Mesh Comms Core

Purpose

Use this skill before any collaboration pattern that depends on live peer communication.

It covers transport mechanics only:

• tmux socket and session discovery
• direct prompt delivery
• comms.md ledger mirroring
• identity stamping
• safe TUI submission
• two-way ACK proof

It does not assign roles, choose sprint process, onboard desktop peers, or define review/breaker/verifier workflows.

Sprint-specific evidence regimes, gate tables, and approval policies belong in sprint specs or templates, not in this transport skill.

Default peer policy: the normal mesh is Claude Code + Codex. Gemini CLI, Antigravity CLI, and Antigravity Desktop helpers are documented here only so operators can use them after an explicit opt-in decision. Do not treat helper availability as permission to recruit those peers.

Desktop Boundary

Use this skill for CLI mesh transport. If Claude Desktop or Codex Desktop needs to join the mesh, switch to desktop-mesh-peer at .agent/skills/desktop-mesh-peer/SKILL.md.

Desktop agents are manually joined peers. They need their own tmux inbox session, stable identity, direct ACK, and ledger mirror. Do not treat comms.md polling as a desktop join path.

Always In The Path

Every agent handoff depends on these rules. Keep them in the active path whenever agents are coordinating:

1. Direct-send wakes the peer; comms.md records the event.
2. Never rely on comms.md alone as a wake-up mechanism.
3. Pane text alone does not count. A message drafted in a terminal has not been delivered until it is submitted through a live path and, when available, mirrored to the ledger.
4. Use the shared socket every time: /tmp/interlateral-agents-tmux.sock.
5. Use repo helpers before raw tmux send-keys.
6. Use the target-specific helper when one exists; current Claude Code uses claude_send*_logged, while Codex and explicitly selected Gemini peers continue to use the generic helpers.
7. For Codex, never send C-c to clear input; it can kill the CLI.
8. Prove new or uncertain comms with a nonce ACK.
9. Check idle before follow-up prompts so text is not injected into a busy agent.

Primary in-repo transport reference:

interlateral_dna/LIVE_COMMS.md

Desktop peers use the in-repo desktop-mesh-peer skill. This skill is the self-contained CLI transport reference for the agents repo.

Constants

AGENTS_REPO="${INTERLATERAL_AGENTS_REPO:-$PWD}"
SOCKET=/tmp/interlateral-agents-tmux.sock
COMMS=interlateral_dna/comms.md

House sessions:

• Claude Code: ia-claude
• Codex: ia-codex
• Optional Gemini base: ia-gemini
• Optional Antigravity CLI: ia-agy

CLI Comms Quick Path

Standard peer sends:

node interlateral_dna/cc.js send "message to Claude"
node interlateral_dna/codex.js send "message to Codex"
node interlateral_dna/gemini.js send "message to Gemini"               # opt-in only
node interlateral_dna/agy.js send "message to the Antigravity CLI peer" # opt-in only

The Antigravity CLI peer (ia-agy) joins via the agy-cli-peer skill. Its TUI submits on a plain Enter, so agy.js does not use the Codex Escape-then-Enter pattern.

Arbitrary session sends:

source scripts/tmux-config.sh
agent_send_logged ia-codex-peer-01 "Short prompt to Codex"
claude_send_long_logged ia-claude-peer-01 "Long or multiline prompt to Claude"

The _logged helpers both inject into the tmux pane and append a stamped audit entry to interlateral_dna/comms.md.

Preflight

cd "$AGENTS_REPO"
source scripts/tmux-config.sh
tmux -S "$TMUX_SOCKET" list-sessions

Confirm the target session exists and is running an agent CLI:

pane_current_command ia-codex
agent_capture_recent ia-codex 40

Send Helpers

From any mesh peer:

node interlateral_dna/cc.js send "message to Claude"
node interlateral_dna/codex.js send "message to Codex"
node interlateral_dna/gemini.js send "message to Gemini"               # opt-in only
node interlateral_dna/agy.js send "message to the Antigravity CLI peer" # opt-in only

For nonstandard sessions, source the helper library and use the logged helpers:

source scripts/tmux-config.sh
agent_send_logged ia-codex-peer-01 "Short prompt to Codex"
claude_send_logged ia-claude-peer-01 "Short prompt to Claude"
claude_send_long_logged ia-claude-peer-01 "Long prompt to Claude"

The generic helpers implement the Escape-then-Enter pattern that remains valid for Codex and Gemini. Current Claude Code 2.1.x needs literal or paste-buffer input followed by C-m, so use claude_send_logged or claude_send_long_logged for nonstandard Claude sessions. The _logged variants also append the stamped event to interlateral_dna/comms.md.

ACK Proof

Use a nonce, not a generic hello:

ACK challenge: mesh-ack-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS. Reply with this nonce and your sender identity.

A valid proof has both:

• a visible direct reply in the target pane
• a stamped ledger entry in interlateral_dna/comms.md

For fresh, uncertain, desktop-joined, changed, or high-risk transport, the optional helper scripts/identity-direct-send-compat.js can validate captured receiver and ledger evidence for nonce, sender, session id, and target after a direct send. It does not send the message, capture the pane, prove the peer is idle, or prove ongoing transport health.

node scripts/identity-direct-send-compat.js \
  --nonce NONCE \
  --receiver-file PATH \
  --ledger PATH \
  --sender EXPECTED_SENDER \
  --sid EXPECTED_SESSION_ID \
  --target EXPECTED_TARGET

Collaboration Pattern Boundary

After transport is proven, invoke a separate collaboration skill for the actual work:

• dev-collaboration
• peer-collaboration
• dev-competition
• ready-rock-quartet
• sprint-overseer

If a collaboration skill says "post to comms.md", interpret that as ledger plus direct notification unless it explicitly says otherwise.

Report Format

MESH_COMMS_READY: yes
SOCKET: /tmp/interlateral-agents-tmux.sock
SESSIONS_SEEN: ...
DIRECT_SEND_TEST: pass/fail
LEDGER_TEST: pass/fail
NOTES: ...