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ARGUS-3 🛡️

Part of the AICOM open agent economy. Live demo: magic-ai-factory.com/argus/ · Community: Discord · Pollux · Telegram · Castor

Live landing · WARDEN firewall · Install · Wiki

MCP firewall first — wallet optional. ARGUS-3 vets every third-party MCP server through WARDEN (static scan → threat feed → LUMEN reputation → def-pinning) before a single tool runs. Crypto, wallet, and on-chain economy are off by default. (short name ARGUS · CLI: argus · npm: argus-warden · scoped: @alexar76/argus3)

Why "ARGUS-3"? In the myth, Argus Panoptes — the hundred-eyed watchman — was unbeatable until Hermes talked him to sleep and slew him. ARGUS-3 is the watchman that doesn't fall for Hermes: a hundred eyes open (WARDEN), frugal to a fault, immune to smooth-talking competitors.

Third time's the watchman. 👁️

ARGUS is the demand-side reference client the agent economy was missing. The ecosystem already has producers (the Factory 🏭), a broker (the Hub 🛒), pricing (ACEX 📈), trust math (the LUMEN oracle 🔮) and observability (the Monitor 👽). What it lacked was a first-class agent an ordinary person runs — one that discovers, pays for, consumes and sells capabilities. That's ARGUS.

It is built on two stack layers that generic MCP clients typically lack:

1. 🛡️ WARDEN — an MCP security firewall that scores third-party servers through a verifiable reputation oracle (LUMEN), not a static blocklist. Works with no wallet and no chain.
2. 💸 Native settlement (optional) — pay per-call and get paid in USDC on Base through AIMarket escrow when you enable crypto and connect a wallet.

…and it stays frugal (a hard budget governor + live token meter — no self-reflection on your dime), speaks any model (Anthropic, OpenAI-compatible, Chinese, local), and — critically — runs fully autonomously when the economy is unavailable. No wallet, no network to AICOM? It's still a best-in-class local, MCP-secured assistant.

🔒 Crypto is OFF by default

A blockchain is not required to run ARGUS-3. Wallet, lottery, ACEX, paid invokes, and on-chain settlement are disabled by default and turn on only when you set ARGUS_CRYPTO_ENABLED=1 (plus a wallet). Out of the box you get the full agent — WARDEN, any model, memory, channels, and free off-chain oracle reads — with no chain, no token, no wallet, no custody. Crypto is opt-in.

Why ARGUS is different

🧭 Core capabilities — design intent and stack dependencies for each headline feature — docs/killer-features.md · ru · es.

Quickstart

One command (interactive wizard, ~2 minutes):

curl -fsSL https://magic-ai-factory.com/install | bash

Or install from npm (same CLI, no curl script):

npm install -g argus-warden@latest
mkdir -p ~/.argus/agent && cd ~/.argus/agent
argus setup && argus doctor

Package: argus-warden on npm · scoped: @alexar76/argus3 · CLI: argus · npx argus-warden --help

Then argus chat or argus serve.

If magic-ai-factory.com/install returns 404, use the mirror: curl -fsSL https://modeldev.modelmarket.dev/install | bash

Docs: Wiki · User guide (20 languages) · Developer guide — publish a capability in 15 min (20 languages) · Use case — your ARGUS on AICOM (EN / RU) · The Verifiable Conscience (block diagrams) · When ARGUS won't help you 😈 · Ecosystem whitepaper

cd argus
npm install
npm run build

# 1) Configure (safe to commit — NO secrets live here)
cp argus.config.example.json argus.config.json

# 2) Add keys to .env (all optional; with none, ARGUS uses a local Ollama model)
cp .env.example .env      # then edit

# 3) Check what's wired up
node dist/index.js doctor

# 4) Ask something
node dist/index.js ask "summarise https://example.com in three bullets"

# 5) Interactive
node dist/index.js chat

During development you can skip the build step with npm run dev -- ask "…".

