Commands

Agents call the tools; you type the /boss commands in any pi session inside Herdr. /boss commands are the boss’s typed input only: a tower run, an ally run, or a paired device’s composer cannot type them, except where a row says otherwise. /boss and boss_promote are unavailable in a sub workspace.

“Who has it” names the kind of session, as Concepts defines them:

• Joined sessions: every pi that joined its tab’s net (members and mains).
• Towers: the tower’s runs, and the head tower’s where a row says so.
• Local tower runs: the tower’s runs on this computer, not a teammate’s ally run.

Tools

Tool	Who has it	What it does
boss_promote	joined sessions	Become this tab’s main agent; refused while the tab has a live main.
boss_status	joined sessions and towers	The main agent of each tab and its kind, this workspace’s tower, the head tower, and the other towers.
boss_duty	a tab’s main	Set its kind with a reason: coordinator, integrator, or standing. The kind is the prompt it runs and shows on the page.
boss_rename	joined sessions	Name the session with a short phrase for its current work; a main’s tab takes it as its label. A role label (a tower’s glyph, train <MMDDx>) is refused.
call_tower	joined sessions and towers	Message this workspace’s tower, or another workspace’s, under a header. why is milestone, shared, or blocked; reply: false for a notice.
boss_broadcast	joined sessions and towers	Message a tab, a workspace, every tower, or every session, under a header naming every recipient.
board_set	a tab’s main	Override its own work board entry (one line and up to 8 checklist items); auto: true hands it back to the auto-fill, clear: true deletes it.
boss_server	joined sessions	The sb server’s status (also with it down), its logs (up to 200 lines), or restart with a reason. Refused while the boss stopped the server, at most once a minute, and never in a remote turn.
link_request	every session on an attended computer, and a local tower run	Ask for a Straw Link action (create, invite, join, trust, leave, remove, role, rotate) with a reason. It never runs unasked: the boss approves it in a dialog.
boss_open_main	towers	Open a tab with a new main agent for a request no session owns. role: "train" opens a train; role: "integrator" sends a car slip to the project’s one integrator, opening it when none runs. duty: "standing" opens a main of kind standing (default coordinator). See Merge train.
boss_close_main	towers	Close a main this tower opened, once nothing runs in it.
tower_list	towers	Every workspace’s tower, who a message for it reaches, its state, and what its tabs work on (each tab’s main with its kind).
tower_send	towers	Message one other tower (by workspace id or label) or all of them; with device, the tower of a teammate’s computer.
board_read	towers	The work board: what each main is doing and how far it is, here and on teammates’ computers.
tower_memory	local tower runs	Keep what outlives the run: a standing instruction or a decision quoted from the boss’s own message, and the tower’s waits, including a wait on the boss as a card.
tower_reply	tower runs, not the head tower’s	Answer one local session (a main or a member) by its intercom name or session id, under the tower’s header. forward carries a car slip’s event id to an integrator.
tower_done	tower runs	End this run with a handoff note (one item per line, up to 1,200 characters) for the next run; wakeAfter (5 to 240 minutes, local runs only) asks for a follow-up run. Refused while events are still waiting for the run.
boss_auto	the head tower	Start or end auto mode on the boss’s own words in the turn it answers.
train_car	the integrator and trains	Set a car’s state (received, returned, dropped, landed); the sb server tells the car’s coordinator. Its car is the car’s first ticket; the slip’s car: (or app:) names the app.

The full table, with every argument, is in Tools.

Roles and status

Command	What it does
/boss	Take over as this tab’s main agent, even when it has one.
/boss status	Each tab’s main agent and the towers.
/boss tower	Open this workspace’s tower if none runs, and focus its tab.
/boss tower <prompt>	Write to this workspace’s tower.
/boss tower -w <workspace|head> <subcommand>	Act on another workspace’s tower, as the tower’s card and composer do. A write at another tower asks first.
/boss tower … status, parked, leave, new	The tower’s state, its parked events, end its conversation with a note, start a new conversation.
/boss tower … retry, deliver <id>, drop <id>	Retry, deliver, or drop a parked event.
/boss tower … [--answers W3] <message>	Write a message; --answers W3 marks a wait for you answered once the tower took it.
/boss head [status|leave|new|close|<message>]	Talk to the head tower. A bare /boss head makes its workspace and focuses its tab.
/boss head retry, parked, deliver <id>, drop <id>	The head tower’s notices and parked events.
/boss head --answers W3 <message>	A message that answers a wait.

Talking to sessions

Command	What it does
/boss send <name|key> [--after] <text>	Write to any session on the net as the boss, as the page’s composer does. --after queues it for when the session is idle. Quote a name that has spaces: /boss send "fix login" hi.
/boss stop <name|key>	Press Esc in a session, as the page’s Stop does (asked in pi first).
/boss answer	List the dialogs other sessions wait on (a select, a confirm, or questions, with numbered choices).
/boss answer <name|key> [<choice number | text> | --cancel]	Answer one, as the page does, through the same server checks. With no choice typed, pi asks. A secret is never answered from here: enter it in that session’s terminal.

Memory and auto mode

Command	What it does
/boss memory [-w workspace]	Read the tower’s memory: standing instructions, decisions, waits, and the proposals waiting for you.
/boss memory confirm P1, reject P1	Confirm or reject a tower’s proposal.
/boss memory add standing|decision <text>, edit S1 <text>, delete D1, resolve W1	Change the memory yourself.
/boss memory done|choose|decline W<n>	Act on a wait, such as one parked by auto mode.
/boss wait [-w workspace | label | head]	List the wait cards open for you, and press one: done, an option, skip, reply to the tower, or start entering a secret. It sends the page’s own press. The tower’s standing pane takes the same as /wait.
/boss auto	Show the auto mode state and the last return list.
/boss auto on, /boss auto confirm, /boss auto off	Ask for auto mode and confirm it in the terminal; confirm a request the head tower staged; end it and print the return list.

