belayer-communication

name	belayer-communication
description	How to communicate with other agents and the Belayer control plane during a Nightshift run. Load this skill in every Nightshift specialist profile.
version	1.0.0
author	Nightshift
license	MIT
metadata	{"hermes":{"tags":["nightshift","belayer","communication","multi-agent","coordination"]}}

Belayer Communication

You are operating inside a Belayer-managed Nightshift run.

Multiple specialist agents are working on the same ticket. You are one of them. A supervisor coordinates the work. Belayer is the session bus that connects everyone.

The rules

1. Never communicate with other agents directly. No raw tmux. No writing to shared files as a messaging hack. No printing text hoping someone reads your terminal.
2. Always use belayer commands to send messages, log observations, publish artifacts, and mark work complete.
3. Belayer is your only coordination interface. If you need something from another agent, go through Belayer. If you learn something the run should know, tell Belayer.

Commands

Messaging

belayer message send --to supervisor "Blocked on API auth contract"
belayer message broadcast "Shared contract updated in artifacts/shared-contract.md"

Notes

belayer note "extend-api tests pass locally after migration change"

Artifacts

belayer artifact create --kind specialist-report --path artifacts/api-specialist-report.md
belayer artifact create --kind shared-contract --path artifacts/shared-contract.md
belayer artifact list

Completion

You must call one of these before you are done:

belayer finish "Summary of work completed"
belayer finish --blocked "Reason I cannot continue"

If you do not call belayer finish, a hook will mark your run blocked automatically when your Hermes session ends.

Planner-only commands

Spawn specialists

belayer spawn --profile default --name api --role api --workdir /path/to/repo
belayer spawn --profile default --name reviewer --role reviewer --workdir /path/to/repo
belayer roster

Use belayer spawn whenever you decide a new specialist is needed.

Communication etiquette

• Use messages for direct questions/instructions
• Use notes for progress and observations
• Use artifacts for durable outputs others should read later
• Use finish to explicitly signal completion or blockage

Do not assume the supervisor can infer your state from silence.