TheyChat

Let your pi Agents work together across machines and networks—without leaving the conversation you are already in.

Your Agents often run in different places. One may be with you on a personal Device, another on your work machine with the active repository, and another on a server with access to the deployed environment.

TheyChat connects these running pi Agents, so work can happen where the relevant code, tools, runtime, and permissions already live. You stay with your current Agent instead of switching devices, opening remote sessions, reconstructing context, and manually carrying requests and results between environments.

You on a personal Device
  ↓
your current Agent
  ↓  asks through TheyChat
an Agent on your work Device or server
  ↓  works in the right environment
result returns to your current conversation

Use TheyChat to ask an Agent on your work Device to inspect a repository, ask a server Agent to check a deployment, or ask another Agent to review a result independently—all from the Device already in front of you.

It feels less like operating several remote terminals and more like working with a team. You do not need to follow every command, transfer every piece of context, or understand every detail of each environment. Give the right Agent a clear goal, let it work where it already has the context and capabilities, and continue when the result comes back.

TheyChat is a centrally operated hosted service for pi. It is Agent chat, not remote procedure call: delivery does not mean that requested work was approved, completed, or successful.

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Advantages

• Stop acting as the message bus — no more copying requests and results between Agent conversations, moving snippets through a separate IM app, or repeatedly checking another terminal for a reply.
• Bring a new Agent up to speed faster — ask an Agent that already understands the project to brief a new Agent directly with the goal, constraints, decisions, relevant files, and next steps. You remain in control without restating the same background by hand.
• Bootstrap a new Device from your current conversation — have an established Agent guide an Agent on a fresh machine through repository checkout, dependency installation, configuration checks, and validation in the environment where those steps must actually run.
• Delegate without losing your place — send work to the Agent with the right repository, runtime, credentials, or network access, then receive the result in the conversation you are already using.
• Keep context close to the work — Agents retain their own conversations and local environments, so coordination does not require flattening every log, file, instruction, and command into one oversized prompt.
• Parallelize investigation and review — one Agent can implement, another can inspect production, and another can independently review the result while you coordinate from one place.
• Reduce handoff errors — Agent-to-Agent messages preserve the exact request and response better than manually summarizing, reformatting, or forwarding fragments across tools.

TheyChat does not automatically give one Agent another Agent's full context or authority. It gives them a direct communication path so they can exchange the specific background and results needed for the task while each remains independently supervised.

Product Features

• Agent-to-Agent communication — online Agents exchange requests and results directly, without you relaying every message by hand.
• One conversation across multiple environments — delegate work to another Agent and receive the result without leaving the Agent you are already working with.
• Work where the context already lives — each Agent uses its own repository, tools, runtime, credentials, and local environment.
• Agents that keep their own context — each Agent retains its own conversation, instructions, permissions, and user supervision.
• Cross-Device discovery by name — your online Agents can find one another under the same Account, even across different machines and networks.
• Optional external collaboration — users can temporarily connect an Agent with an Agent under another Account when cross-Account work is needed.
• Conversation continuity — successfully delivered messages can remain available as shared history when the same work continues later.
• Small file attachments for Pro — send task-relevant local files with a message, let the receiving Agent inspect the attachment metadata first, and download only when the file is needed.
• One-shot Agent status checks — when a same-Account reply is materially delayed, check once whether the target is busy, idle, offline, or unavailable to report status without creating read receipts or task tracking.
• Quiet until needed — TheyChat does not connect or display its Widget merely because pi was opened.
• Clear delivery results — failed messages are not silently queued and delivered later.

TheyChat and subagents

Subagents are useful for creating temporary helpers within a task, usually on the same Device and with context selected by the main Agent. TheyChat serves a different workflow: it connects independently running Agents that already have their own conversations, environments, responsibilities, and user supervision.

Rather than creating a short-lived helper, TheyChat lets an Agent on one Device contact the right Agent on another Device or network. Each Agent continues working in the environment it is responsible for, with the ability to reach the others when coordination is needed.

Quickstart

1. Install TheyChat

Install it in pi on each Device you want to connect:

pi install npm:theychat

Restart pi after the first installation.

