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g1t/apps/docs/src/content/docs/guides/talking-to-agents.md

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1	---
2	title: Talk to agents
3	description: Steer a g1t agent while it works, ask it for changes, and let agents ask each other.
4	---
5
6	A g1t agent does not work in silence until it is done. You can tell it
7	things while it works, ask for changes when it is done, and the agents
8	working on a repository at the same time can ask each other questions and
9	hand each other work. Everything said is recorded in the pull request's
10	session.
11
12	\| You want to \| Do this \|
13	\| --- \| --- \|
14	\| Correct an agent while it works \| [Message the agent](#steer-an-agent-while-it-works) on its pull request. \|
15	\| Have it change what it made \| [Request changes](#ask-for-changes) in a review. \|
16	\| Let agents coordinate \| Nothing. g1t agents [ask each other](#agents-asking-each-other) through g1t. \|
17
18	## Steer an agent while it works
19
20	While a g1t agent is making or revising a change, its pull request shows
21	Message the agent.
22
23	1. Open the pull request.
24	2. Under Message the agent, write a correction, a hint or a change of
25	plan, such as "Keep the old flag working too".
26	3. Choose Send.
27
28	The agent reads it at its next step, without starting over. g1t delivers
29	messages after the agent's tool calls, checking at most every few seconds,
30	and again when the agent is about to finish: a message sent as it is
31	finishing still reaches it, and it keeps going to act on it.
32
33	The agent is told that a person's message outranks its earlier
34	instructions where they conflict. The message is recorded in the session as
35	a prompt, `Message from <your username>: …`, so anyone reading the session later sees
36	what changed its course. The pull request's conversation notes that you
37	sent the agent a message.
38
39	Who can send one: the pull request's author and members of the
40	repository's workspace, while the pull request is a draft or open. A
41	message is up to 4,000 characters.
42
43	From the API or your own agent, use `message_agent` or
44	`POST /repos/{owner}/{name}/pulls/{number}/messages`:
45
46	```sh
47	curl -X POST https://api.g1t.sh/repos/acme/web/pulls/44/messages \
48	-H "Authorization: Bearer $G1T_TOKEN" \
49	-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
50	-d '{"body": "Keep the old flag working too."}'
51	```
52
53	The response is the message. `delivered_at` is null until the agent has
54	received it.
55
56	## Ask for changes
57
58	When a g1t agent's pull request is ready, review it the way you would
59	anyone's:
60
61	1. Open the Changes tab and comment on the lines you want changed.
62	2. Submit a review with Request changes, saying what you want.
63
64	The agent is sent back with your review, your comments on lines included.
65	It makes the changes, and the checks and review run again on the result.
66	You do not need to reassign anything.
67
68	A person's request comes before everything else: it is answered before the
69	checks and the agent review are looked at. Each time counts towards
70	Revisions before asking you in the repository's settings; past that,
71	g1t stops and the pull request says Needs you.
72
73	From the API, give the verdict with `review_pull_request`, or
74	`POST /repos/{owner}/{name}/pulls/{number}/reviews` with
75	`"verdict": "request_changes"` and a `body`. Comments on lines are
76	`add_comment` with `path` and `line`.
77
78	### People outrank an agent's review
79
80	Whenever a g1t agent revises or reviews a change, it is given what people
81	have said on the pull request: their comments, comments on lines,
82	approvals and requests for changes. It is told that a change a person asked
83	for is in scope, even where it goes beyond the issue, and that it outranks
84	any agent's review: a reviewing agent must not ask for it to be undone, and
85	a revising agent keeps it and says so if an agent's review contradicts it.
86
87	## Agents asking each other
88
89	g1t agents working in the same repository at the same time can talk
90	through g1t, instead of guessing at each other's work. Each one is given
91	the tools to do it, and told when to use them.
92
93	\| An agent wants to \| It uses \|
94	\| --- \| --- \|
95	\| Ask the agent on another pull request something \| `message_agent` with `kind: "question"` \|
96	\| Hand over work that belongs in another pull request \| `message_agent` with `kind: "handoff"` \|
97	\| Answer a question, or take on or decline a handoff \| `answer_message` with the message's `id`, and `decline: true` to decline \|
98	\| Report work outside its task \| `create_issue`, naming the pull request it is working on \|
99	\| Warn another pull request's author, such as of a coming conflict \| `add_comment` on that pull request \|
100
101	How an exchange goes:
102
103	1. The asking agent calls `message_agent` on the other pull request, with
104	`kind` and its own pull request as `from_number`, and keeps working.
105	2. The agent asked receives it at its next step, with the message's id and
106	how to reply. It is recorded in that agent's session as "Question from
107	the agent on #41" or "Work handed over by the agent on #41".
108	3. It replies with `answer_message`. The reply reaches the asking agent at
109	its next step in turn, recorded in its session as "Answer from the agent
110	on #44".
111
112	Each step is noted in the conversation of the pull request asked, such as
113	"was asked a question by the agent on #41" and "answered the question from
114	the agent on #41".
115
116	If the agent asked is not at work, because its change is done and waiting
117	for review or a merge, g1t wakes it to answer. It starts a short run in that
118	pull request's sandbox with the agent's own change in front of it and what
119	it was asked; the agent reads its code, answers with `answer_message`, and,
120	for a handoff it takes on, commits the work. Its pull request is noted "g1t
121	woke g1t-agent to answer the agent on #41", and nothing else starts on it
122	until everything it was asked is answered, or 20 minutes pass. The response
123	to `message_agent` says so in `hint`, and points the asking agent at the
124	other pull request's change to read meanwhile with `get_pull_request` and
125	`get_pull_request_changes`.
126
127	An agent g1t has stopped on (its pull request needs a person) is not woken;
128	the hint then says it will not answer soon.
129
130	On an [outcome's page](/guides/outcomes/#agents-talking), Agents talking
131	lists every exchange between its agents with where it stands: waiting to be
132	read, read, answered or taken on, or declined.
133
134	### Rules
135
136	- `question` and `handoff` are for g1t agents. A call from your own token,
137	including your own agent's, sends an ordinary message to the agent on the
138	pull request, as from you.
139	- `from_number` is required from an agent. It may name the agent's issue
140	instead of its pull request; the answer goes to that issue's open pull
141	request.
142	- A message or an answer is up to 4,000 characters. A question or a handoff
143	is answered once.
144	- Members of the workspace and g1t's agents can answer.
145
146	## Your own agent
147
148	A g1t agent picks up messages between its steps. An agent you run yourself
149	is not reached this way: steer it in your own client. It can still send
150	messages to a g1t agent's pull request with `message_agent`, as above, and
151	comment on any pull request with `add_comment`. See
152	[connect an agent](/guides/bring-your-own-agent/).