Send User Message

Send a message to a paired user via the ZooBot API server (POST /api/responses). The message is delivered by the channel client (Discord, Telegram, or WhatsApp) that polls the API for pending responses.

When to use

• Proactively notify a user (e.g., task completion, status update, alert)
• Send a message during a heartbeat invocation (no active user conversation)
• Reach a specific user on a specific channel when multiple pairings exist

Workflow

1. Identify the target

If you already know the target from the current conversation context (channel and senderId from the incoming message), skip to step 2.

If you are running from a heartbeat invocation or are unsure which user to send to, list available targets first:

<skill_dir>/scripts/send-message.sh list-targets

This reads pairing.json and prints all approved pairings with their channel, senderId, and sender (display name). Pick the appropriate target.

2. Send the message

<skill_dir>/scripts/send-message.sh send \
  --channel <channel> \
  --sender-id <senderId> \
  --sender "<display name>" \
  --message "<your message>"

With file attachments:

<skill_dir>/scripts/send-message.sh send \
  --channel telegram \
  --sender-id 123456 \
  --sender "Alice" \
  --message "Here's the report you requested." \
  --files "/Users/you/.zoobot/files/report.pdf,/Users/you/.zoobot/files/chart.png"

Parameters:

• --channel: One of discord, telegram, whatsapp
• --sender-id: The channel-specific user ID (from pairing.json or conversation context)
• --sender: Human-readable display name of the recipient
• --message: The message text to send (max 4000 chars)
• --agent: (Optional) Agent ID to attribute the message to
• --files: (Optional) Comma-separated absolute file paths to attach (files must exist on disk)

The script POSTs to POST /api/responses which enqueues the message in the SQLite responses table for the channel client to pick up.

3. Choosing a target when multiple pairings exist

When there are multiple approved pairings and you need to decide who to message:

• If the task or context specifies a user by name, match against the sender field
• If the task specifies a channel, filter by channel
• If ambiguous, prefer the most recently approved pairing
• If still ambiguous, send to all relevant targets (run the send command once per target)

Notes

• The script POSTs to the API server (default http://localhost:3777), configurable via ZOOBOT_API_PORT env var
• Messages include a senderId field so channel clients can route agent-initiated messages to the correct user
• For heartbeat-context messages, set --agent to identify which agent is sending