Channels

How plugins provide channels for agent interaction

Channels are the interfaces through which users interact with agents. The gateway has one built-in channel (TUI); everything else is a plugin.

Built-in: TUI

The TUI runs as a separate process and connects to the gateway via HTTP API:

beige tui assistant

It provides the full pi terminal experience — editor, streaming, model switching, compaction, history.

Plugin Channels

Plugins can register channel adapters for other messaging platforms:

export function createPlugin(config, ctx) {
  const bot = new TelegramBot(config.token);

  return {
    register(reg) {
      // Register the channel adapter
      reg.channel({
        sendMessage: async (chatId, threadId, text, opts) => {
          await bot.api.sendMessage(chatId, text);
        },
        supportsMessaging: () => true,
      });
    },

    async start() {
      // Start polling for messages
      bot.on("message:text", async (botCtx) => {
        const response = await ctx.prompt(
          `telegram:${botCtx.chat.id}`,
          config.agentMapping.default,
          botCtx.message.text
        );
        // Response is sent back via the channel adapter
      });
      await bot.start();
    },

    async stop() {
      await bot.stop();
    },
  };
}

What Channels Can Do

Channels can:

• Create sessions via ctx.prompt() or ctx.newSession()
• Modify session settings mid-conversation (model, verbose, streaming)
• Stream responses via ctx.promptStreaming()
• Send proactive messages via the channel adapter’s sendMessage()
• Route responses back to the correct chat/thread via ReplyTarget

Session Settings

Channels can read and modify session state:

// Get current settings
const settings = ctx.getSessionSettings(sessionKey);

// Change model mid-session
ctx.updateSessionSettings(sessionKey, {
  model: { provider: "anthropic", model: "claude-sonnet-4-6" },
});

// Toggle verbose mode
ctx.updateSessionSettings(sessionKey, { verbose: true });

// Attach custom metadata
ctx.setSessionMetadata(sessionKey, "lastActive", Date.now());

Available Channel Plugins

Channel	Plugin	Description
Telegram	@matthias-hausberger/beige-toolkit	Telegram bot with streaming, verbose mode, thread support

Custom Integrations via HTTP API

You can also interact with agents directly via the gateway’s HTTP API:

# Execute a tool
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:7433/api/agents/assistant/exec \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"tool": "exec", "params": {"command": "ls /workspace"}}'

# Send a prompt
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:7433/api/agents/assistant/prompt \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message": "Hello!", "sessionKey": "api:assistant:default"}'

See Gateway HTTP API for the full reference.