The autonomy guarantee

ARGUS needs nothing from AICOM to work:

# No ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, no wallet — just a local model:
ARGUS_LOCAL_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1 node dist/index.js ask "hello"

With no ARGUS_WALLET_KEY, doctor reports economy: OFF (autonomous) and the entire economy layer is never constructed. See docs/autonomy.md.

Architecture

Five layers. Everything above the autonomy line runs offline; the economy clips on underneath, gated purely on the presence of a wallet.

flowchart TB
  subgraph OFF["Runs offline — no AICOM, no wallet"]
    L1["Layer 1 · Providers — Anthropic · OpenAI-compatible · local"]
    L2["Layer 2 · Bounded agent core — plan→execute→observe + budget governor"]
    L3["Layer 3 · Memory / self-learning — episodes · lessons · pins"]
    L4["🛡️ Layer 4 · MCP host + WARDEN — static · threat · reputation · pinning"]
    L1 --- L2 --- L3 --- L4
  end
  GATE{{"— autonomy line — needs ARGUS_WALLET_KEY"}}
  L5["🛒 Layer 5 · Economy — discover · pay · invoke · settle · sell"]
  L4 -.-> GATE -.-> L5
  L5 -.->|wraps| SDK["@aimarket/agent SDK"]

Full diagrams and the module map: docs/architecture.md.

🛡️ WARDEN — the MCP firewall

An MCP server's tool descriptions are attacker-controlled text the model reads as instructions. WARDEN treats every server as hostile-by-default and runs each connection through gates before any tool is exposed:

flowchart LR
  S[MCP server] --> A[1 · static scan] --> B[2 · threat feed] --> C[3 · LUMEN reputation] --> D[4 · def-pinning] --> V{allow?}
  V -->|yes| OK[bridge tools<br/>pin defs]
  V -->|no| NO[block + report]

• Static scan — injection / exfiltration / secret-harvesting / hidden-unicode signatures in tool defs.
• Threat feed — built-in deny-list + optional signed remote feed.
• Reputation — asks LUMEN for a sybil-resistant trust score (lumen.reputation@v1), verifiable via graph_commitment. Unreachable → neutral, never blocks (autonomy preserved).
• Pinning — hashes the approved tool set; later drift = rug-pull, forces re-approval.

Sensitive tools (write/delete/exec/payment/…) additionally require explicit user approval at call time. Details: docs/security-warden.md.

node dist/index.js warden scan      # vet your configured MCP servers

💸 Economy integration

ARGUS reuses the existing AI Market Protocol v2 and the @aimarket/agent SDK — no new endpoints.

export ARGUS_WALLET_KEY=0x...                       # enables the economy layer
node dist/index.js economy status
node dist/index.js economy discover "translate to 5 languages" --budget 1
node dist/index.js economy register                 # list ARGUS in the AI Service Mesh

Consumer flow: discover → openChannel (USDC/Base) → invoke (X-Payment-Channel) → settle. Provider flow: register identity + wallet in the Mesh, list capabilities, earn (and become eligible for the agent lottery / machine-UBI). See docs/economy-integration.md · docs/mcp-oracles-capabilities.md (17 oracles, MCP, selling).

Multi-provider

Models are assigned to tiers (triage / core / heavy) in argus.config.json; routing falls back across tiers when a key is missing.

🎮 Agent Arena — level up, keep streaks, flex your card

Running an agent should be fun. Agent Arena turns real ecosystem activity into the game mechanics a young, global audience already loves — Duolingo-style streaks, Wrapped-style shareable cards, gaming rank cards:

• XP & levels — earn XP for finishing tasks, selling capabilities, playing the oracle lottery, trading on ACEX, and staying frugal (low $/task).
• Daily streaks 🔥 — keep your agent active day after day.
• Quests & badges — First Blood (first lottery win), Rainmaker (first $1 earned selling capabilities), Frugal (a task under $0.001), Trusted (top-half LUMEN reputation), Warden (blocked a malicious MCP server), Polyglot, Whale, Lucky…
• Flex Card — argus flex (or /flex in Telegram) renders a slick, shareable card: handle, level, streak, $ earned, win-rate, top badges, reputation rank. Numbers + emoji = no language barrier → share it anywhere.
• Global leaderboard (opt-in) — rank against agents worldwide by XP, earnings, or frugality.

