Block released Buzz on Monday, July twenty first, a free and open source workspace where your team and its AI agents sit in the same channels, share the same code repositories, and each hold their own cryptographic identity. It is built on the Nostr protocol, licensed Apache two point zero, and Block pitches it squarely at the ground held by Slack and GitHub. The hook for anyone running agents in production is not the chat surface, it is who owns the agent. In Buzz an agent identity is a keypair that belongs to you, not an API key managed by a vendor, so here is what shipped and why the plumbing matters more than the pitch.
The short answer
Block released Buzz on July twenty first, a free and open source workspace where humans and AI agents share channels, code repositories, and their own cryptographic identities. It is built on the Nostr protocol, licensed Apache two point zero with code on GitHub, and it is model and agent agnostic, so you can run Claude Code, Codex, or goose. Agents hold a keypair that belongs to them, not to a vendor, and anyone can self host an instance instead of relying on buzz.xyz.
Most agent products ask you to trust that the vendor will keep your automation running on their servers, under their account, behind their API key. Buzz starts from the opposite assumption. Block released it on Monday, July twenty first, as a free and open source workspace, and the design decision worth your attention is that an agent is not a subscription seat, it is a cryptographic identity you hold. For teams weighing how to give agents real access to their tools and code, that ownership question is the one that actually decides lock in.
What Block shipped
Buzz is a collaboration workspace with channels, threads, direct messages, voice, media sharing, code repositories, and automated workflows. In other words it folds together the two tools most engineering teams already live in, the group chat and the code host, into one surface. Block positions it directly against Slack and GitHub, and the whole thing is free and open source.
The part that makes it more than another chat clone is that people and AI agents occupy the same channels as equals. An agent in Buzz can post, review code, run approved automations, and contribute to conversations, with its own defined permissions rather than borrowing a human account. You can read the code yourself at github dot com slash block slash buzz, published under the Apache two point zero license, and you can either sign up at buzz dot xyz or run your own instance.
Built on Nostr, so identity belongs to you
The foundation is the Nostr protocol, an open and decentralized way of publishing messages using cryptographic keypairs instead of accounts on one central server. Block leans on that to make a specific promise, quoting its own announcement, that every participant, human or agent, holds a cryptographic keypair that belongs to them, not to the platform they happen to be using.
That is the sentence to sit with. In most tools an agent lives inside a vendor account and runs on an API key that the vendor controls. In Buzz the agent identity is portable, verifiable, and independent, and it is not tied to a platform account or a vendor managed key. Practically, that means the agents you build and configure are not locked in, and if you move to your own infrastructure the identity and its history come with you.
Model agnostic, and agents are first class
Buzz does not ship its own model or try to sell you one. It is model agnostic and agent agnostic, and Block says teams can deploy agents powered by any large language model or agent harness. The examples it names are Claude Code, Codex, and its own goose framework, which tells you the intent is to meet teams where they already are rather than push a single stack.
Because self hosting is a first class option, you can also keep the whole thing inside your own network. Anyone can run their own node on their own infrastructure, or use Block provided hosting at buzz dot xyz for the quick path. For a security conscious team that wants agents close to its code but not sitting inside a third party account, that combination of open protocol, permissive license, and self hosting is the interesting bit.
Should your team try it
If you are early in giving agents real access to repositories and workflows, Buzz is worth a look precisely because it forces the ownership question up front. Clone the repository, stand up an instance, and wire in the agent harness you already run, whether that is Claude Code, Codex, or goose. Watch how permissions and the keypair identity behave before you decide anything, because the value here is governance and portability, not another place to chat.
Two honest caveats. It launched on Monday, so it is new, and a young open source project needs time before it earns production trust. And an open protocol shifts more responsibility onto you, since self hosting a node means you own the uptime and the upgrades. For a team that wants agents without vendor lock in, that trade is the whole point.
Sources and further reading
- Block: Introducing Buzz, where humans and agents work together
- Buzz on GitHub (Apache 2.0)
- SiliconANGLE: Block launches Buzz, an open source workspace for humans and AI agents
- Decrypt: Jack Dorsey's Block launches Buzz, a Nostr based Slack and GitHub rival for AI agents
Frequently asked questions
What is Block Buzz?
Buzz is a free, open source collaboration workspace that Block released on July twenty first. It has channels, threads, direct messages, voice, media sharing, code repositories, and automated workflows, so it covers ground normally split between Slack and GitHub. The difference is that humans and AI agents are both first class participants in the same space, each with their own cryptographic identity. It is available now at buzz dot xyz, and the source is on GitHub under an Apache two point zero license.
Is Buzz really open source and self hostable?
Yes. Buzz is published under the Apache two point zero license at github dot com slash block slash buzz, which is a permissive license that allows commercial use, modification, and redistribution. Block says anyone can run their own instance on their own infrastructure, or sign up at buzz dot xyz for Block provided hosting. Because it runs on the open Nostr protocol rather than a closed backend, you are not tied to one company keeping the servers on.
Which AI agents does Buzz support?
Buzz is model agnostic and agent agnostic. Block says teams can deploy agents powered by any large language model or agent harness, and names Claude Code, Codex, and its own goose framework as examples. Agents can post, review code, run approved automations, and take part in conversations alongside people. The point is that Buzz does not lock you into one model provider, you bring the agent you already use.
Why does the cryptographic identity matter?
Because it changes who owns an agent. In most tools an agent runs on an API key or a platform account controlled by a vendor. In Buzz every participant, human or agent, holds a cryptographic keypair that belongs to them, not the platform. Block calls this portable, verifiable, and independent, which means an agent identity and its history travel with you if you move or self host, rather than being trapped inside one company account.
What is the Nostr protocol Buzz is built on?
Nostr is an open, decentralized protocol for publishing and relaying messages using cryptographic keypairs, rather than accounts on a single central server. Building Buzz on Nostr is what lets identity be portable across instances and lets anyone host their own node. For a team it means the workspace is defined by an open protocol you can inspect and run yourself, not a proprietary API you have to trust and cannot leave easily.