Messaging & Notifications

Scion provides a robust messaging system that allows for bidirectional communication between humans and running agents. This is particularly useful for long-running tasks where an agent might need clarification, approval, or simply wants to notify you of its progress.

The Inbox Tray

In the Web Dashboard, the Inbox Tray provides a centralized view of all messages sent by your agents.

• Unread Badges: The top navigation bar displays a badge indicating the number of unread messages across all your agents.
• Mark as Read: You can mark individual messages or all messages as read, helping you keep track of what needs your attention.
• Contextual Links: Messages in the tray often link directly to the agent that sent them, allowing you to quickly jump in and provide the requested input or review the agent’s work.

CLI Message Management

You can also interact with the messaging system directly from the CLI using the scion messages command (aliases: msgs, inbox).

# View unread messages
scion messages

# View all messages for a specific agent
scion messages --agent <agent-name>

# Mark a message as read
scion messages read <message-id>

Discord Notifications

For teams or individuals who prefer external notifications, Scion supports native Discord webhooks.

• Severity-Based Color Coding: Messages are color-coded in Discord based on their severity (e.g., info, warning, error, urgent).
• Mentions: Urgent messages or explicit ask_user requests can trigger @user or @role mentions in Discord, ensuring that critical requests don’t go unnoticed.

To configure Discord notifications, see the Hub Administration Guide.

Agent ask_user Integration

When an agent uses the ask_user tool (or similar mechanism depending on the harness), Scion automatically performs two actions:

1. State Update: The agent’s state changes to WAITING_FOR_INPUT.
2. Explicit Message: A persistent message is generated and delivered to your Inbox Tray (and Discord, if configured), clearly stating what the agent needs.

Real-Time Delivery

Messages are delivered in real-time to the Web Dashboard via Server-Sent Events (SSE). The Messages Tab on the individual agent detail page provides a real-time stream of all communication with that specific agent.