Messaging technical handbook
This handbook is for engineers integrating Messaging, administrators deploying it, and reviewers evaluating how it handles identities, permissions, content and network access. It complements the product guides.
Reading paths
| Task | Start here |
|---|---|
| Understand the components | System architecture, then the stack reference for your OS |
| Integrate an agent | Send contract, identity, MCP and IPC |
| Evaluate privacy | Data lifecycle, credentials, network connections |
| Evaluate security | Trust boundaries, pairing and revocation, supply chain |
| Operate connected machines | Account discovery, Relay client, SSH, A2A |
| Install or update | Installation, hot updates, recovery |
| Find an individual feature | Feature reference and provider catalog |
Stack references: Windows, Mac, Linux, native runtime, mobile/SDK, account/web, provider integrations and release/documentation tooling.
What this handbook establishes
It describes reviewed implementation contracts and their platform boundaries. A declared capability, a signed artifact, an installed component and an observed operation are different kinds of evidence. The source and release status page identifies the source snapshot and recent source-only changes.
There is no universal provider-pair PASS claim here. This documentation update ran no provider operations, tests, scans, compilers, builds, installers or website deployments.
The scope is the Messaging project and its connected components. IDE and Usage Meter are separate products even when they consume the same native runtime. Connected-client files, terminals and workspace capabilities are documented as conditional host features, not automatically enabled desktop Messaging features.
Reference conventions
“Default” means the reviewed source's fresh-install default unless a page says otherwise. Existing installations may retain explicit selections and migrated preferences. “Unknown” means no sufficient observation, not that a connection or stored record does not exist.
A feature mentioned in a protocol or source manifest may still require a matching host, provider version, account, OS permission and installed component. Follow compatibility when evaluating a particular release.