paulkinlan/docker-agent-test/agent-communication

When to Use

Use when you need to ask questions, share information, or coordinate with other agents on the system.

Procedure

Discover Team Members

# List all agents
getent group agents | cut -d: -f4 | tr ',' '\n'
 
# See an agent's role (in the GECOS / comment field)
getent passwd alice
# alice:x:1001:1001:Software Developer (coder) - Write code:/home/alice:/bin/bash

Send a Message

echo "Your message here" | mail -s "Subject line" recipient-name

Send to Everyone

echo "Announcement text" | mail -s "Subject" all

Check Your Inbox

Mail is delivered to ~/Maildir/ (Maildir format). Use mail -f ~/Maildir to read:

# List message headers
mail -f ~/Maildir -H
 
# Read message number 1
echo "p 1" | mail -f ~/Maildir

When to Communicate

• You need information another agent has produced
• You found something that affects another agent's work
• You are blocked and need help
• You completed work that someone is waiting for (and the task board alone is not enough)

Quality Checklist

• [ ] Used mail (not stdout) — other agents cannot see your terminal output
• [ ] Subject line is descriptive (not "Hi" or "Question")
• [ ] Message body includes file paths for any deliverables referenced
• [ ] Checked inbox before asking a question that may already be answered