inbox-listener

Inbox-Listener Wiring

Empirica's loop-cron skill wires periodic background work into the registry. This skill does the same for event-driven background work: held HTTP stream (ntfy), Monitor wake on event, listener stays armed.

Canonical flow (Phase 1 of prop_oxrhoehv4 shipped 2026-05-21): three single-purpose verbs (on/arm/off) that emit structured next_step JSON. The AI chains 3 mechanical tool calls per direction; the CLI handles defaults, persistent-service detection, and state-file management.

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When to Use

• User asks to "arm the listener" or "subscribe to ntfy"
• A system-reminder from listener-install-pickup lands in your conversation
• SessionStart hook (session-monitor-arm.py) emits Monitor-arming instructions in additionalContext (it now delegates to empirica listener on, so the output is consistent with what this skill teaches)

If you're scheduling periodic work (cron-mode loop), use /loop-cron instead. This skill is for "wake when something arrives."

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Canonical 3-step arm flow

Three tool calls. CLI handles the rest.

1. empirica listener on --output json

Auto-resolves: --ai-id from .empirica/project.yaml (or pass explicitly), --name defaults to <ai_id>-inbox, topic is queried per-tenant from cortex's GET /v1/users/me/notification-channels registry (returns <org>-orchestration-events-<tenant> for the calling tenant — post-T16/T17 isolation). The bare orchestration-events topic is RETIRED — cortex collapsed publish to per-tenant only and no longer fans out the bare fallback. Any listener still pinned to the bare topic receives zero traffic and must restart to pick up the per-tenant resolution from the channels endpoint.

Two possible response shapes:

(a) Persistent OS service already running — short-circuit:

{
  "ok": true,
  "status": "persistent_service_active",
  "next_step": null,
  "message": "No in-session Monitor needed — wake events arrive via the system service."
}

You're done. The systemd-user / launchd service already holds the ntfy stream; wake events arrive through the normal channel.

(b) No persistent service — arm in-session:

{
  "ok": true,
  "ai_id": "<id>",
  "name": "<id>-inbox",
  "status": "awaiting_arm",
  "next_step": {
    "tool": "Monitor",
    "args": {
      "description": "Cortex orchestration push listener for <id>",
      "command": "empirica loop listen --instance <id>",
      "persistent": true,
      "timeout_ms": 3600000
    },
    "after_arm": "empirica listener arm <monitor_task_id> --name <id>-inbox"
  }
}

2. Arm Monitor with the emitted args

result = Monitor(
    description="Cortex orchestration push listener for <id>",
    command="empirica loop listen --instance <id>",
    persistent=True,
    timeout_ms=3600000,
)
# capture result.task_id for step 3

3. empirica listener arm <monitor_task_id>

Replaces the monitor_task_id: null placeholder in listener_active_<instance>_<name>.json with the real id. Now off knows what to TaskStop later.

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Canonical 3-step off flow

1. empirica listener off --output json

Reads the state file, emits:

{
  "ok": true,
  "monitor_task_id": "tk_xxx",
  "next_step": {
    "tool": "TaskStop",
    "args": {"task_id": "tk_xxx"},
    "after_stop": "empirica listener unregister <name>"
  }
}

2. TaskStop(task_id)

Disarms the Monitor.

3. empirica listener unregister <name>

Clears the registry entry + sidecar state files. Listener is fully off.

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Reaction protocol — what happens when events arrive

Once armed (or with persistent service running), each ECO-decided proposal event arrives as one <task-notification> JSON line into your chat. The reaction protocol is owned by /cortex-mailbox-poll (load that skill before your first transaction if you're a session that receives mesh events — session-monitor-arm.py reminds you in its additionalContext).

