a YAML pipeline
trinity_status	Get the state and result of any task by ID
trinity_tasks	List recent tasks, filterable by agent
trinity_worker	Run one worker cycle for an agent
trinity_worker_daemon	Start, stop, or inspect a daemon worker
trinity_doctor	Run health and diagnostic checks
trinity_inbox	Read durable messages for an agent
trinity_send	Send a message from one agent to another
trinity_skill_search	Search agent-skill-system for relevant skills
trinity_skill_load	Load the full content of a named skill

3 resources: trinity://health, trinity://tasks/recent, trinity://tasks/{task_id}

Acceptance Evidence

trinity-lite orchestrate now writes a local acceptance trail to the task row:

• route_json: JSON-encoded route decision used for primary dispatch
• review_task_id and parent_task_id: links between primary work and secondary review
• gate_status: primary_pending, review_pending, review_passed, review_attention, verification_failed, or accepted
• verification_json: JSON-encoded local verifier result, defaulting to trinity-lite doctor
• acceptance_status, acceptance_reason, and accepted_at

If the reviewer reports P0/P1 findings, the flow stops at review_attention. If local verification fails, it stops at verification_failed. accepted_at is written only after the required review and verification pass.

Model Selector (NEW in v0.4.0)

Auto-pick the best LLM for each task based on complexity:

# Auto-detect your available models (zero config)
trinity-lite detect-models

# Or set up interactively (no JSON needed)
trinity-lite setup-models

How it works: Define your model pool with tiers (budget / standard / premium) and strength tags. The selector picks automatically:

Task	→ Tier	→ Model
"Fix typo in README"	budget	cheap model
"Add search endpoint"	budget	cheap model
"Refactor auth module"	standard	mid-tier
"Design microservice architecture"	premium	strongest

Manual call (API usage):

from trinity_lite.model_selector import select_model

result = select_model("Design a rate limiter", task_type="architecture_design")
print(result["model"])  # → gpt-5.5
print(result["reason"]) # → hard_signal:architecture

Custom pool — create ~/.trinity/model_pool.json:

{
  "your-cheap-model": {"tier": "budget", "strengths": ["coding"], "api_type": "anthropic"},
  "your-strong-model": {"tier": "premium", "strengths": ["reasoning", "architecture"], "api_type": "openai"}
}

Works with 1 model, 2 models, or 10 models. No agent names hardcoded.

Links

• PyPI
• Documentation
• Why Trinity Lite?
• Recipes
• Changelog
• Contributing
• Architecture
• Real agent setup

License

MIT