Peer Groups
A peer group declares who an agent accepts inbound messages from on a
channel, and which other agents it can exchange messages with there. It is the
inbound gate for chat channels and the routing primitive for cross-agent
dispatch. In config it lives at [peer_groups.<name>]. For how peer groups fit
into an agent’s wiring, see Agents.
Inbound senders are gated against the peer set resolved for the bound
agent, drawn from every [peer_groups.<name>] block the agent belongs to.
Matching strips a leading @ and is case-insensitive against the channel’s
native sender identifier. An empty set denies everyone; a set containing
"*" accepts anyone; otherwise only the listed external_peers (and peer
agents) are accepted. This is separate from gateway pairing
([gateway] require_pairing), which authenticates HTTP/WebSocket clients, not
chat-channel senders.
Fields
A [peer_groups.<name>] block carries:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
channel | A channel type ("telegram", applies to every alias of that type) or a dotted alias ("telegram.work", scopes to that one instance). |
agents | Member agents by alias. Two agents are peers only when both appear in the same group; membership is mutual. |
external_peers | Non-agent members by the channel’s native username/ID. ["*"] accepts anyone; empty accepts no one. |
ignore | Per-group blocklist; subtracts from the resolved peer set. |
output_modality | Preferred reply modality for the group: mirror (input-driven, default), voice (always reply and deliver proactive messages as TTS notes on audio-capable channels), or text (always text). |
Resolution
For a given agent, the runtime walks every group the agent appears in, unions
the other members’ aliases (as agent peers) and the group’s external_peers on
the group’s channel, then subtracts the ignore list. The agent’s own alias is
removed defensively to avoid a self-loop. An agent on no peer group runs solo
with no cross-agent dispatch.
The sender identifier each channel matches against differs by platform (a
Telegram user ID, a Matrix @user:server, an E.164 number, a UUID, …). Each
channel page states the identifier shape it expects.
Example
A discord peer group named e.g. my_discord_group sets channel = "discord", allows 111111111111111111 in external_peers, names peer agents researcher, summariser, and blocks 222222222222222222 via ignore. Set it through the gateway dashboard, zerocode, or zeroclaw config set.
Each channel page shows the directive form with that channel’s sender-identifier shape.