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name: frontmcp-channels description: 'Use when pushing real-time notifications or events into Claude Code (or another MCP client) sessions, or building two-way chat bridges. Covers channel source types: incoming webhooks (such as GitHub), app error events, agent-completion and job-completion alerts, service connectors, file watchers, and replay buffers; plus two-way conversational bridges connecting WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and Discord to a Claude Code session. Triggers: push notifications, real-time alerts, webhook channel, chat bridge, WhatsApp / Telegram / Slack / Discord, agent completion alert, job status notification, error forwarding, server-to-client messaging. The skill for CHANNELS and NOTIFICATIONS.' when_to_use: | Trigger when creating or editing a .channel.ts file, or building a channel that pushes real-time notifications into a Claude Code session: webhook sources, app / agent / job event alerts, service connectors, file watchers, or a two-way chat bridge (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord). paths: '**/.channel.ts' tags: [ channels, notifications, claude-code, webhooks, messaging, real-time, two-way, whatsapp, telegram, slack, chat-bridge, ] category: development targets: [all] bundle: [full] priority: 8 visibility: both license: Apache-2.0 metadata: docs: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/channels-reference

FrontMCP Channels

Build push-based notification channels that stream real-time events into Claude Code. Channels let your MCP server forward webhooks, application errors, agent completions, job results, and chat messages directly into Claude's context, with optional two-way reply support.

When to Use This Skill

Must Use

• You need Claude Code to react to external events (CI failures, monitoring alerts, deploy status)
• You are building a chat bridge (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord) for Claude Code
• You want agents or background jobs to notify Claude Code upon completion

Recommended

• You want to forward application errors to Claude for debugging assistance
• You need a messaging interface where remote users can interact with Claude via chat platforms

Skip When

• You only need standard MCP resource subscriptions (use @Resource with resources/subscribe)
• Your client is not Claude Code and does not support experimental['claude/channel']
• You need request-response patterns (use @Tool instead)

Decision: Use channels when you need server-initiated push notifications into Claude Code. Use resources when the client pulls data on demand.

Prerequisites

• @frontmcp/sdk >= 1.0.0
• Basic understanding of @FrontMcp, @App, and @Tool decorators
• For webhook sources: HTTP transport (not stdio-only)
• For chat bridges: external API credentials (WhatsApp Business API, Telegram Bot Token, etc.)

Steps

1. Choose your channel source type from the Scenario Routing Table
2. Create a channel class or function
3. Register it in your app
4. Enable channels in @FrontMcp config
5. Test with Claude Code using --dangerously-load-development-channels

Scenario Routing Table

Scenario	Reference	Description
Webhook alerts (CI, monitoring)	references/channel-sources.md	Forward HTTP webhooks into Claude
Application error forwarding	references/channel-sources.md	Push app errors via event bus
Agent completion notifications	references/channel-sources.md	Notify when agents finish
Job/workflow completion	references/channel-sources.md	Notify when jobs complete
Service connector (WhatsApp, etc.)	references/channel-sources.md	Persistent connection with bidirectional tools
File/log watcher	references/channel-sources.md	File system change monitoring
Event replay for offline sessions	references/channel-sources.md	Buffer events for later delivery
WhatsApp/Telegram chat bridge	references/channel-two-way.md	Two-way messaging with Claude
Slack/Discord integration	references/channel-two-way.md	Chat platform bridges
Permission relay	references/channel-two-way.md	Remote tool approval via chat

Common Patterns

Pattern	Correct	Incorrect	Why
Meta keys	meta: { env: 'prod' }	meta: { 'my-env': 'prod' }	Meta keys must be valid identifiers (letters, digits, underscores)
Source naming	name: 'deploy-alerts'	name: 'Deploy Alerts!'	Channel names should be kebab-case identifiers
Two-way gating	Check sender identity before emitting	Trust room/group membership	Prevent prompt injection from untrusted group members
Error channels	Use app-event source with event bus	Poll for errors in a loop	Event bus is push-based and efficient
Manual push	await scope.channelNotifications?.send()	sendToSubscribedSessions() for a regular push	send() runs the hookable channels:send-notification flow (defaultMeta, channel meta, hooks); the sendTo* methods deliver directly

