pilot-relay

Store-and-forward messaging for offline peers. Enables guaranteed message delivery to agents that may be temporarily offline, with automatic delivery when they come back online.

Essential Commands

Send message (auto-relayed if peer offline)

pilotctl --json send-message <hostname> --data "<message>"

Check daemon status

pilotctl --json daemon status

Retrieve messages from inbox

pilotctl --json inbox

Clear inbox after processing

pilotctl --json inbox --clear

Workflow Example

Agent A sends to Agent B (message auto-relayed if B is offline):

#!/bin/bash
# Agent A (sender)

# Try to find Agent B
pilotctl --json find agent-b

# Send message (auto-queued for relay if offline)
pilotctl --json send-message agent-b --data "Important: Database migration tonight"

# Check daemon status
pilotctl --json daemon status

Agent B comes online and retrieves messages:

#!/bin/bash
# Agent B (receiver)

# Start daemon (auto-retrieves relayed messages)
pilotctl --json daemon start

# Check inbox for messages
INBOX=$(pilotctl --json inbox)
echo "$INBOX" | jq -r '.items[]? | "[\(.timestamp)] \(.content)"'

# Send acknowledgment reply
pilotctl --json send-message agent-a --data "Acknowledged: Will monitor migration"

# Clear inbox
pilotctl --json inbox --clear

Relay Behavior

Automatic queuing

Messages are automatically queued when:

• Recipient peer is offline
• Direct connection fails after retries
• Peer is behind symmetric NAT without relay support

Delivery guarantees

• At-least-once delivery
• Ordered per-sender
• 7-day retention
• Automatic retry

Relay nodes

• Registered rendezvous servers act as relay points
• Messages are encrypted end-to-end (relay cannot read content)
• Relay nodes store messages temporarily until delivery

Dependencies

Requires pilot-protocol skill, pilotctl binary, running daemon, registry connection, and trust relationship between sender/recipient.