signal-daemon

name	signal-daemon
description	Use this skill whenever you need to read Signal messages or send a Signal message via the signal-daemon HTTP API. Triggers include: reading recent Signal messages, querying messages by sender or group, sending a message to self, a phone number, a group, or a Signal username, or any interaction with the local signal-daemon running on port 6000.

Signal Daemon HTTP API

Overview

A local HTTP daemon runs on http://localhost:6000 and exposes two endpoints:

• GET /messages — query received Signal messages from the local SQLite store
• GET /send — send a Signal message to self, a phone number, a group, or a username

Timestamps are always in milliseconds since Unix epoch.

Important: Sending to self completes immediately. Sending to anyone else returns a confirm_url that must be shown to the user — the message is not sent until the user opens that URL in their browser and clicks "Send".

---

Reading Messages

All messages from the last hour

curl "http://localhost:6000/messages?since=$(python3 -c 'import time; print(int(time.time()*1000) - 3600000)')"

All messages from the last 10 minutes

curl "http://localhost:6000/messages?since=$(python3 -c 'import time; print(int(time.time()*1000) - 600000)')"

All messages from the last 24 hours

curl "http://localhost:6000/messages?since=$(python3 -c 'import time; print(int(time.time()*1000) - 86400000)')"

Filter by sender (phone number or display name)

curl "http://localhost:6000/messages?sender=%2B1234567890"

Note: + must be URL-encoded as %2B in phone numbers.

Filter by sender name

curl --get "http://localhost:6000/messages" --data-urlencode "sender=Alice"

Filter by group ID

curl "http://localhost:6000/messages?group=AfL%2Fco87TsyfTv4FqgJfcF6rNWoRkO2CYLybn83tfTU%3D"

Combine filters: sender + time window

curl --get "http://localhost:6000/messages" \
  --data-urlencode "sender=Alice" \
  --data-urlencode "since=$(python3 -c 'import time; print(int(time.time()*1000) - 3600000)')"

Between two timestamps

curl "http://localhost:6000/messages?since=1774390000000&until=1774399000000"

Response format

{
  "count": 2,
  "messages": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "timestamp": 1774397441614,
      "source": "[phone]",
      "source_name": "Alice",
      "group_id": "AfL/co87TsyfTv4FqgJfcF6rNWoRkO2CYLybn83tfTU=",
      "message": "Hello there",
      "raw_json": "...",
      "received_at": "2026-03-25T02:00:00.000000"
    }
  ]
}

Notes

• Only messages with non-null text are returned (attachments, reactions, and sync events are excluded)
• timestamp is when the message was sent (milliseconds)
• received_at is when the poller collected it (ISO 8601 UTC string)
• group_id is null for direct messages

---

Sending Messages

The ?to= parameter accepts three kinds of recipient:

Format	Example	Description
Phone number	[phone]	Must start with + and country code
Group ID	AfL/co87Ts...	Base64 string from group_id in /messages
Signal username	alice.01	Contains a dot, e.g. name.NN

Send to self (no confirmation required)

When to matches your own account number, the message is sent immediately.

curl --get "http://localhost:6000/send" \
  --data-urlencode "to=[phone]" \
  --data-urlencode "message=Hello from the daemon"

Response format (sent immediately)

{
  "ok": true,
  "to": "[phone]",
  "message": "Hello from the daemon"
}

---

Send to another person, group, or username — requires user confirmation

# To a phone number
curl --get "http://localhost:6000/send" \
  --data-urlencode "to=[phone]" \
  --data-urlencode "message=Hello Alice"

# To a group (use group_id from /messages)
curl --get "http://localhost:6000/send" \
  --data-urlencode "to=AfL/co87TsyfTv4FqgJfcF6rNWoRkO2CYLybn83tfTU=" \
  --data-urlencode "message=Hello everyone"

# To a Signal username
curl --get "http://localhost:6000/send" \
  --data-urlencode "to=alice.01" \
  --data-urlencode "message=Hello Alice"

Response format (confirmation required)

{
  "pending": true,
  "confirm_url": "http://localhost:7000/confirm?token=...",
  "to": "AfL/co87TsyfTv4FqgJfcF6rNWoRkO2CYLybn83tfTU=",
  "display_name": "Family Chat",
  "message": "Hello everyone",
  "note": "Open confirm_url in your browser to approve or deny this message."
}

When you receive a pending: true response, you must present the confirm_url to the user. The message has NOT been sent yet. The user must open the URL in their browser and click "Send" to approve, or "Don't send" to cancel. Do not silently discard the URL.

Notes

• display_name is the human-readable name shown on the confirmation page. For groups it is the group name looked up from signal-cli; for phone numbers and usernames it is the to value as given.
• Signal usernames (e.g. alice.01) are detected by the presence of a dot and a short length. If you pass something that is neither a phone number nor a known group ID and does not match the username heuristic, it will be sent as a username anyway — signal-cli will return an error if it is not valid.

---

Query Parameter Reference

Parameter	Endpoint	Type	Description
since	/messages	int	Start timestamp in milliseconds (inclusive)
until	/messages	int	End timestamp in milliseconds (inclusive)
sender	/messages	string	Filter by phone number (e.g. [phone]) or display name
group	/messages	string	Filter by base64 group ID
to	/send	string	Recipient: phone number, group ID, or Signal username (required)
message	/send	string	Message text (required)

All parameters are optional for /messages. to and message are required for /send.

---

Timestamp Quick Reference

# Current time in ms
python3 -c 'import time; print(int(time.time()*1000))'

# 10 minutes ago
python3 -c 'import time; print(int(time.time()*1000) - 600000)'

# 1 hour ago
python3 -c 'import time; print(int(time.time()*1000) - 3600000)'

# 24 hours ago
python3 -c 'import time; print(int(time.time()*1000) - 86400000)'

# 7 days ago
python3 -c 'import time; print(int(time.time()*1000) - 604800000)'