How Branches works.
Open source infrastructure platform for what happens after someone responds to the Gospel.
How Barnabas works
Powered by Gloo AI technology, Barnabas is an AI agent for flourishing, that equips the saints for ministry. It proposes, and a person approves. For each response it does six things.
Reads the request
Someone says what they want next: to know more, to talk with a Christian, or to find a church near them. Safety checks read their words first, and any sign of crisis goes straight to a named person.
Checks consent
What may be shared, and with whom, is set by a consent policy for their age and region. A model never decides it.
Matches people
It matches people by language, location, and real capacity, only with ministries that have room.
Drafts the handoff and checks its own work
A short note for the receiving ministry, using only facts the person agreed to share. Rules check every note and send problems back to be fixed.
Stops for a person
Then it stops. A real person approves every handoff. Nothing reaches a person or a church until they do.
Follows up
If someone's still waiting, it finds another branch, and a person approves that too.
Young people and consent
Age decides the path. Each person chooses who can get in touch, and can pause or stop at any time.
- 18 and over
- They choose who can get in touch and how.
- 13 to 17
- A parent or guardian says yes before anything reaches a church or ministry. Branches never messages them directly.
- Under 13
- Nothing is collected. They are pointed to a trusted adult and a helpline.
What Barnabas will never do
- Send or publish anything without a person's approval
- Message a young person
- Contact anyone in crisis. A person does that.
- Judge anyone's spiritual state, counsel or diagnose
- Invent a fact about a person
- Quote Scripture without its reference and translation
Open source
Branches is open source under Apache-2.0, free for any ministry, and actively seeking contributors. It is built from eight parts:
- ontology
- runtime
- api
- mcp server
- connectors
- agent
- evals
- consent policy
Further reading
Branches: Agent Build Doc
Barnabas, an agent that proposes while a person approves.
The architecture, every prompt in full, the tools, the evaluation results, and how to reproduce it.
Team Rejoice · 7 October 2026 · PDF, 9 pages, 1.8 MB
FAQ
What is Branches?
The global Gospel response network. It connects ministries together, so every response finds a faithful next step.
Does AI talk to people on its own?
No. Barnabas drafts and proposes. A real person approves every handoff before anything is sent.
Which AI models does it use?
Branches leverages Gloo AI's trusted models and other technologies, and runs on the model a ministry chooses: Gloo AI, Anthropic or OpenAI.
Does it cost anything?
Branches is open source and free for any ministry.
Where is it being used?
Branches is now being trialled at ministries like UEN. Next, it goes live at YouthAlive Adelaide.
How do I get involved?
Try the demo, read the code on GitHub, or email [email protected]. A person reads every message.