Inline mention spawn

How @-mentions inside in-app channels turn into agent turns — and, when the mentioned name doesn't exist yet, into a fresh agent.

The pattern

A user (or another agent) types @<name> inside a channel. The channel's bridge layer parses the mention before the message is appended to the session. Three branches:

Mention resolves to	Action
An existing agent in the entity	Add agent as a session participant; fire its turn against the message.
An existing role in the entity	Route to whoever currently occupies the role; fire their turn.
An unknown name	If the channel is configured on_mention: spawn_from_template:<slug>, spawn a templated agent named <name>, attach to the session, fire the first turn.

Branch 3 is what makes a channel feel alive: the team grows by being talked to.

Configuration

channel {
  agent_id: "<owning_agent_id>",
  kind: "in_app",
  on_mention: "spawn_from_template:generalist",
  config: {
    spawn_naming: "from_mention"
  }
}

spawn_from_template:<slug> resolves to a blueprint component. The component supplies the role, the charter Ideas, the model preference, and any seeded tools. The mention text supplies the name.

Why parse before append

The mention has to be parsed before the inbound message hits the session, otherwise the session has a turn from a participant that doesn't exist yet. The flow is:

1. Inbound message arrives at the channel bridge.
2. Bridge parses @-mentions; resolves each one against the entity's agents and roles.
3. For unresolved mentions, bridge spawns the templated agent + creates the role binding + adds to session participants.
4. Message gets appended to the session with the mentioned agents already as participants.
5. Each mentioned agent's turn fires.

Steps 3 and 4 must complete before step 5 — otherwise the agent's first turn doesn't see itself in the participant list.

In-app channels vs external channels

External channels (Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack) have always supported mention-routes-to-spawn — the existing on_mention config from Mention-gating.

What v0.41.0 fixed: the in-app channel surface (the Slack-shaped Channels rail) now respects the same gate. Before, in-app @-mentions appended to the session but didn't fire a turn or spawn — the chat looked like it was working, but the agent was deaf. The bridge layer is now uniform across in-app and external channels.

Why this matters

The fastest path from idea to running agent is one sentence with an @ in it. No "create agent" form. No blueprint picker for incidental hires. You name the agent in the act of asking it to do something.

The opposite — making the user fill out a form before they can talk to a teammate — is the same friction every PM-led product loses to. aeqi declines.

Related

• Mention-gating — Layer 1/2 model, BotFather privacy, allowlists.
• Sessions — what mentions mutate.
• Roles — role-addressed routing.