Stop making the human relay every message
Nirvaan was copying instructions and results between coding agents on his laptop, cloud workstation, PC and a machine in Mumbai. He built ARDA on Herdr (a third-party terminal workspace manager for AI coding agents; ARDA is Nirvaan's open-source plugin for it) so those agents could discover one another and exchange addressed task requests and replies.
Make the handoff explicit
The arda/1 envelope distinguishes note, task_request, ack, result and reject. Message IDs and re= reply references connect a request with its responses. ARDA refuses ambiguous lookups and supplies ready-to-use reply instructions, so the receiving agent knows whom to answer and which task the reply belongs to.
Nirvaan kept the plugin thin: Python's standard library, the workspace's existing sessions and transport, and explicit workflow conventions for the agents. That made communication reusable without moving each agent's tools, memory or environment into a central platform.
Give delivery a precise meaning
ARDA reports delivered, submitted, uncertain or not_delivered based on what Herdr (a third-party terminal workspace manager for AI coding agents; ARDA is Nirvaan's open-source plugin for it) observes. The receiver acknowledges a task with ack and finishes with result or reject. Separating transport feedback from task acceptance and completion lets agents decide the next action deliberately. An uncertain result calls for checking with the recipient before resending.
Check the recipient before typing
ARDA resolves the recipient and rechecks it immediately before sending. Claude Code and Codex use native conversation identity checks; other supported harnesses use terminal hints. The checks reduce misrouting while each agent continues to operate with its existing permissions. Herdr (a third-party terminal workspace manager for AI coding agents; ARDA is Nirvaan's open-source plugin for it) and the user's SSH routes supply cross-machine access.
Use the protocol in real work
The repository includes protocol documentation and a recorded Claude Code/Codex exchange. Nirvaan art-directed and built this playable Next.js retro CRT game with coding and design agents he coordinated over ARDA. Agents handed off research, implementation and review while he owned product storytelling, visual direction and interaction design. Yukti, four routes, pixel-art scenes, subtitles and CRT cabinet keys turn those engineering choices into a game visitors can play.
Next directions
Orca integration and A2A interoperability are the next directions for ARDA. The shipped Herdr (a third-party terminal workspace manager for AI coding agents; ARDA is Nirvaan's open-source plugin for it) plugin provides the communication conventions today. A reproducible cross-machine walkthrough would make the handoff pattern easier for new users to try with their own agents and environments.