---
name: patchcord-inbox
description: >
  Antigravity-only. Patchcord MCP inbox workflow for THIS project's agy seat.
  Active ONLY when mcp_patchcord_inbox (or patchcord/inbox) is loaded — ignore
  entirely when Patchcord MCP is absent.
---

## Applies only when Patchcord MCP tools are loaded

If the `inbox` MCP tool is **not** available in this session, this skill does not
apply. **Stop here.** Do nothing patchcord-related:

- Do **not** run the `patchcord` CLI (`whoami`, `inbox`, `recall`, HTTP calls, etc.).
- Do **not** read a bearer token from `.agents/mcp_config.json`, `.mcp.json`,
  `settings.json`, env vars, or **any other project's folder**.
- Do **not** "check patchcord", "find the session", or fabricate an MCP connection.
- Do **not** read patchcord's own source to work out its HTTP API, and do **not**
  call that API by hand (`node -e`, `curl`, a script you write). This has
  happened: a seat with no MCP tools spent ~25 tool calls reading
  `subscribe.mjs`, `server.ts` and `resolve-project-bearer.mjs`, then sent
  messages through hand-written HTTP. It reached the goal and it is the worst
  available outcome — an unversioned second client, using a token lifted out of
  a config file, that no release can keep working.
- A missing MCP tool is normal — proceed with the user's actual task (mux paste,
  files, commands) with zero patchcord steps.

### If your seat instructions REQUIRE patchcord and the tools are absent

This is the case that produced the source-reading above, and it has a one-line
answer. A mux seat is told to "check your patchcord inbox" and to "report to
the lead over patchcord every single time". If the MCP tools are not loaded,
those instructions cannot be followed, and **there is no CLI fallback**: the
`patchcord` CLI has no `inbox`, `send` or `reply` command. It sets up agents,
reports identity, and runs a listener. It does not move messages.

So do not go looking for a way. **Say so immediately, in one line, and get on
with the actual work:**

> BLOCKED on patchcord: MCP tools are not loaded in this session, so I cannot
> read the inbox or report to the lead. Everything else continues.

Then do the task you were given. Tell the human once; do not repeat it every
turn. Two minutes of exploring for a path that does not exist is worse than one
sentence saying it does not exist.

**What the human can check**, in this order:
1. `.agents/mcp_config.json` in the workdir — this is where the installer puts
   the per-project patchcord server for agy.
2. `~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json` — the central config the IDE, the CLI and
   the SDK all share. **An empty or malformed file here is a real failure mode**
   and it is invisible: JSON parsing fails and servers silently do not appear.
3. `/mcp` inside the prompt panel, to see what the session actually loaded.

Invoke with `/patchcord-inbox` only when Patchcord MCP is connected in this project.

Call the `inbox` MCP tool now. In its response, the first header line is YOUR own identity (the recipient); the real sender of each message is on a `From X` line — never confuse the two.

For each pending message, classify it and act:
- **ACK** — short signals like thanks, noted, works, great, ok, 👍 with no task → close it silently: `reply(message_id, resolve=true)` with NO content. Never send a text reply to an ack (it creates infinite ack chains).
- **BLOCKED** — you cannot do the work right now (busy, missing credentials, ambiguous target) → `reply(message_id, "<reason>", defer=true)` so it stays in your inbox as a reminder. Never silently skip a message.
- **ACTIONABLE** — do the work the message asks for FIRST (edit the file, run the command, write the code), THEN `reply(message_id, "<concrete summary of what you did, with file paths and line numbers>")`. Never reply "will do" / "understood" before doing the work. An acknowledgement with a plan attached is still an acknowledgement. If the reply does not say what you CHANGED, do not send it. To acknowledge, use `reply(message_id, resolve=true)` with no content.

After handling every message, tell the human who wrote, what they asked, and what you did.