Swarm-Forge Agent Backends: Supporting Claude, Codex, Copilot, and Grok for Different Roles

Swarm-Forge supports all four major LLM providers—Claude, Codex, Copilot, and Grok—allowing each role to specify its backend via the .swarmforge/roles.tsv configuration file.

Swarm-Forge is an agent orchestration framework that assigns specific agent backends to distinct roles such as coder, cleaner, and reviewer. According to the unclebob/swarm-forge source code, the system treats backend selection as a configurable property, enabling teams to route tasks to OpenAI Codex, xAI Grok, Anthropic Claude, or GitHub Copilot based on workload requirements.

Supported Agent Backends for Swarm-Forge Roles

The repository's test suite validates that Codex and Grok are fully operational, while the architecture is designed to accept Claude and Copilot without modification.

Codex (OpenAI)

In test/swarmforge/script_test.clj at line 68, the test suite verifies Codex integration for the coder role:

"...\tCoder\tcodex\ttask\n"

Line 69 demonstrates a cleaner role also using Codex but in batch mode:

"...\tCleaner\tcodex\tbatch\n"

Grok (xAI)

Grok support is validated through specific test cases including grok-launch-command-passes-initial-prompt and grok-launch-command-uses-bypass-permissions-with-always-approve. The tests confirm that Grok receives the --cwd flag for directory context (see script_test.clj lines 231‑233).

Claude and Copilot

While the current test harness focuses on Codex and Grok, handoff_lib.bb accepts any string value for the backend parameter. The swarmforge/handoff-protocol.md specification confirms that claude and copilot are valid backend identifiers ready for use in production roles.

How Role-Backend Assignment Works

Swarm-Forge maps roles to backends through a tab-separated values file located at .swarmforge/roles.tsv. Each row defines seven columns:

<role-id>    <worktree-name>    <root-path>    <session-type>    <Role-display-name>    <backend>    <mode>

The backend column accepts literal strings: codex, grok, claude, or copilot. The mode column specifies execution style: task for single-turn requests or batch for multi-turn workflows.

When handoff_lib.bb processes a role, it extracts these values and constructs a launch command:

swarmforge.sh window <role> <backend> <worktree>

Configuring Backends in the Roles TSV File

To assign a specific LLM to a role, edit .swarmforge/roles.tsv using tab separation:

coder    swarmforge-coder    /path/to/project    session    Coder    codex    task
reviewer    swarmforge-reviewer    /path/to/project    session    Reviewer    claude    batch
assistant    swarmforge-assistant    /path/to/project    session    Assistant    copilot    task

For Grok-specific roles, ensure the launcher receives the working directory context:

architect    swarmforge-arch    /path/to/project    session    Architect    grok    batch

Launching Agents with Specific Backends

The swarmforge/scripts/swarmforge.bb launcher receives the backend identifier as an argument and delegates to the appropriate provider-specific launch script. For Grok-backed roles, the launch command validation confirms the presence of the --cwd flag pointing to the worktree root.

Example invocation for a Grok-backed coder role:

swarmforge.sh window coder grok master

This executes Grok with the initial prompt and bypass permissions configured for the master worktree context.

Summary

• Swarm-Forge supports four agent backends: Claude, Codex, Copilot, and Grok.
• Backend assignment occurs in .swarmforge/roles.tsv via the sixth column.
• Codex and Grok are explicitly tested in test/swarmforge/script_test.clj.
• Claude and Copilot are architecturally supported through the string-based backend parameter in handoff_lib.bb.
• Execution modes (task vs batch) determine whether the agent runs single-turn or multi-turn workflows.
• Adding new providers requires only updating the launch scripts to recognize the backend name string.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I configure a role to use Claude instead of Codex?

Edit .swarmforge/roles.tsv and change the sixth column from codex to claude. Ensure the columns are tab-separated. The handoff_lib.bb library will pass the string claude to the launcher without requiring code changes.

What is the difference between task and batch modes?

The mode column in the roles TSV determines workflow style. task mode executes a single-turn request suitable for quick code generation, while batch mode enables multi-turn conversations for complex refactoring or review sessions.

Where are the backend launch commands validated?

Validation occurs in test/swarmforge/script_test.clj, which verifies that Codex receives standard parameters and Grok includes the --cwd flag (lines 231‑233). The test/swarmforge/handoff_test.clj file validates TSV parsing and backend column extraction.

Can I add a custom LLM provider beyond the four supported backends?

Yes. Because handoff_lib.bb treats the backend as an opaque string, you can add any provider name to the TSV file. You must update swarmforge.sh or swarmforge.bb to recognize the new backend string and invoke the appropriate launch command for that provider.

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