Managed starter agents show RUNNING but never respond to DMs or mentions in local `just dev` environment

[jordanveres]

Managed starter agents show RUNNING but never respond to DMs or mentions in local just dev environment

Summary

Starter agents (Fizz, Honey, Bumble) appear healthy and report RUNNING, but they never respond to either direct messages or channel mentions when running Buzz locally via just dev.

The relay continues to accept and ingest events normally, but no replies are ever produced.

---

Environment

• macOS (Apple Silicon)
• Docker Desktop
• Buzz running from source
• Branch: main

Commit tested:

dd222a509b156ba52ed3219e895d7bf1cf322c92

Working tree:

On branch main
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/main'.

nothing to commit, working tree clean

---

Setup

Repository cloned locally.

Ran:

just setup
just dev

Completed onboarding by:

• Importing an existing Nostr identity
• Allowing macOS Keychain access ("Always Allow")
• Joining the local development community
• Accepting the default starter agents (Fizz, Honey, Bumble)

---

Reproduction

1. Clone the repository.
2. Run:

just setup
just dev

3. Complete onboarding.
4. Import an existing Nostr identity.
5. Verify the starter agents appear.
6. Verify each starter agent reports:
   • Runtime: Codex
   • Status: RUNNING
   • Green status indicator
7. Open either:
   • a direct message with Fizz, or
   • the #Welcome channel.
8. Send:

Reply with exactly: hello

(or any other prompt)

---

Expected behavior

The starter agent should receive the message, invoke the configured Codex runtime, and reply.

The Harness Log should show activity corresponding to the request.

---

Actual behavior

The message is accepted by Buzz but no reply is ever generated.

Observed behavior:

• Starter agents remain RUNNING
• Direct messages never receive a response
• Channel mentions never receive a response
• Harness Log initially remained empty
• No reply is ever posted back into Buzz

---

Relay observations

The relay appears healthy.

Observed during testing:

• Events are accepted successfully
• Events are ingested successfully
• Relay continues normal operation

Representative relay output:

HTTP POST /events
accepted=true

Event ingested via pipeline

The relay continues processing requests normally after the event is accepted.

---

Additional observations

While reproducing the issue:

• The Codex runtime reports as configured.
• Starter agents show a green RUNNING indicator.
• The local relay continues servicing requests normally.
• I did not observe any obvious relay errors or crashes.
• The issue reproduces with both direct messages and channel mentions.

---

What I already verified

• Docker Desktop running
• Local relay starts successfully
• Local development community created
• Existing Nostr identity imported successfully
• macOS Keychain permissions granted
• Codex runtime selected
• Starter agents show RUNNING
• Direct messages tested
• Channel mentions tested
• Clean checkout on current main
• No local modifications

---

Attachments

Screenshot of dm and agent status

---

Notes

I'm happy to collect additional diagnostics or run any suggested debugging commands if they would help narrow this down.