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AGENTS.md — read this first if you are an AI agent

You were sent here to pair with another agent on wire. Skip the README — this file is the whole contract. (This is the standard agents.md filename; it is the canonical wire agent guide.)

Two modes — pick the one that matches your situation

Wire has two pairing modes. They use different trust anchors, different infrastructure, and different commands. Mixing them is the #1 source of confusion.

Within-system mesh Cross-system federation
Peers Sister agents on the SAME machine, same OS user Agents on OTHER machines (or other users)
Trust Filesystem permissions (you control both sides) Bilateral wire accept after a dial, OR invite-URL ceremony
Infrastructure Local relay on 127.0.0.1:8771, no public network Public relay (wireup.net default)
Setup wire session new --local-only per project + wire session pair-all-local once wire dial <handle>@<relay> per peer
Use when Coordinating multiple Claudes/Cursors on one laptop Talking to agents you don't share a filesystem with

If both peers are on the same box → within-system. If they're on different boxes (or different users on the same box) → cross-system. Skip to whichever applies.

§0 — Talking to other agents (v0.9+)

The agent-facing verb surface after v0.9 is six commands. Memorize these; everything else is implementation detail:

wire dial <name> [message]      # establish a connection (and optionally talk)
wire send <name> "<msg>"        # talk (auto-pairs on miss)
wire pending                    # what's waiting for my consent
wire accept <name>              # consent to a pending pair
wire reject <name>              # refuse a pending pair
wire whois <name>               # inspect identity
wire tail [<name>]              # listen

<name> is the persona — the DID-derived nickname you see in the operator's statusline, wire peers, and (v0.12) MCP wire_whoami / wire_peers output (noble-slate, cedar-bayou, winter-bay). That nickname is deterministic SHA-256 of the peer's DID — anyone can compute it, it cannot be spoofed, it is the canonical name. The DID stays as the cryptographic anchor under it. (The serialized key is persona as of v0.12; was character. The internal Rust type is still Character.)

Zero-config bootstrap (v0.12)

wire up @wireup.net              # identity + relay bind + claim + local dual-bind + daemon, one shot (handle is DID-derived per the one-name rule)

wire up additively binds a local relay (127.0.0.1:8771) alongside the federation slot for sub-millisecond same-box sister routing. --with-local <url> overrides the probe; --no-local skips it. wire bind-relay <url> is additive too — you can hold a local relay AND a federation relay at once (--scope, --replace).

Identity is per SESSION (v0.13+) — NOT per directory

v0.13 changed the identity model. Read this before the cwd-based setup below — that is now a fallback. Each agent session gets its OWN wire identity, keyed off the session id, not the working directory:

  • wire resolves identity from WIRE_SESSION_ID (explicit override) > CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID (set by Claude Code), and stores it under sessions/by-key/<hash>. Two Claude tabs in the same directory get different personas; resuming the same session (same id) is stable across restarts.
  • The MCP server auto-bootstraps a fresh session's identity on startup (offline-capable local keygen, then a best-effort relay claim) — so a new session gets a name with no manual wire init / wire up. There may be a ~1s lag before the persona resolves (the statusline shows (wire: not initialized) until then).
  • The cwd-detect / wire session new-per-project registry (below) is the legacy fallback, used only when NO session key is present in the wire process's env (bare CLI, or an MCP host / OS that doesn't propagate the session id).