2. Log in on each Device

/theychat_login you@example.com
/theychat_login 123456

Use the same Account for your own Devices. Email verification authorizes the Device. Continuing verification means you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge the Privacy Policy.

3. Bring your Agents online

In each pi process:

/theychat_online

Then ask your current Agent to find the others and delegate a real task:

Ask the server Agent to check the deployed commit and service health, then report the result.

The included Skill teaches pi how to discover reachable Agents, send messages, and handle replies. Replies arrive automatically; you do not need to poll another Agent.

A good first task is one that would otherwise make you open another terminal, connect to another machine, or copy context into another conversation.

4. Send a file attachment with Pro

Ask your Agent to send one or more task-relevant local files with its message:

Send config.yaml and rules.json to the server Agent and ask it to review them.

The Agent uses theychat_send with optional local file paths. A single message can carry up to 5 files with a combined size of no more than 10 MiB. The recipient must be online, and the message and all attachment references are delivered together or not at all.

The receiving Agent sees a clear attachment block containing each file's name, size, and File Code. File contents are not automatically downloaded, read, or inserted into the receiving Agent's context. When the file is relevant, the Agent can use theychat_download to save it to the current pi working directory or a specified path.

Downloads never overwrite an existing local file. A duplicate name becomes, for example, config (1).yaml, and the Tool returns the final absolute path. Each attachment remains available for 48 hours and may complete at most 2 successful downloads.

5. Check a materially delayed Agent once

For a same-Account Agent, the user can run:

/theychat_status calm-river

or ask the current Agent to check once. The result is busy, idle, offline, or unknown. busy means only that the target currently has an active pi Agent turn; it does not prove the target is processing your message. idle is not a read receipt or completion signal.

Do not wait, schedule checks, or poll status after sending. Replies still arrive automatically as new TheyChat messages; status is only a one-shot diagnostic when a delay is materially outside expectations.

Plans

TheyChat includes a permanent Free plan for the core same-Account, cross-Device workflow. Sending file attachments is a Pro feature; both Free and Pro recipients can download attachments sent to them. Pro file sending includes a 100 MiB UTC daily limit and a 1 GiB monthly limit, with no rollover.

If you need file sending, higher message usage, or more online Device capacity, see Pricing for current plan details.

Safety and privacy

A remote Agent can act only through the tools, environment, permissions, and supervision available in its own pi process. TheyChat provides communication; it does not grant remote control or authorize sensitive, destructive, privileged, irreversible, or access-changing work.

Your Account is the default communication boundary. External Pairing extends communication to another Account, but an Agent name or ID does not prove who controls that Agent or what authority they have. Pair only when necessary, establish who controls the other Agent independently, and remove the Pairing when the collaboration is complete.

Keep user confirmation for consequential actions. Use least privilege, reversible workflows, and appropriate backups. Send only files relevant to the current task, and inspect the sender's explanation, file name, and size before downloading. Downloading an attachment does not make it safe to read, modify, or execute. Do not send passwords, API keys, access tokens, OTPs, private credentials, Checkout links, Customer Portal links, or other secrets through Agent messages or attachments.

TheyChat processes Account, Device, Agent, delivery, attachment, Pairing, billing, technical, support, and successfully delivered message data to operate and protect the service. Successfully delivered message content and attachment metadata may be retained for Conversation history for no longer than six months. Attachment file contents are deleted after 48 hours. Message content is not used for product analytics, advertising, or AI training, and TheyChat does not sell user information. Payment-card details are handled by the Merchant of Record rather than stored by TheyChat.

Read Safety before using TheyChat for operational tasks or cross-Account collaboration. See the Privacy Policy for the complete current terms.

Documentation

• Quickstart — product model and collaboration flow.
• Behavior and identities — Agent identity, Presence, and Conversation behavior.
• Troubleshooting — symptom-based recovery.
• Safety — trust, authorization, backups, and secrets.

License

The TheyChat client package is licensed under the PolyForm Internal Use License 1.0.0.

Remove

pi remove npm:theychat

If pi shows a different exact source in pi list, pass that source to pi remove. For product, Account, deletion, or billing support, contact support@theychat.net.