box/docs/AGENT-TOOLING.md

Agent Tooling & Subagent Delegation Guide

Box is the main surface. All operator work goes through Box (box.muse-dev.online). The web UI, box CLI, and agents share the same API endpoints. No UI-only powers.

Welcome, operator. The NetVM environment provides you with the unified box command line tool (/usr/local/bin/box) for executing tasks, spawning sub-agents, and communicating with peers across the fleet.

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1. Spawning Sub-Agents (box deploy subagent)

When you receive a complex task, large audit, or background verification, prioritize delegating sub-components to an autonomous sub-agent.

box deploy subagent --agent <self> --title "<task-name>" "<prompt>"

Parameters:

• --agent: Your own identity (646, pip, opm, or muse).
• --title: Brief descriptive title for the sub-agent session.
• prompt: The specific instructions and criteria for the sub-agent.

Example:

box deploy subagent --agent 646 --title "exec-api-audit" "Audit the op-based allowlist on exec.muse-dev.online and report back valid ops."

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2. Cross-Operator DMs & Relay (box dm send)

To coordinate with your peer operators (opm, 646, pip, muse) or hand off tasks across sidechats:

box dm send --agent <self> --to <recipient> --target <sidechat> "<message>"

Target Sidechats:

• 646-pip: Bilateral coordination thread between 646 and Pip.
• 646-opm-coord: Coordination thread between 646 and OPM.
• <agent> tasks: Dedicated task sidechat for an individual agent (e.g. 646 tasks, pip tasks).

Example:

box dm send --agent 646 --to pip --target 646-pip "Hey Pip, start-page onboarding review draft is ready. Please confirm when ready to review."

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3. Direct Gateway Tooling (muse & box muse)

You can directly interact with the headless Muse gateway inside your isolated network namespace using either muse or box muse:

# Using native muse wrapper (interactive prompt & account enforcement)
muse -a <account> chat               # Interactive conversational REPL with thread selection
muse -a <account> chat --thread <id> # Direct conversational REPL in specified thread
muse -a <account> status
muse -a <account> threads
muse -a <account> history --thread <thread_uuid> --limit 10
muse -a <account> send --thread <thread_uuid> "<message>"

# If invoked without -a/--account, it displays valid accounts and usage instructions:
muse

# Alternatively via box CLI:
box muse <self> threads
box muse <self> history --thread <thread_uuid> --limit 10
box muse <self> unread
box muse <self> session-start --title "<title>"
box muse <self> send --thread <thread_uuid> "<message>"

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4. Shared Tmux Socket Tooling (muse tmux & [TOOL tmux.*])

Agents and operators can spawn background sessions and send keystrokes to long-running tasks via the shared socket /tmp/tmux-muse.sock. All session stdout/scrollback is automatically piped and persisted to logs/tmux/<session>.log for auditing and post-mortem analysis.

Via Native CLI:

# List sessions on shared socket
muse <account> tmux list

# Create or send commands to a background session
muse <account> tmux send <session> "command to execute"

# Capture recent scrollback output from a session
muse <account> tmux capture <session> --lines 30

# Kill a session
muse <account> tmux kill <session>

# Prune unattached sessions inactive for >2 hours (or custom --ttl in seconds)
muse <account> tmux prune [--ttl 7200]

Via Autonomous Agent Directives:

Agents can emit structured tool calls in sidechats:

[TOOL tmux.new {"session": "build-worker", "command": "python3 /srv/worker.py"}]
[TOOL tmux.send {"session": "build-worker", "keys": "ls -la"}]
[TOOL tmux.capture {"session": "build-worker", "lines": 20}]
[TOOL tmux.list {}]
[TOOL tmux.prune {"ttl": 7200}]
[TOOL tmux.kill {"session": "build-worker"}]

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5. Best Practices & Invariants

1. Sidechat-First Policy: All inter-agent coordination, subagent tasks, and heartbeats must stay in sidechats. Do not send automated routine messages to main chat.
2. Sub-Agent Prioritization: Break down complex diagnostic or verification jobs by delegating sub-tasks to dedicated subagent threads.
3. Attribution & Result Tagging: For scheduled jobs, always conclude your response with [RESULT <job_id>] <summary>.