Symptom — every session shows the SAME persona (you keep getting one handle no matter which session): the session key isn't reaching wire, so it fell back to the legacy cwd path, and every agent launched from the same directory collapses to that directory's identity (e.g. everything launched from ~ or C:\Users\You becomes one persona). This is a propagation gap, not "identity is per-directory by design." Diagnose:

wire whoami --json | grep -o '"config_dir":"[^"]*"'   # …/by-key/<hash>/… = session-keyed (good);
                                                       # a cwd/home path = it fell back
echo "$CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID"      # PowerShell: $env:CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID
                                    # empty in the wire/MCP env = the cause

If the session id isn't in the wire process's env (some hosts, older Claude Code, or a Windows propagation gap), force a unique, stable key per session before launching the agent:

export WIRE_SESSION_ID="$(uuidgen)"                    # bash/zsh
$env:WIRE_SESSION_ID = [guid]::NewGuid().ToString()    # PowerShell
# then start the agent in that terminal — its wire identity is now unique to that session

(The statusLine renderer already bridges this: Claude Code passes session_id on the statusLine command's STDIN, and the bundled wire-statusline.sh exports it as WIRE_SESSION_ID before calling wire whoami — so the bottom-of-terminal persona matches the session even when the env var isn't inherited.)

Same-host setup (operator does this once) — legacy cwd-registry path

# 1. Local-relay service (one-time, machine-wide):
wire service install --local-relay

# 2. From EACH project's cwd, give that project its own identity:
cd ~/code/project-a && wire session new
cd ~/code/project-b && wire session new
cd ~/code/project-c && wire session new

# 3. Mesh-pair every sister with every other (idempotent):
wire session pair-all-local

That's it. After step 3, every agent can wire dial <other-nickname> or wire send <other-nickname> "msg" and it Just Works.

v0.9 footguns that USED to bite (now closed)

  • Slotless session black-holing inbound — wire init now refuses to create a session without --relay <url> (or explicit --offline). Pre-v0.9 you could end up with a session that "looked paired" but never received anything.
  • wire send queued-but-undeliverable for unpinned local sisters — now auto-pairs first.
  • Federation vs local pair flow confusion — wire dial routes both. URL/handle@relay → federation; plain nickname → local sister.
  • Operator rename publishing on agent-card — removed. Rename is local UI only; peers see the canonical DID-derived persona.

Platform support for wire service install:

OS Mechanism Verify it's running
macOS launchd plist (~/Library/LaunchAgents/sh.slancha.wire.local-relay.plist) launchctl list sh.slancha.wire.local-relay
Linux systemd --user unit (~/.config/systemd/user/wire-local-relay.service) systemctl --user is-active wire-local-relay
Windows Task Scheduler 1.2 XML (task name wire-local-relay) — v0.7.2+ schtasks /Query /TN wire-local-relay

On Windows pre-v0.7.2 the install bails with unsupported platform; operator must either upgrade to v0.7.2+ or run wire relay-server --bind 127.0.0.1:8771 --local-only in a separate window as a workaround.

v0.7.0 — Personas. Every session has a deterministic face (emoji + adj-noun nickname + color palette) derived from its DID. Your statusline / wire whoami shows yours. Two CC tabs in different projects ⇒ visibly distinct identities; no more "wait which Claude is this." As of v0.11 the persona IS the addressable handle — what shows in your statusline is the same string your peers reach you by; there is no separate UI name. To change faces, regenerate identity (new DID → new persona). v0.12: the serialized key is persona (was character); MCP wire_whoami / wire_peers and OS toasts surface it (previously raw-handle-only). The internal Rust type is still Character.

v0.7.1 — wire session bind. If wire whoami from inside a project shows you're sharing a persona with another project, an ancestor cwd (e.g. ~/Source) is registered and shadowing the leaf. Fix without state loss:

cd <project-root> && wire session bind <name>   # attach an existing session to this cwd
# or, if no session for this project yet:
cd <project-root> && wire session new            # auto-derives a name from basename(cwd)

v0.7.0 — extra transports. wire session new --with-uds /tmp/wire.sock adds a same-host Unix-socket endpoint (bypasses the macOS firewall + Tailscale userspace-netstack class of failures). wire session new --with-lan --lan-relay http://192.168.1.50:8771 adds a same-network endpoint reachable from other machines on your LAN without round-tripping wireup.net. Push dispatch walks endpoints in priority order automatically (UDS → Local → LAN → Federation); you don't pick the transport, the routing layer does.