The GUI’s Memory panel does the same as /boss memory. See Tower memory.

Opening, closing, and stashing

Command	What it does
/boss open base <dir> [label]	The page’s + New base: a base in <dir> with one member.
/boss open member [dir]	A member beside this session, or in a tab of its own in <dir>.
/boss open main <dir> [prompt]	A main in a new tab of this base, with the prompt as its first message.
/boss close	Quit this session and close its pane.
/boss close <name|key>	Quit another unit, a squad, or a base after a confirm. unit:, squad:, or base: before the name narrows a name that fits more than one.
/boss close all [<workspace>]	Quit a base’s tower, mains, and members and close it, without stashing. Anything running that would be lost closes nothing, and every reason is listed.
/boss stash [name] [--workspace <label|id>]	Put this base, or another one after a confirm, away and close it.
/boss pop [name]	Open a stashed base again, every pi resumed from its own session file in its old role.
/boss dismiss [all|<name>]	Hide finished subagents from the net.

<dir> is relative to this session’s folder (~ is home; quote a path with spaces); the server takes only folders under home.

The sb server

Command	What it does
/boss server	Show the sb server, and start it when it is down.
/boss server stop	Stop it on purpose, after a confirm. Nothing but a boss command starts it again.
/boss server restart [reason]	Restart it on the same port, after a confirm. Open pages reconnect by themselves.
/boss server logs [n]	The last n lines of its log (default and most 200).

Roles

Command

What it does

/boss roles-check [folder]

Check each role’s tools: names against this session’s tools, plus the names only a subagent has (caller_ping, subagent_done). A name the session lacks, or one only a parent has (sb’s own tools, pi-herdr-agents’ worktree tools), fails. With no folder it reads sb’s own roles/; before a release, name the checkout’s roles/. It starts nothing, and refuses in a session started with --tools or --exclude-tools.

See The role pack.

The browser view

Command	What it does
/boss gui	Open the net in the browser, from any session; starts the sb server when none runs and prints the URL.
/boss gui stop	Stop the GUI, until the next /boss gui.
/boss gui rotate	Give the GUI a new token, after a confirm: every phone is unpaired and the old address answers 403.
/boss gui view, /boss gui view auto|standard|geek|zen|raven	Show or set the default view for devices on Auto. Only this command sets it.
/boss gui remote, /boss gui remote off	Reach the GUI from a phone over your tailnet. See Phone and remote access.
/boss gui lan, /boss gui lan off, /boss gui lan reset	Reach the GUI from a phone on the same Wi-Fi, without Tailscale.
/boss gui devices, /boss gui unpair <id|all>	List the paired phones; unpair one or all.

Straw Link

Command	What it does
/boss link on	Set up Straw Link on this computer, as the page’s Set up button does.
/boss link [status]	This computer’s teams and members, and the join requests waiting.
/boss link decide <id> approve|refuse	Approve or refuse a join request. Approving an attended device asks you to pick the safety words the new computer shows.
/boss link create <relay> <dir> [--share status|presence] [--label x]	Create a team for a project folder. The relay’s token is asked on a masked screen.
/boss link join <invite | @file> [--project <dir>] [--share …] [--label x]	Join a team; prints the four safety words for the inviter.
/boss link invite <team> [unattended <device id>]	Make an invite, as the page’s Invite and Invite an unattended device do, after a confirm. Its text is drawn on a screen of its own, never in the chat.
/boss link invite show|cancel <hash>, link join cancel	Show an open invite on a screen of its own, cancel it, or cancel the join in progress.
/boss link leave <team> [--force]	Leave a team, after a confirm.
/boss link trust <device> reply|forward|dispatch	Set what a message from a teammate’s device may do, after a confirm that says what each level lets it do.
/boss link role <team> <device> admin|member	Make a device of a team an admin or a member (an admin’s act), after a confirm.
/boss link remove <team> <device>	Remove a device from a team (an admin’s act). The confirm says the device can no longer read or send and the team key is replaced for the devices that stay.
/boss link rotate <team>	Replace the team’s key for every device (an admin’s act), after a confirm.
/boss link confirms, link confirm <id> allow|deny	The confirms teammates’ towers wait on, and their answer.
/boss link asks, link answer <id> <number | text>	The questions unattended devices forwarded, and their answer.
/boss link units [box], link stop <box> <main | handle start> [--interrupt] [reason]	The units an unattended box reported, and asking the box to stop a main.
/boss link operate, /boss link operate off	The sessions this computer opened to operate unattended boxes; end them all and keep operate off.

From a shell

node dist/server/cli.mjs in the package’s folder runs the sb server’s own commands:

Command	What it does
cli.mjs status, cli.mjs logs	The server’s state, and its log.
cli.mjs up, cli.mjs stop, cli.mjs restart	Start the server and the GUI when they are down; stop or restart the server.
cli.mjs serve	Run the server in the foreground, as the link holder of an unattended device.
cli.mjs up --dir <folder> --label <name>	Desk mode, for a shell that shows the page itself: needs STRAW_BOSS_DESK=1. See Desk mode.
cli.mjs procs, cli.mjs procs reap --checkout <path>	The workers the server knows; stop the processes that hold a checkout.
cli.mjs train status|check|gate|clear|notices	The merge train’s trains, slips, gates, and car notices.

See The sb server, and From a shell for reading the net from a plain shell.