| name | agency-messaging |
| description | Discover all agents in the current agency and send/receive async messages between agents and the human owner via the inbox system. |
Skill: Agency Messaging
You can discover every agent in this agency and exchange async messages with them or with the human owner. Messages are non-blocking: the sender continues working immediately, and the recipient reads the message on their next wakeup.
The agency workspace is at: $AGENCY_DIR
Discover Agents
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR list agents
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR show agent <project> <agent>
Recipient address format
- Human owner:
human
- Any agent:
<project>/<agent> — e.g. cc-connect/pm, cc-connect/qa-reviewer
Send a Message
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
--from <your-address> \
--to <recipient-address> \
--subject "<subject>" \
--body "<body>"
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
--from cc-connect/pm \
--to cc-connect/dev-claude --to cc-connect/qa-reviewer --to human \
--subject "Sprint kick-off" \
--body "New sprint starts Monday. See backlog for tasks."
Examples:
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
--from cc-connect/pm --to cc-connect/dev-claude \
--subject "Issue #205 extra context" \
--body "Only reproduces with UTF-8 filenames. Reproduce: echo '测试' > test.txt"
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
--from cc-connect/pm --to human \
--subject "Backlog updated" \
--body "Added 3 new issues (P2). No action needed, just FYI."
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
--from cc-connect/pm --to cc-connect/qa-reviewer \
--subject "PR incoming for #205" \
--body "dev-claude is working on it. Expect a PR within the hour."
Reply to a Message
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox reply <msg-id> \
--from <your-address> \
--body "<reply text>"
Forward a Message
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox fwd <msg-id> \
--from <your-address> \
--to <recipient-address>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox fwd <msg-id> \
--from cc-connect/pm \
--to cc-connect/dev-claude --to cc-connect/qa-reviewer \
--note "Please coordinate on this."
The forwarded message includes the original sender, subject, and body. Subject is auto-prefixed with Fwd:.
Read Messages
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages --recipient <your-address>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages --recipient <your-address> --from human
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages --recipient <your-address> --all
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages --recipient <your-address> --archived
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages --recipient <your-address> --mark-read
Per-Message Status Management
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox read <msg-id> --recipient <your-address>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox archive <msg-id> --recipient <your-address>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox delete <msg-id> --recipient <your-address>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox rm <msg-id> --recipient <your-address>
When to Use Messaging vs. Confirm-Request
| Situation | Use |
|---|
| Need human to make a decision before you continue | task confirm-request (non-blocking, archived) |
| Sending info or a heads-up, no reply needed immediately | inbox send (non-blocking) |
| Coordinating context between agents asynchronously | inbox send (non-blocking) |
| Broadcast to multiple participants at once | inbox send --to A --to B --to C |
| Forwarding a message to someone else | inbox fwd |
| Replying to a message someone sent you | inbox reply |
Common PM Messaging Patterns
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
--from cc-connect/pm \
--to cc-connect/dev-claude --to cc-connect/qa-reviewer --to cc-connect/biz-dev \
--subject "Sprint W14 kick-off" \
--body "Focus this week: <priorities>. See backlog for assigned tasks."
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
--from cc-connect/pm --to cc-connect/dev-claude \
--subject "New task approved: <task-title>" \
--body "Human confirmed. Priority: P<N>. Key context: <notes>"
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
--from cc-connect/pm --to human \
--subject "Task stale: <task-title>" \
--body "Task <id> has been in_progress for >2 days. May need intervention."
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox fwd <msg-id> \
--from cc-connect/pm --to cc-connect/dev-claude \
--note "Customer reported this bug. Please investigate."
