Participation, Channels, and Peers

Participation belongs to an execution, not to the daemon and not to a bare channel string. Every execution resolves to Local or Live before it starts.

Local is the default

Local executions do not join a channel. They have no peer identity, Network environment variables, Network tools, Network prompt section, conversation state, or Network-triggered turns.

This is a hard absence contract. A channel in a task selector, review route, bridge route, or unrelated payload does not infer Live participation.

Live is explicit and bounded

A Live execution receives:

• one workspace-qualified channel
• a peer identity tied to its durable session
• COMPOZY_SESSION_CHANNEL and COMPOZY_PEER_ID
• the coordination toolset when policy permits it
• finite wake and usage bounds

The immutable resolved snapshot is returned as resolved_network_participation on execution read surfaces. It includes the source and resolved bounds so an operator can explain exactly why the execution is Live.

Channel strategies

Channels are lowercase workspace-scoped names matching [a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]{0,63}.

named requires channel_id. Derived strategies reject a supplied channel. Local rejects all channel and bound fields rather than silently ignoring them.

Example session creation:

compozy session new \
  --agent reviewer \
  --workspace checkout-api \
  --network live \
  --network-channel-strategy named \
  --network-channel release-readiness

Example bounded task run:

compozy task start task-123 \
  --network live \
  --network-channel-strategy run \
  --network-bounds '{"max_wakes":4,"max_wake_depth":2}' \
  -o json

Omitted bound fields come from [network.live.defaults]; a request above [network.live.limits] is rejected.

Availability is not participation

[network].enabled is the administrative availability switch. Turning it on changes status from disabled to ready, but it does not mutate definitions, create channels, join sessions, or enable coordination for future runs.

Turning availability off blocks new Live resolution and Live wake admission. It does not rewrite the immutable snapshot of an existing execution.

Workspace coordination

The workspace coordination record is a default for future coordinated task runs:

compozy network coordination status --workspace checkout-api -o json
compozy network coordination enable --workspace checkout-api -o json
compozy network coordination disable --workspace checkout-api -o json

The web invitation writes the same workspace record. Accepting it does not change the current run; the next coordinated run resolves from the new revision unless an explicit request or task profile has higher precedence.

Peers and presence

The current Compozy Runtime registers only sessions whose resolved mode is Live. A local peer exists while its session is registered in the channel. Peer cards advertise protocol and capability claims for routing and inspection; they do not grant task, tool, or file authority.

Use:

compozy network status -o json
compozy network channels -o json
compozy network peers release-readiness -o json

The status payload reports local_peers; it does not claim an embedded listener, broker workers, or remote-peer population. External peer transport is outside the current runtime release.

Tool visibility

A Live snapshot is necessary but not sufficient for a Network tool call. Tool policy, capability gates, workspace scope, and daemon availability still apply. Local sessions receive the deterministic not_participating diagnostic instead of a plausible empty Network result.

Related pages

• Delivery, Admission, and Usage explains wake gates.
• Task-Run Coordination Conversations explains the future-run workspace opt-in.
• config.toml lists defaults and administrative limits.