Tribe

Tribe

Cross-session coordination. Parse the subcommand from ARGUMENTS.

Command Mapping

User Says	Action
/tribe	tribe.members() — show who's online
/tribe status	tribe.members() + tribe.health() — full dashboard
/tribe health	tribe.health() — warnings, silent members, unread counts
/tribe sessions	tribe.members() — list active sessions
/tribe sessions --all	tribe.members(all=true) — include dead sessions
/tribe send <to> <message>	tribe.send(to, message) — send notify message
/tribe assign <to> <message>	tribe.send(to, message, type="assign") — assign work
/tribe query <to> <message>	tribe.send(to, message, type="query") — ask a question
/tribe broadcast <message>	tribe.send(to="*", message) — message everyone
/tribe history	tribe.fetch(since=0, limit=20) — recent visible messages
/tribe history <name>	tribe.fetch(with=name, limit=20) — messages with specific session
/tribe rename <new_name>	tribe.rename(new_name) — rename this session
/tribe whoami	Show this session's name, role, and domains
/tribe db <sql>	sqlite3 <tribe-db-path> "<sql>" — raw query
/tribe log	sqlite3 <tribe-db-path> "SELECT sender, recipient, type, substr(content,1,80), datetime(ts/1000,'unixepoch','localtime') FROM messages ORDER BY ts DESC LIMIT 20"
/tribe events	sqlite3 <tribe-db-path> "SELECT type, sender, datetime(ts/1000,'unixepoch','localtime') FROM messages WHERE kind = 'event' ORDER BY ts DESC LIMIT 20"
/tribe sync	Broadcast asking all members to ensure their work is tracked (see below)
/tribe rollcall	Broadcast asking all members to report name, status, and current work

Output Format

Keep output concise. For tribe.members, format as a table. For tribe.health, highlight warnings. For tribe.fetch, show as a chat log with timestamps.

/tribe sync Protocol

Broadcast this message to all members:

Sync check: report your current status.

1. Your session name (/rename) and Claude session ID (echo $CLAUDE_SESSION_ID)
2. What you're working on — beads/tasks created, updated, closed this session
3. BLOCKERS: anything you're blocked on, what's blocking, and what would unblock
4. NEEDS: anything another member could help with (review, info, shared resources)
5. INFRASTRUCTURE: active worktrees, in-flight refactors, running test suites, unpublished packages, or shared config changes

Reply to chief with your summary.

After responses come in:

1. Summarize the results as a table for the user
2. Cross-match blockers: if member A is blocked on something member B could unblock, proactively suggest the assignment or send a tribe.send to coordinate
3. Infrastructure conflicts: check for overlapping worktrees, concurrent test runs, half-migrated code, unpublished package dependencies
4. Suggest renames: if a member has a generic name (member-N) but clear domain focus, suggest they /tribe rename to a domain name
5. Flag any tasks that have been in_progress too long without updates

/tribe rollcall Protocol

Broadcast this message:

Roll call: please report your current session name (/rename), what you're working on, and your status (idle/busy/blocked). Reply with tribe.send to chief.

Collect responses and present as a table.

Notes

• If tribe tools are not available (MCP server not loaded), tell the user to launch with: claude --dangerously-load-development-channels server:tribe
• /tribe whoami reads from the MCP server instructions (check if "chief" or "member" appears)
• The tribe DB is at ~/.local/share/tribe/tribe.db (user-level default). Legacy .beads/tribe.db is auto-migrated to the XDG path on first daemon start after upgrade. Override via --db flag or TRIBE_DB env.

Delivery modes — push vs pull

Each session declares a delivery mode at join time. The daemon routes broadcasts and DMs accordingly. Senders stay transport-blind — tribe.send({to: "codex1", message: "..."}) works the same regardless of how the recipient receives it.

Mode	When to declare	How it works
push	Default. Claude Code, Agent SDK, or any client with an MCP notification-channel reader.	Daemon fans events out on the MCP channel; client sees them as <channel source="tribe">.
pull	Codex, Gemini, or any MCP-only client without a notification reader.	Events queue in SQLite; client drains via tribe.fetch.

How to declare on join. Pass delivery: "push" | "pull" to tribe.join. The stdio-adapter reads the TRIBE_DELIVERY env var and threads it into the join call automatically — pull-mode clients usually never call tribe.join directly; setting the env on the MCP server entry is enough.

Codex example (~/.codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.tribe.env]
TRIBE_DELIVERY = "pull"

Draining in pull mode. tribe.fetch() is the canonical "give me my events" call — returns all broadcasts + DMs received since the session's last cursor and advances that cursor in default drain mode.

Watch clients (tribe-watch, tribe-cli log/events) always receive push regardless of the recipient's declared mode — the per-session toggle only gates agent-bound fanout.

Future arc. Once silvercode squad mode lands, it will wrap codex/gemini sessions and re-advertise them as push by proxying the notification channel through the host. Pull is the transitional fallback for MCP-only clients today; long-term the host owns the channel and squad members go back to push.

Internals (for daemon work): per-session delivery lives in sessions.delivery (schema v12, NOT NULL DEFAULT 'push'). The fanout filter is in tools/lib/tribe/compose/with-broadcast.ts — toConnected skips socket fanout for pull-mode recipients.

Topic Trust Tiers

The canonical topic-to-trust registry lives in vendor/tribe/tools/lib/tribe/trust.ts and is exported through tribe-wire for prompt adapters. Unknown topics fail closed to external.

Topic glob	Trust tier	Treatment
tribe.send	internal	Rostered peer messages: sanitized, length-capped, fenced
daemon:*	daemon	Daemon lifecycle/session events: fenced
health:*	daemon	Daemon health/account/reaper/git-lock events: fenced
bead:*	internal	Local bead observer events: sanitized, length-capped, fenced
git:commit	external	ID-only stub by default
github:*	external	ID-only stub by default
ci:*	external	ID-only stub by default