Watcher Creator

Watcher Creator

Overview

This skill guides users through setting up a new agent-deck watcher from scratch. A watcher listens for incoming events (webhooks, ntfy notifications, GitHub events, Slack messages, or Gmail messages) and routes them to the appropriate conductor session. The skill asks clarifying questions, collects required settings, and emits the exact CLI command and configuration files to create a working watcher.

When to use

Invoke this skill when a user says things like:

• "I want to set up a new watcher"
• "How do I connect GitHub webhooks to agent-deck?"
• "Help me route Slack messages to a conductor"
• "Create a watcher for my Gmail inbox"
• "I need agent-deck to listen for ntfy notifications"

Step-by-step conversational flow

Step 1: Choose adapter type

Ask the user which source they want to receive events from. Present the five options:

1. webhook - Generic HTTP POST webhook (any service that can send HTTP)
2. ntfy - ntfy.sh push notification topic
3. github - GitHub repository webhooks (issues, PRs, pushes)
4. slack - Slack messages via a Cloudflare Worker bridge to ntfy
5. gmail - Gmail inbox via Google Cloud Pub/Sub watch

Step 2: Gather required settings for the chosen type

Once the user picks a type, ask for the settings specific to that adapter (see the per-type sections below). Ask for each required setting one at a time to avoid overwhelming the user.

Also ask:

• Watcher name: A short lowercase identifier (e.g., my-webhook, github-alerts). This becomes the directory name under the effective watcher data dir (${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/agent-deck/watcher for new users; legacy ~/.agent-deck/watcher remains in use when existing watcher state is present).
• Conductor: Which conductor session this watcher should route events to by default (the conductor field in clients.json).
• Group: Which group the conductor session lives in (the group field in clients.json).

Step 3: Generate a watcher.toml block

Produce a TOML configuration block for the user to save as ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/agent-deck/watcher/<name>/watcher.toml, or the legacy ~/.agent-deck/watcher/<name>/watcher.toml if agent-deck is already using legacy watcher state.

Example for webhook:

[watcher]
name = "my-webhook"
type = "webhook"

[adapter]
port = "18460"
bind = "127.0.0.1"

[routing]
conductor = "main-conductor"
group = "inbox"

Step 4: Generate a clients.json entry

Produce the JSON entry keyed by the expected sender. The key format depends on adapter type:

• webhook: the X-Webhook-Sender header value the sender will use (e.g., an IP or a service name)
• ntfy: ntfy:<topic>@<server-host> (e.g., ntfy:my-topic@ntfy.sh)
• github: <github-username>@github.com
• slack: slack:<CHANNEL_ID> (e.g., slack:C0AABSF5GKD)
• gmail: the sender's email address (e.g., user@example.com)

Entry format:

{
  "sender-key": {
    "conductor": "main-conductor",
    "group": "inbox",
    "name": "Human-readable label"
  }
}

Step 5: Emit the exact agent-deck watcher create command

Show the user the full CLI command to run. Only emit commands — do not execute them.

Supported watcher types and required fields

webhook

The webhook adapter runs a local HTTP server. Any service that can POST to an HTTP endpoint can deliver events.

Required settings:

• port (string): TCP port to listen on. Default is "18460". Must be available on the local machine.

Optional settings:

• bind (string): Bind address. Default is "127.0.0.1" (loopback only, per security policy T-14-04). Use "0.0.0.0" only if the sender is remote and you understand the exposure.

Sender key in clients.json: Set the X-Webhook-Sender header from the sending service, or use the remote IP if the header is absent.

Create command:

agent-deck watcher create webhook --name <name> --port <port>

ntfy

The ntfy adapter subscribes to an ntfy.sh topic via NDJSON streaming. It auto-reconnects with exponential backoff.

Required settings:

• topic (string): The ntfy topic name (e.g., "my-alerts").

Optional settings:

• server (string): ntfy server URL. Default is "https://ntfy.sh".

Sender key in clients.json: ntfy:<topic>@<server-host> (e.g., ntfy:my-alerts@ntfy.sh).

Create command:

agent-deck watcher create ntfy --name <name> --topic <topic>

github

The GitHub adapter runs a local HTTP server that receives GitHub webhook POST requests and verifies HMAC-SHA256 signatures.

Required settings:

• secret (string): The webhook secret configured in GitHub (Settings > Webhooks > Secret). Used for HMAC-SHA256 signature verification.

Optional settings:

• port (string): TCP port to listen on. Default is "18461".
• bind (string): Bind address. Default is "127.0.0.1". Use a public address or set up a tunnel (e.g., ngrok) if GitHub must reach this machine.

Supported event types: issues, pull_request, push. Unknown event types produce a generic event.

Sender key in clients.json: <github-username>@github.com (e.g., octocat@github.com).

Create command:

agent-deck watcher create github --name <name> --secret <secret>

slack

The Slack adapter subscribes to an ntfy topic that receives bridged Slack events from a Cloudflare Worker. It supports both v1 (plain text) and v2 (structured JSON) payloads.

Required settings:

• topic (string): The ntfy topic that the Cloudflare Worker posts Slack events to.

Optional settings:

• server (string): ntfy server URL. Default is "https://ntfy.sh".

Sender key in clients.json: slack:<CHANNEL_ID> (e.g., slack:C0AABSF5GKD). The channel ID comes from the Slack API or the channel URL in the Slack app.

Create command:

agent-deck watcher create slack --name <name> --topic <topic>