ActonOS Channels Development Skill

Use this skill when developing or extending messaging platform integrations in ActonOS. External chat adapters (Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Zalo) are developed as WASM Plugins using the ActonOS Plugin SDK, while internal/channels/ manages host routing, session isolation, pairing, and multi-account dispatching.

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1. Architecture Overview

internal/channels/
├── adapter.go          # Core ChannelAdapter interface, InboundMessage, OutboundMessage contracts
├── manager.go          # ChannelManager: multi-account lifecycle, account sync, dynamic poller registration
├── router.go           # MessageRouter: inbound dispatch, @agent mention parsing, routing modes
├── pairing.go          # PairingManager: 6-digit security pairing codes & authorization ledger
├── session.go          # Session state store per sender/channel/agent (conv_{channel}_{sender}_{agentID})
├── webhook.go          # Generic webhook router & verification handler
└── *_test.go           # Channel test suites

internal/plugin/
└── bridge_channel.go   # WasmChannelBridge: bridges WASM plugin instances to ChannelAdapter

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2. Core Abstractions (adapter.go)

Every channel integration (bridged from WASM) satisfies the ChannelAdapter interface:

type ChannelAdapter interface {
    // Name returns the unique channel type identifier (e.g. "telegram", "whatsapp", "discord")
    Name() string

    // Start initializes listeners, webhooks, or polling loops
    Start(ctx context.Context) error

    // Stop cleanly shuts down channel connections
    Stop() error

    // SendMessage delivers a response back to the user on that platform
    SendMessage(ctx context.Context, msg OutboundMessage) error
}

Message Contracts

type InboundMessage struct {
    ChannelID   string            `json:"channel_id"`
    SenderID    string            `json:"sender_id"`
    SenderName  string            `json:"sender_name"`
    TargetAgent string            `json:"target_agent"` // Extracted @agent_mention or bound agent
    Content     string            `json:"content"`
    Metadata    map[string]string `json:"metadata,omitempty"`
}

type OutboundMessage struct {
    ChannelID string `json:"channel_id"`
    Recipient string `json:"recipient"`
    Content   string `json:"content"`
}

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3. Developing a Channel Plugin (Plugin SDK)

Channel adapters run inside the Wazero WebAssembly sandbox. To create a new channel:

1. Scaffold with acton-plugin:

   acton-plugin new channel-slack --type=channel
   

2. Implement sdk.ChannelAdapter in Go / TinyGo:

   type SlackChannel struct {
       sdk.BaseChannel
   }
   
   func (s *SlackChannel) SendMessage(ctx sdk.Context, msg sdk.OutboundMessage) error {
       token, _ := ctx.Vault().GetSecret("slack_bot_token")
       // Use ctx.HTTP().Post or WebSocket to deliver message
       return nil
   }
   
   func (s *SlackChannel) PollMessages(ctx sdk.Context) ([]sdk.InboundMessage, error) {
       // Poll updates or consume stream from WebSocket
       return inbounds, nil
   }
   

3. Declare Manifest & Permissions (manifest.json):

   {
     "id": "channel-slack",
     "name": "Slack Bot Gateway",
     "version": "1.0.0",
     "capabilities": ["channel"],
     "permissions": {
       "net_outbound": ["slack.com", "*.slack.com"],
       "secrets": ["slack_bot_token"]
     }
   }
   

4. Package Bundle:

   acton-plugin build
   acton-plugin pack -out dist/channel-slack.actonpkg
   

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4. Inbound Message Routing & Agent Mention Parsing (router.go)

Incoming messages pass through MessageRouter.handleInboundMessage():

• Mention Parsing (ExtractAgentMention): Extracts @agent_name or /agent <name> from prompt text, cleaning the input before passing to LLM.
• Routing Modes:
  • exclusive: Only the assigned agent can respond.
  • mention: Routes to explicitly mentioned @agent in group chats; falls back to default agent in private DMs.
  • fallback: Routes to Nova (agent_system_core) if no matching agent is bound.
• Session Isolation: Generates deterministic session IDs conv_{channel}_{sender}_{agentID} so different agents maintain separate memory diaries with the same user.

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5. Pairing & Security Flow (pairing.go)

To prevent unauthorized strangers from triggering agents on public channels:

1. When an unknown SenderID messages the bot, the system generates a 6-digit temporary pairing code.
2. The user enters the pairing code via REST API POST /api/integrations/pairing/verify.
3. PairingManager records the sender as authorized.

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6. Multi-Account Management (manager.go)

Channels support multiple concurrent bot accounts (e.g., Support Bot, DevOps Bot):

• Persisted via POST /api/integrations/channels and synchronized into active pollers via ChannelManager.SyncAccounts().
• Proactive alerts (Cron, Heartbeat) specify target_channel, target_account_id, and target_recipient.
• Status visibility: GetAccountStatuses() exposes connection health and error diagnostics.

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7. Agent Execution Boundary

• Channel adapters deliver messages to the event bus and never execute tools directly.
• All cognitive tool calls go through ToolRegistry.Execute to enforce authorization, approval requirements, and sandbox constraints.