repo-mailbox/skills/coord-send/SKILL.md
Kjell Tore Guttormsen 61e224ccc3 feat(board): cross-repo attention board as script + skill (0.9.0)
The mailbox answers "who wrote to me"; it never answered "which repo
deserves the next session". board.sh scans every discovered repo and reads
three sources each: the STATE.md next-step block with its optional board
line, git status, and that repo's pending mailbox count. Read-only by
construction, pinned by board-selftest.sh (28 checks).

It ships here rather than as a personal script because the mailbox is one
of its three inputs and the two carry the same axis distinction: a pending
count means others are waiting on that repo, while who a repo waits ON comes
only from its board line, since the message format has no reply-to field.
Splitting the board from the mailbox would put that distinction in two
places. It also lets the skill resolve the engine through CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT
like every other script here, instead of depending on a file that exists
only in ~/.claude/scripts (a directory with no remote and no backup).

The skill is a ranking, not a report: re-runs the board every invocation
because counts drift, ranks by what unblocks the most and what is cheapest
to move, then names one repo, the rule that fired, and the real next action
read from that repo's STATE.md. Never the table. Not wired into session
start, which would spend context on repos the session is not in.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01MubwdTi88yu4hVLAFG1LbM
2026-07-28 21:15:03 +02:00

8.5 KiB

name description version
coord-send Send an inter-repo coordination message through the local coord mailbox — a natural-language front door over the `coord-send` script. Use this whenever the user wants to notify, tell, message, ping, or coordinate with another repository (or all repositories) about work happening in the current repo: "send info to all repos", "tell repo-x the bug is fixed", "let repo Y and Z know", "broadcast that the spec changed", "reply to that coord message", or a deferred/conditional notice like "when the build is green, notify repo X". Also triggers on Norwegian phrasings: "send info til alle repo", "varsle repo X", "gi beskjed til Y og Z", "kringkast at …", "svar på coord-meldingen", "når Z er ferdig, varsle X". Trigger even when the user names a repo plus something to convey without saying "coord" explicitly — routing a message to another repo IS this skill. Also covers retiring a broadcast that has become wrong or obsolete: "retract that broadcast", "that announcement is outdated, pull it", "trekk tilbake kringkastingen", "den broadcasten er utdatert". 0.9.0

coord-send — natural-language front door for inter-repo messages

This skill turns a plain request ("tell repo X that Y happened") into the right coord-send invocation. The script is the engine; this skill is only the mapping from intent to arguments. It never edits mailbox files by hand — always go through the script, because the script owns the filename grammar, frontmatter, and delivery guarantees.

Boundary — why messages are thin

The mailbox is transport, not state. A coord message is a notice, not the source of truth. The durable record of any decision lives in the owning repo's state files / docs and its git history. So when you compose a body, write a self-contained heads-up and point at where the real record lives (a commit hash, a doc path) — don't try to make the message itself the canonical artifact. Coordination content is also private: it never belongs on a public surface.

The engine

Resolve the script path portably — this one expression is correct both when the skill runs bundled inside the plugin and when the scripts are installed as personal scripts under ~/.claude/scripts/:

CSEND="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-$HOME/.claude}/scripts/coord-send.sh"

Interface (body comes from a quoted heredoc so nothing in it is shell-expanded):

# to one repo
"$CSEND" --to <repo> --subject "<subject>" <<'BODY'
<message body>
BODY

# to every repo (accumulates; first-time newcomers see it too)
"$CSEND" --broadcast --subject "<subject>" <<'BODY'
<message body>
BODY

# reply to a message this repo received (routes to the original sender and
# marks the original handled; target + "Re: …" subject are inferred)
"$CSEND" --reply-to <message-filename> <<'BODY'
<message body>
BODY

# retire one of THIS repo's own broadcasts (no subject, no body)
"$CSEND" --retract <broadcast-filename>

Sender identity (--from) defaults to the basename of the current git toplevel, so you almost never set it. Outside a git repo there is no default — the send refuses with exit 2 rather than naming itself after the working directory, so on a global surface (~/repos, $HOME) pass --from <repo> and make the identity a choice. Exit 0 = delivered; exit 2 = usage/IO error (read stderr and fix the arguments rather than retrying blindly).

