Communication channels define how messages flow between external platforms (Discord, GitHub, Signal, Slack) and the agent fleet.

Each channel entry in workspace/channels.yaml does three things:

1. Routes inbound messages from that platform channel to a specific agent — no keyword matching required
2. Identifies the agent — replies come from that agent's own bot identity (its own Discord bot, Slack token, etc.)
3. Enables the flow sensor — every message becomes a flow.item.* event that FlowMonitorPlugin tracks

---

channels.yaml schema

# workspace/channels.yaml

channels:
  - id: quinn-pr-reviews          # unique ID (used in logs and API)
    platform: discord              # discord | github | linear | signal | slack
    channelId: "1234567890"        # Discord channel ID
    agent: quinn                   # agent that handles this channel
    agentBotTokenEnv: QUINN_DISCORD_TOKEN  # env var for Quinn's bot token
    description: PR review requests

  - id: github-protoWorkstacean
    platform: github
    repo: protoLabsAI/protoWorkstacean
    agent: quinn

Copy workspace/channels.yaml.example to workspace/channels.yaml and edit.

The file hot-reloads every 5 seconds — no restart needed.

---

Platform setup

Discord — multiple bot identities

Each Discord channel can have its own bot. When a message arrives, the router looks up the channel in the registry and routes to the assigned agent. Replies come from that agent's own bot account.

Setup:

1. Create a Discord application + bot for each agent at discord.com/developers
2. Copy each bot token to an env var: QUINN_DISCORD_TOKEN, AVA_DISCORD_TOKEN, etc.
3. Add entries to workspace/channels.yaml:

channels:
  - id: quinn-prs
    platform: discord
    channelId: "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID"   # right-click channel → Copy Channel ID
    agent: quinn
    agentBotTokenEnv: QUINN_DISCORD_TOKEN

4. Invite each bot to your server with the bot + applications.commands scopes

If agentBotTokenEnv is not set, the default DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN bot handles that channel.

How it works end-to-end:

User @mentions bot in #pr-reviews
  → DiscordPlugin publishes message.inbound.discord.{channelId}
    → RouterPlugin looks up channelId in ChannelRegistry
      → finds agent: quinn
        → agent.skill.request with targets: ["quinn"]
          → SkillDispatcherPlugin routes to Quinn's executor
            → Quinn replies
              → DiscordPlugin sends reply FROM Quinn's bot client

GitHub

Route @mentions on a specific repository to a specific agent:

  - id: github-protoWorkstacean
    platform: github
    repo: protoLabsAI/protoWorkstacean
    agent: quinn

When someone @mentions the bot on this repo, RouterPlugin injects targets: ["quinn"] into the skill request, bypassing keyword matching.

Signal

  - id: signal-ops
    platform: signal
    groupId: "YOUR_SIGNAL_GROUP_ID"
    agent: ava
    description: Ops escalation channel

SignalPlugin (lib/plugins/signal.ts) is fully wired — a WebSocket listener for inbound messages plus an outbound sender. Configure it with SIGNAL_URL + SIGNAL_NUMBER.

Slack

  - id: slack-eng
    platform: slack
    slackChannelId: "C1234567890"
    agentSlackTokenEnv: QUINN_SLACK_TOKEN
    agent: quinn

The channel registry accepts platform: slack entries, but no SlackPlugin exists yet — there is nothing to deliver or receive Slack messages. The schema is registry-ready; the plugin is not implemented.

---

Adding a channel at runtime

Edit workspace/channels.yaml directly — the file hot-reloads every 5 seconds, so no restart is required. There is no POST /api/channels write endpoint; channels are managed through the YAML file.

A read endpoint exists but is currently a hardcoded empty stub:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/channels   # GET — always returns { "success": true, "data": [] }

It is wired in src/api/operations.ts and does not yet reflect the live registry.

---

Research sharing across channels

Any agent can publish a knowledge.shared event on the bus to share context with other channels:

bus.publish("knowledge.shared", {
  id: crypto.randomUUID(),
  correlationId: crypto.randomUUID(),
  topic: "knowledge.shared",
  timestamp: Date.now(),
  payload: {
    source: "quinn",
    content: "PR #123 has a type safety issue in the executor layer",
    tags: ["pr-review", "type-safety"],
    projectSlug: "protoWorkstacean",
  },
});

From Discord, use the /share slash command (if configured in workspace/discord.yaml) or POST /publish:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/publish \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "topic": "knowledge.shared",
    "payload": {
      "source": "user",
      "content": "The auth refactor is blocked on legal review",
      "tags": ["auth", "blocked"]
    }
  }'

Agents subscribed to knowledge.shared (via their skill definitions or workspace plugins) receive this context automatically.

---

How routing priority works

When a message arrives, RouterPlugin resolves the agent in this order:

Priority	Source	Example
1	channels.yaml channel assignment	channelId: "1234" → agent: quinn
2	payload.skillHint from surface plugin	Discord slash command, Linear webhook
3	Keyword match from workspace/agents/*.yaml	message content contains "review" → quinn
4	ROUTER_DEFAULT_SKILL env var	catch-all for unmatched messages

Channel assignments always win. If a channel is assigned to Quinn, she gets the message even if the content looks like it belongs to another agent.

---

Disabled channels

Set enabled: false to temporarily disable a channel without removing it:

  - id: frank-deployments
    platform: discord
    channelId: "1111222233334444"
    agent: frank
    enabled: false   # Frank is offline — messages fall back to keyword routing