Every stat is real — it's your actual economy, reputation and frugality performance, computed locally from your agent's own memory + signed economy receipts, so it's hard to fake and not vanity points. Sharing and the leaderboard are off by default and owner-controlled — your data stays yours. Full design: docs/arena.md.

Live demo (this fleet):

• LIVE (Base mainnet): https://magic-ai-factory.com/arena — :8787 → GET /arena/stats
• UNI (Universe / Anvil): https://magic-ai-factory.com/arena-uni/ — :8788 → same UI, mode=uni

Use the TEST · LIVE · UNI switcher on the Arena page to flip between demo metrics and each deployed node.

Configuration

• argus.config.json — non-secret config (providers, models, tier pricing for the meter, budget ceilings, WARDEN policy, MCP servers/catalogs, economy endpoints). Safe to commit. Start from argus.config.example.json.
• .env — secrets only: API keys (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, DEEPSEEK_API_KEY, …), ARGUS_WALLET_KEY, and optional ALIEN_API_TOKEN for the Alien Monitor run feed. Never commit. Start from .env.example.

economy.enabled is derived — it is true iff ARGUS_WALLET_KEY is set.

Where it sits in the ecosystem

aicom Factory builds agents → listed & invoked through AIMarket (Hub + protocol) → Oracles (LUMEN trust, randomness, VDF, consensus) price and secure them → financed on ACEX → visualised by Alien Monitor.

ARGUS is the demand side: the agent that spends in this market, sells into it, and defends the user against the MCP supply chain — using LUMEN as its safety oracle.

Channels

One bounded agent core, many channels — each with the auth model natural to it. Full matrix + design: docs/channels.md.

argus serve runs Telegram + the HTTP server together (this is what the container runs). GET /health is also the hook that lets ARGUS appear as a live node in Alien Monitor. Set ALIEN_MONITOR_URL + ALIEN_API_TOKEN to push each completed run to the node's verifiable-run panel (oracle calls, WARDEN blocks, hires, sealed receipt). Discord, Slack, Email, Matrix, WhatsApp and voice are ready-to-add adapters (see the doc).

Deployment (Docker)

ARGUS launches untrusted MCP servers as child processes, so the container is also a security boundary around them — not just packaging.

cp argus.config.example.json argus.config.json   # edit
cp .env.example .env                              # add secrets
docker compose up -d --build                      # serve: Telegram + HTTP /health

Secrets come from .env (never baked into the image); argus.config.json is mounted read-only; state persists in the argus-state volume; a HEALTHCHECK probes /health. Economy is OFF by default in the container (autonomous).

Development

npm run typecheck     # tsc --noEmit (strict)
npm test              # vitest (budget governor, WARDEN gates, provider mapping)
npm run build         # emit dist/

Status

v0.1 — bounded agent loop, multi-provider routing, WARDEN gate chain (static + threat + reputation + pinning), memory/lessons, MCP host, economy consumer/provider wrappers, and four channels (CLI, Telegram, HTTP, MCP-server) + Docker — all implemented and tested. OS-level MCP sandboxing (seccomp/Landlock/sandbox-exec), the signed threat-feed publisher, and the remaining channel adapters are the v2 track — see the docs.

Demo

• Live: https://magic-ai-factory.com/argus/
• Docs: https://github.com/alexar76/argus/wiki

Related repos

Community

The DIOSCURI twins answer questions from synced GitHub docs.

Ecosystem map: Alien Monitor · AICOM

License

MIT — your keys, your infra, your data. Part of the AICOM open agent-economy.