📝 v6 epic: dashboard-optional operation — meet humans where they are

[clubanderson]

The v6 line

Branch v6 is open (cut from v5 @ c66a944, 2026-09-18). Theme: every operator interaction the dashboard offers should be reachable from the places humans already are — GitHub threads, chat, email, a phone. The dashboard remains the richest surface, never the only one.

Guard invariant (non-negotiable): every non-dashboard surface routes through the same authorization and safety machinery — dashboard role floor (requireOwnerRole semantics), the mode ladder + capabilities checked at the proxy, Converse for replies, ioscan.EnforceInput on all inbound text, canary/secret scrubbing on all outbound text. No surface grows its own authz.

Priority relative to v5 GA

Until the GA bar's Release train rows on #6016 are green, those evidence rows outrank v6 tracks whenever the two compete for maintainer or agent attention (matches the #6346 freeze intent; calendar backstop 2026-10-15). v6 work proceeds in the gaps, not at the front of the queue. (Mirrored from ROADMAP.md, #7578.)

Tracks

1. pkg/chat — shared chat spine (foundation)

Extract from pkg/discord/bot.go: chat.Backend (transport interface), chat.Router (commands, aliases), chat.DashboardClient (REST/SSE snapshot diffing), and a notification fan-out carrying the surfaces the bot predates — review verdicts, HUMAN DECISION NEEDED routing (#7515/#7536), plan approvals (#7537).

2. Discord fix — #7560

Port pkg/discord onto the spine (transport-only), then reliability (reconnect/backoff contract, heartbeat watchdog, silent-drop detection) and notification parity.

3. Slack — #7559

Socket Mode first (works from pull-only clusters with no public URL), Events API as a later accelerator. pkg/slack implements chat.Backend; config mirrors discord:.

4. GitHub @-mention triggers — #7483

Design merged (src/docs/design/github-mention-triggers.md). Phase 1: poller + grammar + 7 guards + kick (source=mention) + 👀 ack + audits, mention channel type shipped with its runtime (#5591 rule). Phase 2: reply via Converse (no new write path). Phase 3: webhook accelerator. Also the free win: GitHub Mobile becomes a hive remote the moment this lands.

5. More chat backends (design-tracked, post-spine)

• Microsoft Teams — the enterprise Slack; biggest hosted-hive adoption unlock
• Matrix — OSS communities; self-hostable, fits the pull-only ethos
• Telegram — trivial bot API; solo-operator-on-a-phone story

6. Escalation surfaces (one design doc)

• Email — outbound digest + HUMAN DECISION NEEDED escalation; inbound reply-to-act (allowlisted senders, signed, ioscan'd), mirroring the Linear inbound model over SMTP/IMAP
• Push / on-call — ntfy / Pushover / PagerDuty: a requires_human verdict pages someone instead of waiting in a queue; outbound-only, the logical terminus of 🌱 dashboard: hovering a PR pill should tell the operator why it is not mergeable #7515's routing work

7. Governance & plumbing

ROADMAP.md + src/docs/roadmap.md declare the line open and retire the "designation only" language (#7519); v5→v6 top-up workflow so v6 tracks v5; CI verified on v6 PRs.

v6-later (named, not scheduled)

• Jira integration mirroring pkg/linearagent
• IDE (VS Code) status/kick extension over the dashboard API
• Calendar (ICS) feed of scheduled kicks/maintenance

Sequencing

Track 7 (governance) → Track 1 (pkg/chat) → Tracks 2, 3, 5 (backends)
                     └→ Track 4 (mentions, independent)     └→ Track 6 (escalation)

