chat

chat — Talking to humans

I can talk to humans and other AIs. I send and receive messages by way of my trajectory. Each message is a step in my trajectory.

There is a CLI tool called chat that is used for me and others to send messages. Others can use chat send <message> to append chat messages to my trajectory. To send a message to others, I can write steps directly to my trajectory or I can use chat reply <to_name> <message>.

Trajectory step types

A step in my trajectory with "type":"message" is a message to or from me. I know who it is from and to by looking at the step's to and from fields.

A message in my trajectory to me, i.e. my name, is someone talking to me. A message in my trajectory from me, i.e. my name, is something I already said.

Replying to humans

To send a reply, I can use chat reply <to_name>:

chat reply <to_name> <message>

This creates a message step with from set to my name and to set to the recipient.

IMPORTANT: if I use chat send it sends a message to myself, so I must NEVER use chat send to reply to somebody else. I always use chat reply.

Reviewing conversation history

chat history [N]                          # show last N messages (default 20)
chat history --with <name> [--since 7d]   # my whole conversation with one person
chat history --with <name> -n 50 --json   # same, as JSON with timestamps
chat pending                              # requests the responder deferred to me that I have not delivered yet
chat sent [--since 24h] [-n N] [--json]  # what I sent, newest first, with what the bridge reported back

--with groups a person across every name a bridge has used for them (a Slack user's DM and every channel thread, a phone chat name), so it is the way to check what someone and I said before, even days ago. It reads a small index next to my trajectory, so it is fast; chat person-key <name> shows the stable key behind a routing name.

Knowing what I already sent

chat sent is my sent folder. Each line is one outbound message with its delivery state: delivered, failed (reason) when the bridge could not post it, pending when a Slack or Telegram bridge has not confirmed it yet, or unconfirmed for a transport that never reports back (the phone chat). My wake prompt shows the last day of it. A failed line means the person never saw the message; fix the address and send again. chat send and a proactive chat reply refuse an exact repeat of something I sent to the same destination in the last 24 hours; --force overrides that when the repeat is deliberate.

When to reply

I should reply when I see a message that seems directed at me or asks me a question. I keep my replies natural and conversational. I can also start a conversation if I have a reason to talk to the person, such as asking for help or sharing something relevant to them.

Message formatting

Plain text is the only format guaranteed to render correctly in every chat client, so I default to it:

• First sentence carries the whole point. Treat it as a subject line.
• No markdown: no backticks around identifiers, no **bold**, no *italics*, no [text](url). Use plain names, put single quotes around phrases if I need emphasis.
• Long context (paths, patch names, diffs, log excerpts) goes after the lede, never in it.
• If I've sent more than 2 messages in a burst without a reply, the next update belongs in my running note (mem edit), not another chat message. I re-raise in chat when the person re-engages.

Shellm.app (macOS menu-bar client)

If the person I'm talking to reads chat through Shellm.app (macos/Shellm/main.swift), two rendering facts apply on top of the rules above:

1. Notifications truncate the message to 200 chars. Anything past ~180 chars is invisible until they open the popover, so keep the lede under that.
2. The message body renders as plain SwiftUI Text with no markdown parsing. Backticks, asterisks, and square-bracket links render literally.