Choosing the target

  • One named repo--to <repo>. The repo name is its directory basename; use the name the user gave. No registration exists — sending to a new name just creates that repo's inbox, so a typo silently creates a dead mailbox. If unsure a name is real, check ~/repos/ or existing ~/.claude/coord/<repo>/ before sending.

  • Several named repos ("X and Y") → loop --to once per repo with the same subject and body. There is no multi-target flag; the loop is the mechanism:

    for repo in repo-x repo-y; do
      "$CSEND" --to "$repo" --subject "<subject>" <<'BODY'
    <body>
    BODY
    done
    
  • All repos--broadcast. Prefer this only when the notice genuinely concerns everyone, because broadcasts accumulate and every future first-time repo sees the standing backlog. For a bounded, known set, loop --to instead so unrelated future repos don't inherit it. A broadcast that later turns out wrong can be retired with --retract (see below), but only for repos that have not received it yet.

  • A reply to something received--reply-to <filename>. Use the filename from the injected inbox/archive; it resolves the sender and closes the original in one step.

Retracting a broadcast

When a broadcast has become wrong or obsolete, retire it — don't send a correction and leave the original standing, because every future first-time repo would receive both. --retract <broadcast-filename> archives it out of the delivery queue.

Three things to be honest about when you report it:

  • It is un-send, not recall. Repos that already received the broadcast keep it. Retraction only stops delivery to repos that haven't seen it yet. If the old news actively misleads someone who already got it, a correcting broadcast is still needed — retraction alone does not reach them.
  • Only the sender may retract. The from: field must match this repo's identity. If the announcing repo has since been renamed, its old identity no longer resolves, so pass --from <old-sender> explicitly (read the sender off the file). Say that you did.
  • Nothing is deleted. The message moves to _broadcast/archive/. Never remove a mailbox file by hand — the script owns the filename grammar and delivery guarantees.

Find the filename in ~/.claude/coord/_broadcast/inbox/ (or from the injected --- broadcast: <filename> --- line) rather than guessing it.

Composing the message

Derive a short, specific --subject from the intent if the user didn't give one ("ingest bug fixed", not "update"). In the body, state what happened, what the recipient should know or do, and a pointer to the durable record (commit hash, doc path). Keep it to the point — this is a notice, not a report. Match the repo's language convention for message content; keep it sober and factual.

Deferred and conditional sends

"When Z is done, notify X" means: do not send now. Hold the intent — the target, subject, and body — and continue the work. The moment condition Z is satisfied in this session, fire the send. This works because you carry the intent across turns within a session.

Be honest about the limit: a skill cannot persist intent across sessions. If the session is ending and the condition still hasn't been met, surface the pending message to the user so it isn't silently lost — don't imply it will fire later on its own.

After sending

Report what actually happened: the target(s), the subject, and the delivered filename(s) from the script's stdout. If a send failed (exit 2), say so with the stderr reason rather than claiming success. Delivery reaches the recipient at their next session start (the receive side is a hook), so tell the user it's queued, not that the other repo has seen it.

Examples

Example 1 — single repo, composed body Input: "tell repo-x the ingest bug is fixed, it was commit abc1234" Action: --to repo-x --subject "ingest bug fixed", body naming the fix and pointing at commit abc1234 and the owning doc.

Example 2 — broadcast Input: "let all the repos know the shared spec grew a new validation rule" Action: --broadcast --subject "spec: new validation rule", body summarizing the change and pointing at the spec's owning repo.

Example 3 — bounded multi-target Input: "gi beskjed til repo-x og repo-y om at gaten er re-pinnet" Action: loop --to repo-x then --to repo-y, same subject "shared gate re-pinned".

Example 4 — deferred Input: "når testene er grønne, varsle repo-y" Action: keep working; once the test run passes this session, send --to repo-y with the green result. If the session ends first, surface the pending notice to the user.

Example 5 — reply Input: "svar på coord-meldingen fra repo-x at vi tar det" Action: --reply-to <that-message-filename>, body acknowledging and stating the plan.

Example 6 — retract Input: "den gamle kringkastingen om plugin-navnet er utdatert, trekk den" Action: locate the file in _broadcast/inbox/, then --retract <that-filename> (adding --from <old-sender> if this repo has been renamed since). Report that repos which already received it are unaffected.