ACO System: Open-Source Multi-Agent Pipeline from GitHub Issue to Merged PR

ACO System is an open-source multi-agent framework that runs the entire software development pipeline autonomously — from a GitHub Issue to a merged PR — using six specialized AI agents. Built by Aniket Karne, it's designed to eliminate context loss and handoff overhead typical in human-only development workflows.

Unlike LangChain, AutoGen, or CrewAI, ACO's agents do not communicate with each other directly. Instead, each agent reads from and writes to a shared database. Complexity lives in the schema, not in inter-agent logic. The pipeline runs with SQLite in development and Postgres in production, and ships with a live Kanban dashboard and streaming event feed for real-time agent observation.

Pipeline Stages

• PM agent writes the user story from a given idea.
• Planner agent breaks the story into tasks with estimates.
• Architect agent (hard gate) validates feasibility without using an LLM — it scans for hardcoded secrets, missing acceptance criteria, and invalid tech stack configuration. If the story fails, it never reaches a developer.
• Developer agent creates a branch and opens a PR.
• QA agent reviews the code and runs tests.
• Human gives final sign-off before merge.

The Architect gate is deterministic, not probabilistic. It enforces a hard set of rules: no hardcoded secrets, acceptance criteria must be complete, and tech stack must be consistent. This prevents hallucinated or unworkable PRs from ever being generated.

Why It's Different

Agents run independently via a shared database, not through agent-to-agent messages. This design keeps each agent simple and the overall system predictable. The framework is built in Python with a Next.js frontend for the dashboard.

Getting Started

The project is open source on GitHub. Clone the repo, run with SQLite locally, and connect to Postgres for production. The Kanban dashboard and event stream are live by default.

Who It's For

Dev teams building agentic CI/CD pipelines, researchers exploring multi-agent architectures, and anyone tired of context loss between handoffs.