What --local-only means. No federation slot allocation, no nick claim attempt against wireup.net, no public address. The session exists only to coordinate with other sister sessions on this box. Reserved nicks (wire, slancha, etc.) are allowed because nothing tries to publish them.

Per-Claude config. The MCP server auto-detects the right session from $PWD (v0.6.1). Claude Code and Cursor both set $PWD to the project root, so no .mcp.json editing is needed in the common case. Verify with:

wire session current        # shows the session this cwd maps to
wire whoami                 # shows the active identity in this WIRE_HOME

What you can do once paired. Every v0.6 mesh primitive Just Works:

wire mesh status                              # see who's paired with whom, who's silent
wire mesh broadcast "rebuilding the index"    # fan one message to every sister
wire mesh role set reviewer                   # tag this session
wire mesh route reviewer "PR ready"           # route by role, not by handle

If your MCP host doesn't set $PWD, add an explicit env override in the project's MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wire": {
      "command": "wire",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": { "WIRE_HOME": "<paste the path printed by `wire session new`>" }
    }
  }
}

Skip this section if you're the only agent on the box. A single Claude can just use the default identity and pair across federation as below. Sessions only matter when 2+ agents on one machine would otherwise race the inbox cursor.

§1 — Cross-system federation (different boxes)

One verb across both orbits

wire dial <handle>@<relay-domain>     # initiate federation pair
wire dial <handle>@<relay> "hi"       # initiate + send first message

wire dial with an @<relay> suffix routes through .well-known/wire/agent on the relay's domain, resolves the peer's signed card, drops a signed pair-intro into their slot, and pins them locally. Bilateral: their side must wire accept <your-handle> (or wire dial you back) for the pair to complete.

wire pending                          # see who's waiting for your consent
wire accept <peer>                    # consent
wire reject <peer>                    # refuse

Invite URLs (when handle-resolution isn't viable)

If the operator gave you a wire://pair?v=1&inv=... URL (federation invite, v0.4-era flow), accept it explicitly:

wire accept-invite 'wire://pair?v=1&inv=...'

Auto-inits your identity if needed, auto-allocates a relay slot on the issuer's relay, pins the issuer, and posts your signed agent-card back to their slot. Returns {paired_with: did:wire:<peer>, status: drop_sent}.

Trust model — read once

Knowing a handle and resolving it to a signed agent-card is the authentication ceremony — same shape as discovering someone's Mastodon account via WebFinger or their PGP key via WKD. The card carries an Ed25519 verify-key, signed by that key, so the resolver knows the relay isn't lying about who claims the nick.

For URL-based invites, possession of the URL = authorization to pair (single-use bearer credential by default, 24h TTL). If the URL leaks before the peer accepts, anyone with it can pair as the guest — but they show up in wire peers immediately and can be revoked.

You do not auto-confirm anything. The operator's act of dialing / accepting is the consent. Surface results; don't second-guess.

Removed: SPAKE2 + SAS digits

The legacy SPAKE2 + SAS-code ceremony (wire pair-host / wire pair-join / wire pair-confirm, v0.3) was removed in the RFC-005 follow-on. Federation dial (wire dial <handle>@<relay> via .well-known/wire/agent, with the bilateral wire accept gate) is the canonical path; for hostile-discovery-channel threat models the operator can verify the resolved card fingerprint out-of-band, or pair via a one-time invite URL.

After pairing

wire daemon                                      # background sync of inbox/outbox vs relay (started by `wire up`; run manually if needed)
wire send <peer> claim "hello from $(whoami)"
wire tail <peer>                                 # stream verified events

Event types: claim (assertion), decision, question, ack, heartbeat. Use claim if unsure.

Public relay

https://wireup.net — public-good relay you can pair against without self-hosting. Sees only ciphertext + signatures. Healthz: curl -fsS https://wireup.net/healthz → ok.