Child issues

• 📝 v6: @-mention triggers — let a human summon an agent from a GitHub thread #7483 — mention triggers (phases 1–3) — ✨ mention: GitHub mention triggers phase 1 (poll-based) (#7483) #7582, ✨ mention: phase 2 — in-thread replies when the summoned run completes (#7483) #7597, ✨ mention: phase 3 — webhook accelerator for lower-latency summons (#7483) #7623 merged
• Slack (Track 3; 📝 v6: Slack integration — bring the hive's chat surface to Slack #7559 folded in) — design 📖 docs: Slack integration design — second backend on the chat spine (#7563) #7567, backend ✨ slack: Socket Mode backend on the chat spine (#7563) #7585 merged
• Discord fix (Track 2; 📝 v6: fix the Discord integration — reliability and parity overhaul #7560 folded in) — spine port 🌱 chat: extract the transport-agnostic chat spine from pkg/discord #7572, reliability parity 🐛 chat: reconnect and cancellation reliability parity across backends (#7563) #7586 merged
• Teams ✨ v6: Microsoft Teams chat backend on the pkg/chat spine #7590 / Matrix ✨ v6: Matrix chat backend on the pkg/chat spine #7591 / Telegram ✨ v6: Telegram chat backend on the pkg/chat spine #7592 — backends merged (✨ msteams: chat backend on the pkg/chat spine (#7590) #7621, ✨ matrix: chat backend on the pkg/chat spine (#7591) #7617, ✨ telegram: chat backend on the pkg/chat spine (#7592) #7616)
• Escalation surfaces design (email + push) — 📝 docs: escalation surfaces design (email + push) — v6 Track 6 #7593 merged; implementation ✨ v6: pkg/escalate — severity-routed escalation fan-out with email + push sinks #7613 merged (✨ escalate: severity-routed fan-out with email and push sinks (#7613) #7618: pkg/escalate email/webhook/chat sinks, severity routing, daily digest)

Refs #7519 (v6 governance finding).

[clubanderson]

Track progress:

• Track 7 (governance): ROADMAP v6-line-open docs in 📖 docs: open the v6 line — dashboard-optional operation #7564 (in flight); v5→v6 top-up workflow in 🌱 ci: v6 top-up workflow — forward-merge v5 into v6 (#7563) #7568 (in flight).
• Track 3 (Slack): design record src/docs/design/slack-integration.md in 📖 docs: Slack integration design — second backend on the chat spine (#7563) #7567 (in flight) — Socket Mode first, Slack as a pure chat.Backend.
• Tracks 1+2 (chat spine + Discord port): extraction of pkg/chat from pkg/discord/bot.go in progress; PR against v6 to follow.
• Track 4 (mention triggers): phase 1 implementation per src/docs/design/github-mention-triggers.md in progress; PR against v6 to follow. Maintainer decisions applied: read-write role floor, in-thread replies, one summon = one agent.

[clubanderson]

Track progress update:

• ✅ Track 1+2 (chat spine + Discord port): 🌱 chat: extract the transport-agnostic chat spine from pkg/discord #7572 merged — pkg/chat (Backend/Service/router/dashboard/notify), Discord now a transport; all 105 tests preserved, discord 96.6% / chat 94.0% coverage.
• ✅ Track 4 (mention triggers phase 1): ✨ mention: GitHub mention triggers phase 1 (poll-based) (#7483) #7582 merged (see 📝 v6: @-mention triggers — let a human summon an agent from a GitHub thread #7483 for detail).
• ✅ Track 7 (governance): 📖 docs: open the v6 line — dashboard-optional operation #7564 (v6 line open), 📖 docs: Slack integration design — second backend on the chat spine (#7563) #7567 (Slack design), 🌱 ci: v6 top-up workflow — forward-merge v5 into v6 (#7563) #7568 (v5→v6 top-up workflow), 🌱 ci: run the v4 CI lanes on v6-base PRs (#7563) #7573+🌱 ci: run the CI lanes on v6-base PRs (v6 twin of #7573) #7574 (v6-base PRs now run the full CI lanes) — all merged.
• 🔄 Track 3 (Slack backend): ✨ slack: Socket Mode backend on the chat spine (#7563) #7585 in flight (Socket Mode chat.Backend, review fixes applied, 94.7% coverage) — merging on green.
• Next: Track 2 reliability follow-ups (Discord reconnect parity), mention phase 2 (in-thread replies).