cowork-to-code-bridge — async bridge for local Claude Code execution from AutoGen agents

[abhinaykrupa]

Hey AutoGen community!

Building AutoGen agents that need to run code on a real machine (not a sandbox)? Thought this might be useful.

What it does

cowork-to-code-bridge is a local-first async bridge that lets your AutoGen agents escalate complex coding tasks to Claude Code on the user's actual Mac/Linux machine — then poll for results without blocking.

The pattern:

1. AutoGen agent hits a task needing full local context (repos, shell, env)
2. Agent calls escalate_to_claude(prompt) via MCP → returns operation_id immediately
3. Agent polls get_operation_status(operation_id) — non-blocking, idempotent
4. Claude Code runs locally with full machine access
5. Result + resume_receipt streamed back to the agent

Architecture

AutoGen Agent → MCP server → file-based queue → local daemon → Claude Code → results

No cloud endpoints. No open ports. Auth by HMAC-signed token.

Production safety (recently shipped)

• Per-operation metrics: tool_calls, api_spend_estimate, memory_mb, cpu_percent
• Loop detection: auto-alert when same tool called 3+ times with identical args
• Graceful cancellation: SIGTERM + timeout, idempotent
• Quota tracking: daily limits with midnight UTC reset
• 6/6 cancellation scenarios tested

Why this matters for AutoGen

AutoGen's code execution defaults to Docker or local subprocesses — both of which are stateless. This bridge adds:

• Stateful operations (long-running tasks with progress polling)
• Full Claude Code agent (not just a subprocess — it uses the full agent loop)
• Async handoff (fire-and-forget with operation_id, no blocking)

Full integration guide: https://github.com/abhinaykrupa/cowork-to-code-bridge/blob/main/docs/EXTERNAL_AGENT_INTEGRATION.md

Would love feedback from anyone building agents that need local machine access — especially around the stateful execution model. Does this pattern fit how you're using AutoGen?

→ Repo: https://github.com/abhinaykrupa/cowork-to-code-bridge