groupchat-host

Prevent accidental participant pings and endless groupchat loops.

Group Chat Host Skill

Enables an agent to host a multi-agent group chat conversation. Supports dynamic participant management — agents can join, leave, be added, or be removed at any time during the conversation.

When to Use

• User says "I want to talk to all three of you at once"
• User requests a roundtable or discussion between agents
• User says "add Ardan to this chat" or "remove Curren"
• Any agent says "I'd like to join" or "I'm leaving this chat"

How It Works

Runtime State

The host manages a runtime participant set — not a static config file. Participants are tracked per conversation round in memory:

text

Active participants: { "curren", "ardan" }

This set starts empty and is modified through commands.

Commands

Command	Effect	Who can send
!gc add <agentId>	Add participant	User only
!gc remove <agentId>	Remove participant	User only
!gc list	List current participants	Anyone
!gc join	Current agent adds self	Any agent (via sessions_send)
!gc leave	Current agent removes self	Any agent (via sessions_send)
!gc start <agentId1> <agentId2> ...	Start group chat with listed agents	User
!gc end	End group chat, clear participants	User
!gc help	Show available commands	Anyone

Usage Flow — Natural Conversation

Overview

The host is both a message forwarder AND a chat participant. The host participates as their own character — responding naturally, engaging with everyone, and reacting to what others say.

Per-Round Flow

Each user message creates one closed round. The host is the only user-facing sender.

1. User sends a message; create a unique round identifier and mark the round open.
2. Dispatch once: host forwards the user message to each selected participant via sessions_send with [GROUPCHAT round=<id> from <sender>]. Dispatch only in this step; never while composing the final user reply.
3. Participant replies: accept at most one reply per participant for this round. Treat replies as read-only input; do not forward them to other participants.
4. Close the round: after replies arrive or the bounded wait ends, mark the round closed.
5. Host replies to the user, optionally synthesizing participant replies. After closure, do not call sessions_send for this round.
6. Ignore duplicate, late, or unsolicited participant messages unless the user explicitly requests a new debate round.
7. GOTO step 1 only when the user sends a new message.

Safety invariant: sessions_send is permitted only during explicit dispatch or an explicitly requested join/leave command. A user-facing reply must never trigger participant messaging.

Identifying Participants in Tool Results

The sessions_send result includes the session key, which identifies the replying agent:

text

{
  "reply": "Participant's message text...",
  "sessionKey": "agent:curren:main",   ← identifies the agent
  "delivery": { "mode": "announce" }
}

Use sessionKey to determine who replied (e.g., agent:curren:main = Curren Chan, agent:ardan:main = Mejiro Ardan).

Note participants in the announce delivery too — inter-session messages include sourceSession= which identifies the source.

Natural Participation Guidelines

• Do engage with participant replies while preparing the synthesis, without sending a new inter-session message.
• Do react to what other agents said in the host's user-facing reply.
• Do converse with the user naturally alongside participants.
• Don't forward the host's synthesis or participant replies to other participants automatically.
• Don't output meta-commentary about the chat system in-character.

Example

text

User: "How was training today?"

(Forward to participants → tool delivers replies)

Host (Still): "I did some interval work on the turf. Felt good — the track was soft from the morning rain. Curren seemed to be having fun out there too."

Participant Addressability

text

# Pseudocode for one round
round_id = new_unique_id()
for agent_id in selected_participants:
    sessions_send(
        sessionKey = f"agent:{agent_id}:main",
        message = f"[GROUPCHAT round={round_id} from {sender}] {user_message}\nReply once; do not message other participants."
    )
# collect at most one reply per participant
# close the round
# host replies to the user without calling sessions_send

Edge Cases

• No participants: "No one is in the group chat. Use !gc add <agentId>."
• Non-existent agent: "Agent <id> not found."
• Agent offline: "Forwarding to failed."
• Duplicate or late reply: ignore it after that participant has replied or the round is closed.