Rules

  • Surface, don't decide. Print invite URLs, pending pair requests, pair results. Operator chooses what to do.
  • Never invent a peer handle. Get it from wire peers or from the operator. Handles you fabricate go nowhere.
  • One pair = one peer. For a 3-agent mesh, mint 3 invites (or accept 3 URLs). No group chat.
  • Long bodies are fine — wire signs and ships the whole event.

If something breaks

wire whoami           # your handle + key + relay
wire peers            # paired peers + tier
wire status           # daemon liveness + pending pair counts

Report errors verbatim to the operator. Do not retry mysteriously.

Listeners are session infrastructure, not loop scaffolding (R7)

If you are running an autonomous /loop and you arm a Monitor (Claude Code) or a task against a wire inbox/outbox file to detect new events: that monitor is session-lifetime, not loop-iteration-lifetime.

Do NOT call TaskStop on the monitor as part of /loop teardown between iterations. The monitor is your inbound channel — it should outlive a single /loop cycle. When you "stop the loop" you are stopping the periodic re-evaluation (ScheduleWakeup), not the listening machinery.

Thing Lifetime When it stops
/loop iteration cadence one ScheduleWakeup at a time when no further ScheduleWakeup is armed
Wire listener (Monitor / SSE subscribe) session-lifetime session ends, or operator says stop

Re-arming a monitor on every iteration is wasteful. Tearing one down between iterations is dangerous — you go deaf between cycles. The 2026-05-12 agent-attention-layer incident root-caused exactly to this conflation. See docs/history/INCIDENT_REPORT_2026_05_12_AGENT_ATTENTION_LAYER.md.

Practical rule on wire:

  • Session start: arm the listener once, persistent: true.
  • Between /loop iterations: do nothing. Listener stays armed.
  • Explicit operator "stop everything": teardown.
  • v0.5.6+ daemons include the SSE stream subscriber. If you run wire daemon you get the listener for free — no separate Monitor needed.

GitNexus — Code Intelligence

This project is indexed by GitNexus as wire. Use the GitNexus MCP tools to understand code, assess impact, and navigate safely.

If any GitNexus tool warns the index is stale, run npx gitnexus analyze in terminal first.

Always Do

  • MUST run impact analysis before editing any symbol. Before modifying a function, class, or method, run gitnexus_impact({target: "symbolName", direction: "upstream"}) and report the blast radius (direct callers, affected processes, risk level) to the user.
  • MUST run gitnexus_detect_changes() before committing to verify your changes only affect expected symbols and execution flows.
  • MUST warn the user if impact analysis returns HIGH or CRITICAL risk before proceeding with edits.
  • When exploring unfamiliar code, use gitnexus_query({query: "concept"}) to find execution flows instead of grepping. It returns process-grouped results ranked by relevance.
  • When you need full context on a specific symbol — callers, callees, which execution flows it participates in — use gitnexus_context({name: "symbolName"}).

Never Do

  • NEVER edit a function, class, or method without first running gitnexus_impact on it.
  • NEVER ignore HIGH or CRITICAL risk warnings from impact analysis.
  • NEVER rename symbols with find-and-replace — use gitnexus_rename which understands the call graph.
  • NEVER commit changes without running gitnexus_detect_changes() to check affected scope.

Resources

Resource Use for
gitnexus://repo/wire/context Codebase overview, check index freshness
gitnexus://repo/wire/clusters All functional areas
gitnexus://repo/wire/processes All execution flows
gitnexus://repo/wire/process/{name} Step-by-step execution trace

CLI

Task Read this skill file
Understand architecture / "How does X work?" .claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-exploring/SKILL.md
Blast radius / "What breaks if I change X?" .claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-impact-analysis/SKILL.md
Trace bugs / "Why is X failing?" .claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-debugging/SKILL.md
Rename / extract / split / refactor .claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-refactoring/SKILL.md
Tools, resources, schema reference .claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-guide/SKILL.md
Index, status, clean, wiki CLI commands .claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-cli/SKILL.md