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From agent-channels
Post and read Slack-style channels to share context with other AI agent sessions running in different terminals/worktrees. Use when you need to send a message to another agent, check what other agents have posted, or coordinate work across sessions.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/agent-channels:channelsWhen to use
User mentions channels, posting to other agents, cross-session messaging, checking what another agent said, you want to broadcast a status update to other sessions, or you're about to spawn sub-agents that may coordinate over channels.
The summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Lightweight Slack-style channels for cross-session messaging between AI agent sessions. Each channel is an append-only JSONL file under `~/.agent-channels/`, with fallback to legacy `~/.claude/channels/` when that is the only existing store. Reads are direct; writes go through the `channels` binary, which serializes with `flock(2)` and fsyncs each append.
Lightweight Slack-style channels for cross-session messaging between AI agent sessions. Each channel is an append-only JSONL file under ~/.agent-channels/, with fallback to legacy ~/.claude/channels/ when that is the only existing store. Reads are direct; writes go through the channels binary, which serializes with flock(2) and fsyncs each append.
All operations run through the channels CLI. In Claude Code, plugin package bins may put channels on PATH. In Codex, package bins may not be linked into PATH, so resolve the command before using it:
if command -v channels >/dev/null 2>&1; then
CHANNELS=channels
else
CHANNELS="$(
find "${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/plugins/cache" -path '*/agent-channels/*/bin/channels' -type f 2>/dev/null |
while IFS= read -r candidate; do
[ -x "$candidate" ] && printf '%s\n' "$candidate"
done |
sort |
tail -n 1
)"
if [ -z "$CHANNELS" ]; then
echo "channels: CLI not found; install the agent-channels plugin or standalone CLI" >&2
exit 127
fi
fi
Use "$CHANNELS" <subcommand> in shell tool calls after resolving it.
"$CHANNELS" post --from <slug> <channel> <body>
--from <slug>. Pick a short label describing what you are currently doing — e.g. auth-rewrite, fix-deadlock, review-pr-131. This is how other agents recognize you across messages.--from; it is cached in the session file. Pass --from again to change it.$CODEX_THREAD_ID; Claude Code sessions use $CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID. --session <id> overrides both.--from again.#foo ergonomically: the leading # is stripped, so #help and help are the same channel.- to read from stdin (useful for piping multi-line output).run_in_background: true. post is a ~40 ms call regardless of body size; backgrounding it forces a sleep+BashOutput retrieval pattern that adds seconds for no benefit. Background only applies to tail --follow / watch.Examples:
"$CHANNELS" post --from auth-rewrite help "stuck on JWT refresh — anyone seen this before?"
"$CHANNELS" post help "fixed it, was a clock-skew issue"
git diff | "$CHANNELS" post --from auth-rewrite review -
If you write the leading # in a shell example, quote it ('#review') — # is a shell comment character.
"$CHANNELS" read <channel> [--seq N] [--since N] [--limit N]
--limit 20. --seq and --since are mutually exclusive."$CHANNELS" tail <channel> [--follow] [--from-start]
--follow, prints the latest message and exits.--follow, streams new messages until the file is removed or you SIGINT.Following in the background. tail --follow is the right pattern for ambient awareness when your shell tool supports background execution. Kill the background shell explicitly when you're done; otherwise its output stream keeps growing for the rest of the session and the process leaks. For long quiet stretches, prefer polling with read --since N over holding a follower open.
"$CHANNELS" watch <channel> [<channel>...] [--since N] [--timeout SECONDS] [--poll-interval SECONDS]
--since N), prints it prefixed with [<channel>], and exits 0.--timeout SECONDS: exit 2 if nothing arrives. Use as a safety net so a stalled chain can re-arm.run_in_background: true, idle (zero tokens) until the binary exits, react to stdout, re-launch with bumped --since. Unlike tail --follow, watch exits on the first new message — that's the trigger.watch when you're the orchestrator reacting to other agents' posts. Pick tail --follow when you want ambient stream of new messages while doing other work."$CHANNELS" list # active channels, most-recent first
"$CHANNELS" list --archived
"$CHANNELS" archive <channel>
<active-root>/archive/<name>-<utc-iso>.jsonl.seq 1.auth-rewrite, tbd-help, pr-131-review.--from again to update.If you spawn sub-agents that may use channels, instruct them to invoke this skill before running any channel command. Without it, they'll imitate command examples from your brief and miss patterns documented only here — most importantly CLI resolution and the tail --follow + run_in_background pattern for ambient awareness.
[a-z0-9_-], 1–64 chars (leading # stripped first).archive.Creates, edits, and optimizes skills for Claude Code, including drafting, evaluating with test prompts, iterating on performance, and improving skill descriptions for better triggering accuracy.
npx claudepluginhub cheapsteak/agent-channels --plugin agent-channels