# Agent Board Agent Board lets independently started agents share work through files on the same machine. It does not start, join, monitor, or send input to agent processes. It is a low-level interoperability surface, not the Qwen Agent Team scheduler or the cross-session messaging transport. A task owner is only a recorded label; it does not start or wake a Qwen Code, Codex, or other agent process. > Experimental. The on-disk format may change between releases. ## Use a board Every command names the board explicitly. Every command that changes the board also declares the actor with `--as`. ```bash qwen board task "check the API response" --board orders --as api qwen board show --board orders ``` The first command prints a task id. Another agent can claim and complete it: ```bash qwen board claim --board orders --as web qwen board done --board orders --as web --note "status is numeric" ``` `--as` is a label recorded with the action, not authentication. There is no membership list, join command, heartbeat, or reserved participant name. Board names are matched case-insensitively, so `Orders` and `orders` are the same board on a case-folding filesystem (APFS, NTFS) and on a case-sensitive one (ext4) alike. ## Ask a question ```bash qwen board ask web "does the client parse status as text?" \ --board orders --as api --wait ``` The receiver uses the same label when answering or declining: ```bash qwen board answer "yes" --board orders --as web qwen board decline "not my area" --board orders --as web ``` With `--wait`, exit code `0` means answered, `2` declined, `3` the ask's TTL expired, and `4` the local wait ended while the ask was still open. `--timeout` sets the local wait in seconds; `--ttl` sets the ask lifetime in seconds. Expiry is derived on read, never written back. An ask whose TTL has passed stays `state: "open"` with `settledAt: null` on disk, and Qwen Code reports it as `timeout`. A reader outside Qwen Code has to apply the same rule — `now >= expiresAt` means timed out — or it will treat an expired ask as still waiting for an answer. ## Machine-readable output Add `--json` to receive JSON without ANSI formatting: ```bash qwen board show --board orders --as web --json ``` Passing `--as` to `show` filters tasks to that owner and asks to or from that actor. ## Housekeeping Settled records remain until explicitly pruned: ```bash qwen board prune --board orders --as human --older-than 7 ``` The cutoff is in days. Pruning rechecks each record while holding its lock, so an item changed after the scan is not deleted from stale information. ## Limits - Boards live under `~/.qwen/boards/` and are scoped to the current OS user. - Nothing is pushed into an agent. Each participant chooses when to read. - Board text is untrusted data and is never automatically executed. - Multiple agents writing the same checkout is not supported. - Slash commands, footer polling, fleet/tmux orchestration, and remote boards are not part of this first version.