When your developers connect their Claude Code agents through Cogent, every team member stays aligned in real time. No more integration surprises, no more "I didn't know you changed that." Just continuous sync across codebases.
This guide walks through the most common use cases with exact commands your teams will use every day.
Get every team member connected in under 2 minutes
Before your agents can collaborate, each developer needs Cogent Bridge installed as an MCP server in their Claude Code environment. There are two approaches: cloud mode (recommended for teams) and local mode (for same-machine sessions).
Install the plugin for slash commands and automatic session discovery:
Restart Claude Code. Use /cogent:register to join the bridge.
Add Cogent Bridge to your Claude Desktop config file:
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Restart Claude Desktop. You'll get the six cogent_* MCP tools. Slash commands (/cogent:register) are Claude Code only — in Desktop, use natural language: "Create a Cogent channel called 'my-project' with secret 'team-secret'".
Step 1: One team member creates a shared channel:
Claude will use cogent_create_session and return a channel name (e.g., sprint-42) and a config snippet. If you omit the name, a friendly name is auto-generated (e.g., swift-fox-a3f1).
Step 2: Share the channel name and secret with your team (Slack, email, etc.)
Step 3: Every other team member joins using the channel name:
Claude will use cogent_join_session to resolve the channel name and join. No UUIDs needed.
Step 4: Each agent registers as a named peer:
Add Cogent Bridge instructions to each project's CLAUDE.md file. When a developer opens Claude Code in that project, the agent automatically knows its role, peer ID, and communication protocol. No manual setup each time.
Frontend and backend build simultaneously without stepping on each other
Your sprint has a "User Profile" feature. The backend team builds the API endpoints while the frontend team builds the UI. Both teams need to agree on the data shape and stay synchronized as implementation evolves.
With Cogent, both Claude Code agents work in parallel in their own repositories. The backend agent shares the API contract as soon as it's defined. The frontend agent builds against that contract and immediately flags any mismatches.
Claude uses cogent_send_message with fromPeerId="backend", toPeerId="frontend".
Both teams work in parallel from minute one. API contract changes propagate instantly. No "integration day" surprises. Features ship faster because both sides stay aligned throughout development, not just at the end.
Find bugs faster when agents share context across codebases
The frontend agent discovers that user profiles show "undefined" for the email field. The bug is actually in the backend API response shape. Instead of filing a ticket and waiting, the agents resolve it in real time.
Bug resolution drops from hours/days (file ticket → triage → assign → investigate → fix → verify) to minutes. The entire investigate-fix-verify cycle happens in a single conversation between agents, with full technical context preserved.
Agree on interfaces before writing a single line of implementation
Before building a new "Orders" feature, the backend and frontend agents negotiate the exact API shape, error codes, pagination format, and validation rules — all through Cogent messages.
Use cogent_get_history after contract negotiation to capture the agreed-upon API spec. This conversation becomes your living documentation — searchable, timestamped, and tied to the actual development context.
API mismatches are the #1 cause of integration failures. By negotiating contracts up front through Cogent, teams eliminate rework. The agents have full codebase context, so they catch incompatibilities that humans in a meeting room would miss.
One agent reviews another's implementation with full context
The backend agent has finished the authentication module. Before merging, the security-focused agent reviews it through Cogent, checking for vulnerabilities, edge cases, and adherence to team standards.
Security reviews happen in real time during development, not as a bottleneck before release. The reviewing agent has full codebase access and can point to exact lines. Issues are found and fixed within the same development session.
Coordinate changes across microservices without breaking the chain
A new "payment refund" feature requires coordinated changes across three services: the API gateway, the payment service, and the notification service. Each has its own agent working in its own repository.
Claude uses cogent_list_peers and returns:
Microservice features that normally take days of back-and-forth across teams ship in a single coordinated session. Each agent knows exactly what the others need, implements it in its own codebase, and confirms when ready. Zero miscommunication. Zero integration drift.
All agents sync on what's changing before anyone writes code
Sprint starts Monday. Three teams are working on overlapping areas of the codebase. Before anyone writes a line of code, their agents exchange planned changes to identify conflicts, dependencies, and coordination points.
Run cogent_get_history at the end of the kick-off to capture all inter-team agreements and identified risks. This is your sprint coordination artifact — far more detailed than what you'd get from a standup meeting.
Breaking changes are identified before they cause damage. Teams coordinate dependencies at the start, not the end. Agents catch conflicts that humans miss because they have full visibility into the actual code that's changing.
Both sides coordinate test execution across service boundaries
The backend agent has finished implementing the orders API. The frontend agent needs to run integration tests against the live backend. They coordinate through Cogent to ensure the backend is running and ready.
Integration testing becomes a conversation, not a ceremony. Agents coordinate service startup, test execution, and failure analysis in real time. Issues are caught and fixed in the same session rather than discovered days later in a CI pipeline.
Every Cogent Bridge tool at a glance
These are the MCP tools available to Claude Code once Cogent Bridge is installed. You don't call these directly — you ask Claude in natural language and it uses the right tool automatically.
| Tool | What It Does | You Say |
|---|---|---|
| cogent_create_session | Creates a new cloud channel. Returns a channel name, token, and secret to share with peers. Auto-generates a name if you don't provide one. | "Create a Cogent channel called 'sprint-42'" |
| cogent_join_session | Joins an existing channel using the channel name and secret. The channel name is the human-readable name (e.g. "sprint-42"), NOT a UUID. | "Join Cogent channel sprint-42 with secret our-team-secret" |
| Tool | What It Does | You Say |
|---|---|---|
| cogent_register_peer | Registers this agent as a named peer on the bridge. Required before sending/receiving messages. | "Register as peerId='backend', label='API Team'" |
| cogent_deregister_peer | Removes this agent from the bridge. Use when done collaborating. | "Deregister from Cogent" |
| cogent_list_peers | Shows all registered peers with their status. Includes stale detection for idle peers. | "Who's on the bridge?" or "List all Cogent peers" |
| Tool | What It Does | You Say |
|---|---|---|
| cogent_send_message | Sends a message from this agent to another registered peer. The recipient agent receives and processes it. | "Tell the frontend team that the API is ready" |
| cogent_get_history | Retrieves the message history. Optionally filter by peer ID. Returns up to 50 messages by default. | "Show me the Cogent message history" |
| cogent_health_check | Runs diagnostics on the bridge: state file, lock mechanism, CLI availability. | "Check if Cogent Bridge is healthy" |
How to structure your teams for maximum Cogent impact
Every project should have a CLAUDE.md that tells the agent its role, peer ID, and communication protocol. This is the single most impactful thing you can do — it turns every Claude Code session into a team-aware agent from the moment it starts.
Use clear, role-based peer IDs that any team member can understand:
Define message formats in your CLAUDE.md so agents communicate consistently:
Create sessions that match your work patterns:
Use cogent_get_history as a management tool. The message history captures every technical decision, every API contract negotiation, every bug report and resolution. This is far richer than any standup summary or ticket description.
Begin with two agents on one feature. Once your team sees the speed improvement, expand to multi-agent workflows. Common progression: