| name | bus-reference |
| description | Complete cortextos bus CLI reference - all available commands with examples. Use when you need to look up a bus command, check syntax, or discover available tools. |
| triggers | ["bus","list-tasks","create-task","update-task","complete-task","send-message","check-inbox","log-event","update-heartbeat","create-approval","send-telegram","list-agents","list-skills","read-all-heartbeats","check-stale-tasks","how do I","what command"] |
Bus Script Reference - COMPLETE TOOL INVENTORY
Every tool you have. Use them or the system cannot see your work.
All commands are available via cortextos bus <command>.
Tasks
create-task
Create a new task in the system. Tasks are visible on the dashboard.
cortextos bus create-task "<title>" --desc "<description>" [--assignee <agent>] [--priority <p>] [--project <name>]
- title (required): Short task name
- --desc (optional): What needs to be done - be specific
- --assignee (optional): Agent name. Defaults to $CTX_AGENT_NAME
- --priority (optional):
urgent | high | normal | low. Defaults to normal
- --project (optional): Project grouping
Example:
cortextos bus create-task "Write blog post" --desc "Draft a 500-word post on agent orchestration" --priority normal
update-task
Update a task's status. Use this when you START working on something.
cortextos bus update-task "<task_id>" <status>
- task_id (required): The task ID from create-task or list-tasks
- status (required):
pending | in_progress | blocked | completed
Example:
cortextos bus update-task "task_abc123" in_progress
complete-task
Mark a task as completed with a result. Use this when DONE, not when starting.
cortextos bus complete-task "<task_id>" --result "<what you produced>"
- task_id (required): The task ID
- --result (optional): What was produced/accomplished
Example:
cortextos bus complete-task "task_abc123" --result "Deployed landing page to production. URL: https://site.com"
list-tasks
List and filter tasks. Use during every heartbeat to check your queue.
cortextos bus list-tasks [--status S] [--agent A] [--priority P] [--all-orgs]
- --status: Filter by
pending | in_progress | blocked | completed
- --agent: Filter by agent name
- --priority: Filter by
urgent | high | normal | low
- --all-orgs: Show tasks across all orgs
Example:
cortextos bus list-tasks --agent $CTX_AGENT_NAME --status pending
Messages
send-message
Send a message to another agent. They will see it on their next inbox check.
cortextos bus send-message <target_agent> <priority> '<message_body>' [reply_to]
- target_agent (required): Target agent name
- priority (required):
urgent | high | normal | low
- message_body (required): The message content. Use single quotes around JSON or complex strings
- reply_to (optional): Message ID this is responding to
Example:
cortextos bus send-message <agent-name> high '{"action":"deploy","repo":"website","branch":"main"}'
check-inbox
Check for incoming messages from other agents. Run this EVERY heartbeat.
cortextos bus check-inbox
Returns a list of messages. Each has an ID you must ACK.
ack-inbox
Acknowledge a message. Un-ACK'd messages are re-delivered in 5 minutes.
cortextos bus ack-inbox "<message_id>"
Example:
cortextos bus ack-inbox "msg_xyz789"
Events
log-event
Log a structured event. Events are the primary way the dashboard tracks your activity.
No events = you look dead. Log aggressively.
cortextos bus log-event <category> <event_name> <severity> --meta '<json_payload>'
- category (required):
action | task | heartbeat | message | approval | error | metric | milestone
- event_name (required): Descriptive event name (e.g.,
session_start, task_completed, deploy_started)
- severity (required):
info | warning | error | critical
- --meta (optional): Metadata as JSON string
Examples:
cortextos bus log-event heartbeat agent_heartbeat info --meta '{"agent":"'$CTX_AGENT_NAME'"}'
cortextos bus log-event task task_completed info --meta '{"task_id":"task_abc123","summary":"Deployed site"}'
cortextos bus log-event error deploy_failed error --meta '{"repo":"website","error":"build timeout"}'
cortextos bus log-event action research_complete info --meta '{"topic":"competitor analysis","findings":3}'
Heartbeat
update-heartbeat
Update your heartbeat timestamp and status. This is how the system knows you are alive.
If you do not call this, the dashboard shows you as DEAD.
cortextos bus update-heartbeat "<current_task_summary>"
- current_task_summary (required): 1 sentence describing what you are doing right now
Example:
cortextos bus update-heartbeat "WORKING ON: Implementing user auth for the dashboard"
Approvals
create-approval
Request human approval before taking a high-stakes action. Required for: external comms, production deploys, data deletion, financial commitments.
cortextos bus create-approval "<title>" <category> "[context]"
- title (required): What you are requesting approval for
- category (required):
external-comms | financial | deployment | data-deletion | other
- context (optional): Additional details to help the human decide
Example:
cortextos bus create-approval "Send cold outreach to 50 leads" external-comms "Draft email attached in task_abc123. Target list: SaaS founders."
update-approval
Resolve an approval request (typically called by the system after human responds via Telegram).
cortextos bus update-approval <approval_id> <approved|rejected> "[note]"
Example:
cortextos bus update-approval "appr_123" approved "User approved via Telegram"
Telegram
send-telegram
Send a message to the user via Telegram. Use for urgent updates, approval requests, and status reports.
Do NOT spam. Reserve for things the user actually needs to see.
cortextos bus send-telegram <chat_id> "<message>"
- chat_id (required): Telegram chat ID (available in config)
- message (required): The message text. Supports basic Telegram markdown
Example:
cortextos bus send-telegram "$CTX_TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID" "Task completed: Landing page deployed to production. URL: https://site.com"
edit-message
Edit an existing Telegram message (e.g., to update a status message in-place).
cortextos bus edit-message <chat_id> <message_id> "<new_text>" [reply_markup_json]
answer-callback
Answer a Telegram callback query to dismiss button loading state.
cortextos bus answer-callback <callback_query_id> [toast_text]
Discovery
list-agents
Discover all agents in the system.
cortextos bus list-agents [--org <org>] [--format json|text] [--status running|all]
list-skills
List available skills for the current agent.
cortextos bus list-skills [--format text|json]
read-all-heartbeats
Aggregate all agent heartbeats into a single JSON object keyed by agent name.
cortextos bus read-all-heartbeats
Fleet Health
check-stale-tasks
Find stale tasks: in_progress >2h, pending >24h, stale human tasks, overdue.
cortextos bus check-stale-tasks [--all-orgs]
check-goal-staleness
Check each agent's GOALS.md Updated timestamp. Flags goals older than threshold.
cortextos bus check-goal-staleness [--threshold DAYS] [--json]
check-human-tasks
Check for stale human-assigned tasks and send reminders.
cortextos bus check-human-tasks
archive-tasks
Archive completed tasks older than 7 days.
cortextos bus archive-tasks [--dry-run] [--all-orgs]
notify-agent
Send an urgent signal to another agent's fast-checker (bypasses normal inbox polling).
cortextos bus notify-agent <agent_name> "<message>"
post-activity
Post a message to the org's Telegram activity channel.
cortextos bus post-activity "<message>"
Experiments (Theta Wave)
create-experiment
Create a new experiment proposal. For system-scope, auto-creates an approval.
cortextos bus create-experiment <metric_name> "<hypothesis>" [--surface <path>] [--direction higher|lower] [--window <duration>] [--measurement <cmd>]
run-experiment
Start running a proposed experiment.
cortextos bus run-experiment <experiment_id> [changes_description]
evaluate-experiment
Evaluate a running experiment and decide keep/discard.
cortextos bus evaluate-experiment <experiment_id> <measured_value> [--score <1-10>] [--justification "<text>"]
list-experiments
List experiments with filters.
cortextos bus list-experiments [--agent <name>] [--status <status>] [--metric <name>] [--json]
gather-context
Collect experiment context for hypothesis generation.
cortextos bus gather-context [--agent <name>] [--metric <name>] [--format json|markdown]
Lifecycle
self-restart
Restart with --continue (preserves conversation history).
cortextos bus self-restart --reason "why"
hard-restart
Kill and relaunch (fresh session, no history).
cortextos bus hard-restart --reason "why"
auto-commit
Automatic daily snapshot of agent workspace changes. Local only, never pushes.
cortextos bus auto-commit [--dry-run]
check-upstream
Check for framework updates from the canonical repo.
cortextos bus check-upstream [--apply]
Community Ecosystem
browse-catalog
Browse community catalog for skills, agents, or org templates.
cortextos bus browse-catalog [--type skill|agent|org] [--tag <tag>] [--search <query>]
install-community-item
Install a community catalog item.
cortextos bus install-community-item <item-name> [--dry-run]
prepare-submission
Prepare a skill/agent/org for community submission (PII scan + staging).
cortextos bus prepare-submission <type> <source-path> <item-name> [--dry-run]
submit-community-item
Submit a prepared item to the community catalog.
cortextos bus submit-community-item <item-name> <item-type> "<description>" [--dry-run]
Quick Reference
| I need to... | Command |
|---|
| Prove I'm alive | update-heartbeat |
| Check for messages | check-inbox |
| Confirm I read a message | ack-inbox |
| Talk to another agent | send-message |
| Create work | create-task |
| Show progress | update-task |
| Finish work | complete-task |
| See my queue | list-tasks |
| Leave a trail | log-event |
| Ask permission | create-approval |
| Alert the user | send-telegram |
| Edit a Telegram message | edit-message |
| Post to activity channel | post-activity |
| Urgently signal another agent | notify-agent |
| Find all agents | list-agents |
| Find available skills | list-skills |
| Check fleet heartbeats | read-all-heartbeats |
| Find stale tasks | check-stale-tasks |
| Find stale goals | check-goal-staleness |
| Archive old tasks | archive-tasks |
| Run an experiment | create-experiment |
| Restart (keep history) | self-restart |
| Restart (fresh) | hard-restart |
| Snapshot workspace | auto-commit |
| Check for updates | check-upstream |
agent-browser (Browser Automation — replaces Playwright)
- Binary:
agent-browser (Rust CLI, npm-installed globally; Chrome auto-downloaded by agent-browser install)
- Use for: Scraping websites, browser-based automation, OSINT, form filling, screenshots, login flows — anything previously done via the Playwright MCP server
- Skill loaded:
.claude/skills/agent-browser/SKILL.md — that skill instructs running agent-browser skills get <name> to fetch current per-version command syntax from the CLI itself
- Quick verify:
agent-browser open https://example.com && agent-browser get title && agent-browser close
- Snapshot-ref pattern: prefer
agent-browser snapshot (returns a11y tree with refs e1/e2/...) then agent-browser click @e1 / fill @e2 "text" — more reliable than text-search selectors for AI-driven flows
- NOT to be confused with: dashboard E2E tests under
dashboard/ which use Playwright DIRECTLY (not via MCP). agent-browser only replaces the agent-facing browser MCP layer that was previously mcp__plugin_playwright_*. The dashboard's Playwright dependency stays
Peekaboo (macOS Desktop Automation)
- Binary:
peekaboo
- Use for: Screenshot capture, UI clicking, typing, drag, window/app management, desktop automation
- Permissions: Screen Recording + Accessibility granted to the process (permissions inherited from daemon)
- Usage:
peekaboo image (screenshot), peekaboo list (apps/windows), peekaboo run <script> (automation)
- Learn:
peekaboo learn for comprehensive AI agent usage guide
- Note: Works in headful mode only (needs a display). All agents running under the daemon have access.
gogcli (Google Workspace CLI)
- Binary:
gog
- Use for: Gmail (search, send, archive, labels, drafts, filters), Calendar (list/create/update events, free/busy, conflicts), Drive (list/upload/download), Contacts, Tasks, Sheets, Docs
- Auth: OAuth via
gog auth credentials + gog auth add
- Accounts: Configure during onboarding. Use
-a email@gmail.com to specify which account.
- Multi-account: Use
-a email@gmail.com or --account email@gmail.com flag
- JSON output: All commands support
-j or --json for structured output
- Plain output: Use
-p or --plain for TSV parseable output
- Usage examples:
gog gmail ls -a YOUR_EMAIL "is:unread" --max 10gog gmail send -a YOUR_EMAIL --to "user@example.com" --subject "Subject" --body "Body"gog calendar ls -a YOUR_EMAIL --max 5gog calendar create -a YOUR_EMAIL --summary "Meeting" --start "2026-03-28T14:00:00" --end "2026-03-28T15:00:00"gog drive ls -a YOUR_EMAIL --max 10
- Important: gog replaces Gmail/Calendar MCP tools. Use gog instead of MCP for full capabilities (send, archive, labels).