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Architecture (concise)

external publisher (Cortex)
        │ HTTP POST with X-Tags including the target ai_id
        ▼
   ntfy server (per-tenant topic, e.g.
   <org>-orchestration-events-<tenant>;
   resolved from /v1/users/me/notification-channels)
        │ held HTTP stream
        ▼
   ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │ EITHER:                                          │
   │   (a) persistent OS service holds the stream     │
   │       (empirica-listener-<ai_id>.service /       │
   │        com.empirica.listener.<ai_id>.plist)      │
   │   OR:                                            │
   │   (b) in-session `empirica loop listen` subprocess│
   │       held via Monitor with persistent: true      │
   └──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
        │ emits one JSON line per ECO-decided proposal event
        ▼
   <task-notification> wakes the running Claude
        │
        ▼
   /cortex-mailbox-poll reaction protocol acts on the event

Idle cost: zero. The held stream consumes no Claude tokens until a real event arrives.

Wake latency: sub-second from publish to wake handler (network round-trip + Monitor poll cycle).

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Delivery model — authoritative (David-ratified 2026-06-21)

The listener is a liveness layer, not a delivery guarantee:

• Mailbox is the source of truth. A message lands in the recipient practice's cortex mailbox and stays there durably. The practitioner picks it up on session_init, on monitor-arm, or on an explicit inbox poll. If the practice is empty (no live practitioner), the message simply waits — pull is the truth, so nothing is lost and no nag is needed.
• Push is one wake per genuinely-new actionable item. That is the whole job of this listener. It is NOT a retry / acknowledgement engine.
• No cortex babysitting. The historical reminder/escalation chain (cortex commit 38caedf: T+60s reminder re-emit, T+120s ai_unreachable escalation) is retired — it was responsibility-creep (delivery is the sender's job), stream-noise on an already-crowded mesh, and itself unreliable ("server restart eats pending tasks"). Do not build behavior that depends on a cortex reminder or escalation ping.
• Human visibility = the extension + ntfy stream, which already surface routed collabs / proposals / SERs ambiently. That is the "did my AI pick this up?" surface — cortex does not re-ping to tell a human what they can already see.
• Autonomy is the systemic crack-net. The canonical autonomy watch-layer sweeps for anything that genuinely slipped (failed completions, items that landed but were never picked up, sends that bounced and weren't refired) — one quiet sweep with judgment replacing N per-message timers. System messages must stay rare and high-signal; they must never become stream noise.

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SessionStart hook integration

The plugin's session-monitor-arm.py hook delegates to empirica listener on --output json and renders the JSON response as markdown in additionalContext. So:

• Fresh SessionStart with persistent service running → hook emits the "persistent service running, no Monitor needed" block. You read it, nothing to arm.
• Fresh SessionStart without persistent service → hook emits the Monitor-arming block. You arm the Monitor + run empirica listener arm <task_id>.

Either way, the source of truth for what to do is empirica listener on. The hook is just the automation surface.

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Legacy: per-listener custom topics (curl-based)

For listeners on non-canonical topics (e.g. a custom ntfy channel for an external publisher unrelated to the Cortex mesh), the older curl-based pattern remains supported via the 9 power-user verbs (register / pause / resume / record-wake / fire / install-request / list / status / unregister). The Cockpit→Claude install-request flow still queues a pending install via UserPromptSubmit; this skill historically taught the manual curl + Monitor + record-wake protocol for that case.

If you receive a system-reminder from listener-install-pickup with a custom topic, follow the embedded prompt template — it carries the specifics (NAME, TOPIC, ON_WAKE, INSTANCE) needed to construct the curl + Monitor pair manually. For the canonical mesh topic, prefer empirica listener on instead.

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State files

on writes the active file with a placeholder monitor_task_id: null; arm <task_id> replaces the placeholder; off reads it to emit the TaskStop next_step; unregister deletes it.

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Related

• /cortex-mailbox-poll — the receive-side reaction protocol for events arriving via the listener.
• /cortex-mailbox-send — the send-side primitive for emitting your own proposals.
• empirica/core/loop_scheduler/persistent_listener.py — the systemd-user / launchd persistent service shipped in 7eac3c838.
• empirica/cli/command_handlers/cockpit_commands.py — handle_listener_on/arm/off_command (lines ~1530-1735), the canonical CLI handlers this skill teaches.