Channels

Channels are how a mono-agent receives input and delivers replies. Core channels use independent JSON sections in mono-agent.config.json; external channel packages are declared under channels.plugins[] and return the same ChannelDriver shape. Most channels opt in through their own enabled flag; the loopback tui operator surface defaults on and can be disabled explicitly. @mono-agent/agent-app composes the resolved drivers into the running host. This page explains the shared lifecycle, how to pick a channel, and links to every per-channel guide. Coverage: config unless a feature is noted otherwise.

Core channels

Channel	Transport	Section	Guide
Telegram	Bot long polling	telegram	Telegram
Slack	Socket Mode bot	slack	Slack
Webhook	HTTP POST, sync or async	webhook	Webhook
OpenAI-compatible API	/v1/chat/completions (SSE)	openaiApi	OpenAI-compatible API
Cron	Scheduled prompts	cron	Cron
Operator stream endpoint	Loopback NDJSON turns for mono-agent tui and mono-agent web	tui	Operator stream endpoint

External channel packages

Channel	Transport	Plugin package	Guide
WhatsApp	Baileys socket (QR login)	@mono-agent/whatsapp-adapter	WhatsApp
Facebook Messenger	Meta webhook + Send API	@mono-agent/messenger-adapter	Messenger
A2A	Agent-to-Agent provider/consumer	@mono-agent/a2a-adapter	A2A

Channels are fully independent: enabling one neither requires nor affects another, and a misconfigured channel never blocks the rest of the host from starting.

Opt-in and the status lifecycle

Most channels default to off. The deliberate exception is the tui operator stream endpoint, which defaults to on (loopback-only, ephemeral port, so the TUI/web console can chat without a config edit). Set "tui": {"enabled": false} to opt out. You turn other channels on with enabled: true and supply their required settings; external channels also need a channels.plugins[] entry naming the package. Human status output groups communication channels separately from the operator transport, labels the stable tui id as gui (TUI + Web), and folds disabled ids into one compact line. JSON retains stable ids and full reasons. Active entries reflect one of five states:

State	Meaning
disabled	The resolved enabled value is false. Omission resolves false for most channels, but tui defaults true and requires an explicit false to reach this state.
waiting_for_config	enabled: true but a required setting is missing — the line names the exact missing field.
running	Ready and listening; the line includes endpoint facts (host/port/path, or the bot it connected as).
degraded	Was running but the live transport connection dropped on a transient failure (e.g. a Telegram poll crash on a network switch, or a Slack Socket Mode disconnect); the responder/harness is kept alive and the adapter is reconnecting, so the channel keeps serving. Rendered degraded: <reason> with a warning badge. Non-fatal and self-recovering — it returns to running automatically once the transport stays up, unlike failed.
failed	The channel errored on startup; the line includes the reason.

{
  "telegram": {
    "enabled": true,
    "allowedChatIds": ["123456789"]
  }
}

Put MONO_AGENT_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=... in the agent’s .env; source-config examples omit credentials even though inline fields remain accepted for compatibility.

Tip

Run mono-agent validate for a per-section report before starting, and mono-agent status to read the live state. Config is JSON-first. The CLI does not watch mono-agent.config.json, so run mono-agent restart after an edit. An embedded app can instead call app.applyConfigChange(reason) explicitly; adding or removing a plugin package still requires a restart because the driver set is resolved at startup.

Environment variables

Fields with a documented mapping can also be set with a MONO_AGENT_<CHANNEL>_* environment variable, which is especially useful for secrets you do not want in the JSON file. Some fields are JSON-only. A .env in the agent folder is loaded automatically (exported shell variables win); use --env-file <path> for an alternate file. Per-channel env var names are listed in each channel’s guide. See Environment variables for the complete mapping.

export MONO_AGENT_TELEGRAM_ENABLED=true
export MONO_AGENT_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=REPLACE_WITH_BOT_TOKEN

Which channel?

Pick by who or what is on the other end:

You want…	Use	Why
A human chatting interactively	Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, or Messenger	Conversational adapters with allowlists, working indicators, and final-answer delivery; WhatsApp and Messenger are loaded as external plugins
Programmatic / pipeline invocation	Webhook or A2A	Webhook for plain HTTP POST (sync or async polling); A2A for agent-to-agent calls with Agent Card discovery and is loaded as an external plugin
A chat UI (e.g. Open WebUI)	OpenAI-compatible API	Exposes /v1/models + /v1/chat/completions with token-by-token SSE streaming
A first-party operator console	Terminal console or web console	Connects through the loopback operator endpoint while keeping transport details out of user-facing chat
Scheduled / unattended runs	Cron	Timezone-aware five-field jobs that invoke the responder on a schedule

You can enable any combination — for example Telegram for your own use plus a webhook for automation and cron for a daily digest.

Concurrency is per-channel

The app builds one runtime harness per channel, and each harness holds its own concurrency limiter. The concurrency.* bounds therefore apply to each channel independently, not as a single global cap: with N enabled channels the effective ceiling is N× the configured value. See Sessions & concurrency for maxConcurrentRuns / maxPendingRuns and the admission model.

Note

Conversational adapters (Slack/Telegram) do per-conversation admission and attachment downloads before the harness run boundary, so cross-conversation transport download IO is not covered by the harness concurrency bounds (per-file byte caps and timeouts apply instead). Slack additionally does one bounded, best-effort context read there (speaker name plus preceding messages), raced against its own deadline so it can shorten the context but never the turn. Adapter queues are drained/aborted on /cancel and stop.

Sending and proactive delivery

Replies go back over the same channel that received the request. To send outbound messages — proactive notifications from cron/webhook turns, or app-owned send tools like SlackSendMessage and TelegramSendMessage — see Delivery & send tools. Note that these send tools require the target adapter to already be enabled and configured, and the adapter’s own allowlist remains the delivery boundary.

Custom transports

For a bespoke transport, implement a ChannelDriver from @mono-agent/agent-contracts and either expose it from a package loaded by channels.plugins[] or pass it via startMonoAgentApp({ drivers }). See Write your own channel adapter.