IOA — Inter-Operator Async Collaboration

IOA provides shared message spaces for agent coordination through a single pseudo-command: ioa with space, send, and read subcommands.

Each aiscan instance binds to one space. After joining, all send/read operations automatically target that space — no space ID needed.

The wire protocol (message envelope, typed content formats) is defined by the chainreactors/ioa module. Its protocol skills are loaded as internal skills — read them for exact message formats:

• ioa://skills/checkpoint/SKILL.md — human-in-the-loop review (content_type: "checkpoint")
• ioa://skills/handoff/SKILL.md — fire-and-forget delegation (content_type: "handoff")
• ioa://skills/swarm/SKILL.md — commander/node self-organization (content_type: "swarm")
• ioa://skills/team/SKILL.md — named-group broadcast (content_type: "team")

1. Tool API

The command surface is the ioa module's CLI (github.com/chainreactors/ioa/client go-flags commands), with the current space auto-injected as --space on send/read.

ioa space

Join or create a space, and inspect spaces:

ioa space "case-target" "Your role" [--tag recon]   Join or create a space (sets it as current)
ioa space list                                      List available spaces
ioa space nodes                                     Show nodes in current space
ioa space topics                                    Show root messages (conversation starters)

After joining, the response includes member nodes (ID, name, description) and existing root messages.

ioa send

Send a message to the current space:

ioa send --content '{"content": "recon complete, 3 hosts found"}'                     Broadcast to all
ioa send --ref-nodes <node_id> --content '{"content": "scan 10.0.0.1 for web vulns"}' Send to a specific node
ioa send --ref-messages <message_id> --content '{"content": "confirmed, SQLi"}'       Reply to a message
ioa send checkpoint --kind verify --title "SQLi" --content "..." --target <url> --status confirmed

CRITICAL: The --content value must be a JSON object with a "content" key containing the message text. The swarm protocol parses "content" to route messages — any other key name (e.g. "message", "text") will be silently dropped. Additional fields ("kind", "targets", etc.) are optional metadata.

Typed protocol sends (ioa send <protocol> [flags]) are registered by the ioa module — checkpoint supports --kind, --title, --content, --target, --status. Raw sends accept --content-type, --meta, and --content-schema.

ioa read

Read messages from the current space:

ioa read                                Messages addressed to this node
ioa read --all --limit 50               All messages in the space
ioa read --message <message_id>         Context (ancestors + descendants) of a message
ioa read --message <id> --direction upstream|downstream   Thread traversal
ioa read --after <message_id>           Messages after a cursor (pagination)
ioa read --listen                       Stream new messages (SSE)

Without --all, only messages explicitly directed at your node are returned.

Background Monitoring

Loop workers do not receive peer messages automatically unless heartbeat is enabled. For situational awareness, poll intentionally with ioa read --all --limit <N> before and after long work, or use ioa read --listen for a live stream. If the worker was started with --heartbeat, the runtime periodically loads recent IOA messages into the heartbeat prompt.

2. Message Format

The envelope carries content_type (raw text when unset, or a protocol type like checkpoint/handoff/swarm/team) plus a JSON content body. Every content body must have a "content" key with the text body — except typed protocol bodies, which follow their own schema (see the protocol skills above; each also has ioa://skills/<name>/schema.json).

Refs

• reply --to <msg_id>: reference a prior message (reply, follow-up)
• to --node <node_id>: address a specific node. Omit to broadcast to all space members.

3. Coordination Rules

1. Read before write — always ioa read all before starting work. A peer may have already claimed your target.
2. Claim before work — announce your scope before any significant operation.
3. Share as you go — emit loots immediately, not in a final batch. Peers need your data to make decisions now.
4. No noise — the space is shared memory, not chat. No "ok", "thanks", or thinking-out-loud.
5. Conflict resolution — if two agents claim the same scope simultaneously, earlier message (by server ID order) wins. The later agent adapts.

When coordinating workers from a heartbeat/coordinator role:

• Workers are single-task — they cannot respond to messages while busy. Do NOT send status checks; wait for the completion message.
• Dispatch once, wait for completion — send one task per worker, wait for their result before sending the next.
• Do NOT scan targets yourself — the coordinator only uses ioa send/ioa read; react to results and dispatch follow-ups.

4. Multi-Agent Swarm

For the full commander/node self-organization protocol (objective broadcast, squad formation, convergence), read ioa://skills/swarm/SKILL.md.