Proliferate unifies Claude Code, Codex

The moment I realized I could have Codex write the tests, Claude Code refactor the implementation, and Grok review the PR — all without leaving a single terminal — I stopped paying for three separate subscriptions. That was two weeks ago. I've been running Proliferate on a home server since, and it's the first tool that actually delivers on the "one interface for every agent" promise without feeling like a compromised wrapper.

Proliferate (GitHub: proliferate-ai/proliferate) is an open-source, self-hostable AI IDE from YC S25 that lets you drive Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, OpenCode, Cursor, and Grok from the same UI. Each agent keeps its native inference path — Bedrock, Azure, local vLLM, whatever you configure — so you're not locked into a lowest-common-denominator abstraction layer. The AGPL-3.0 license means you can audit, fork, or run it behind your own VPN without asking permission.

Inter-agent delegation that works

The feature that changed my workflow: a parent agent can spawn subagents and pass context between them. My current loop:

1. Fable (my planning agent) breaks down a feature spec into discrete tasks
2. Codex implements the core logic with its computer-use tooling
3. OpenCode with a local Qwen2.5-Coder model reviews the diff for style and security issues
4. Claude Code writes the integration tests and updates documentation

All four sessions share a persistent workspace. The handoff is explicit — you see each agent's output, approve or reject, then pass the baton. No hidden state, no "trust me bro" black boxes.

# Example workflow snippet from my code-review pipeline
steps:
  - agent: codex
    task: "implement user-auth module per SPEC.md"
    model: gpt-4o
  - agent: opencode
    task: "review diff for OWASP top 10 violations"
    model: qwen2.5-coder:32b
    approval_gate: true
  - agent: claude-code
    task: "write integration tests for auth flow"
    model: claude-3-5-sonnet

Workflows = reusable automation, not chat history

Workflows are where Proliferate separates from "just another chat UI." You define a chain of agent sessions with human approval gates, document passing, and per-step model selection. I built one for our PR process: spec ingestion → implementation → security review → test generation → changelog draft → final human sign-off. Runs in about 12 minutes end-to-end. The YAML is version-controlled alongside the repo, so the automation evolves with the codebase.

Rough edges worth knowing

• No Windows support yet — Docker on WSL2 works but expect path-mapping friction
• Agent config UI is minimal — you'll edit JSON for Bedrock/Azure credentials
• Streaming output occasionally desyncs between the frontend and long-running Codex sessions
• Resource usage — running three agents concurrently needs ~24 GB RAM on my box

The team ships weekly. Rough spots get patched fast.

If you're evaluating AI workflow tooling for a team that refuses vendor lock-in, spin up the Docker Compose stack and throw a real task at it. The self-hosted story is genuine — no telemetry, no external calls unless you configure them.