Verification Checklist

Server Setup

• @FrontMcp({ channels: { enabled: true } }) is set
• Channel classes extend ChannelContext with @Channel() decorator
• Channels are listed in @App({ channels: [...] }); a channel and the tools in its tools resolve its app's providers with this.get(), and one whose availableWhen the runtime doesn't meet is left out at startup
• onEvent() returns { content: string, meta?: Record<string, string> }

Capability

• Server advertises experimental: { 'claude/channel': {} } in capabilities
• Only sessions with matching capability receive notifications
• An MCP 2026-07-28 client (no session) gets them on a subscriptions/listen stream whose request's client capabilities include experimental['claude/channel']: the global notifications of the channels channels:list returns; its server/discover advertises experimental['claude/channel'] and the <channel> instructions, as initialize does
• instructions field mentions <channel> tags when channels are active

Two-Way

• twoWay: true is set on channels that need replies
• channel-reply tool appears in tool list
• onReply() is implemented and forwards to external system (if it throws, channel-reply answers an error result)
• Sender authentication is enforced before emitting events

Sources

• Webhook endpoints return 200 on success
• Event bus subscriptions are cleaned up on scope teardown, and service channels get onDisconnect() on shutdown and on dispose()
• Agent/job completion filters match expected IDs

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Solution
No notifications arrive	Client doesn't support channels	Check client capabilities include experimental['claude/channel']
channel-reply tool missing	No two-way channels registered	Set twoWay: true on at least one channel
Webhook returns 500	onEvent() throws	Check channel handler error logs
A notification never arrives	A ChannelSendHook stopped it, or ChannelListHook left the channel out of the session's subscriptions	Check plugins hooking channels:send-notification / channels:list
Duplicate notifications	Multiple sessions subscribed	This is correct behavior -- each session gets its own copy
Events lost on reconnect	Channels are in-memory	Channel state resets on server restart; use persistent sources

Examples

Each reference has matching examples under examples/<reference>/:

channel-sources

Example	Level	Description
webhook-github	Basic	Forward GitHub webhook events (PRs, pushes, CI) into Claude Code
app-errors	Basic	Forward application errors to Claude Code via the in-process event bus
agent-notify	Intermediate	Notify Claude Code when AI agents complete their tasks
job-completion	Intermediate	Notify Claude Code when background jobs and workflows complete
service-connector	Advanced	Build a persistent service connector that lets Claude send and receive messages through WhatsApp, Telegram, or any messaging API
file-watcher	Intermediate	Watch files for changes and notify Claude Code in real-time
replay-buffer	Advanced	Buffer channel events so Claude Code receives them when it connects, even if events occurred while offline

channel-two-way

Example	Level	Description
whatsapp-bridge	Advanced	Full WhatsApp Business API bridge allowing users to chat with Claude Code via WhatsApp

Accessing This Skill

Skills are distributed as plain SKILL.md files plus a sibling references/ and examples/ tree, so consumers can pick whichever access mode fits:

Mode	How it works
Filesystem	Read libs/skills/catalog/frontmcp-channels/ directly from a clone of the catalog repo, or from a published @frontmcp/skills install. SKILL.md is the entry point.
frontmcp CLI	frontmcp skills list, frontmcp skills read frontmcp-channels, frontmcp skills read frontmcp-channels:references/<file>.md, frontmcp skills install frontmcp-channels — no server required.
MCP skill://	When a developer mounts this skill into their own FrontMCP server (@FrontMcp({ skills: [...] })), the SDK exposes it via SEP-2640 resources: skill://frontmcp-channels/SKILL.md, skill://frontmcp-channels/references/{file}.md, etc. The server’s skill://index.json returns the SEP-2640 discovery document for everything mounted on it.

The catalog itself is not an MCP server. The skill:// URIs only resolve when a server has been configured to host this skill.

Reference

• Claude Code Channels Reference
• MCP Specification - Notifications
• Related skills: frontmcp-development, frontmcp-testing, frontmcp-deployment