v1.1.13 — Chatty Mercury

Mercury gets chatty. Three new channels — Discord, Slack, and Signal — bring Mercury to where you already are.

1.1.13 is the communication release. Mercury now speaks six languages: CLI, Web Dashboard, Telegram, Discord, Slack, and Signal. Every new channel has its own access model (pairing codes, admin roles, member approval), streaming responses, and real-time task progress. Signal adds end-to-end encryption for the privacy-first crowd, with Mercury auto-managing the signal-cli binary.

Beyond channels, this release fixes the long-running cycle problem — the silent task failures that could make Mercury disappear mid-task. The CLI now updates heartbeats in-place instead of stacking new messages, step logs collapse to 3 lines (Ctrl+D for full history), and a crash flag system means Mercury tells you what happened when it restarts after an ungraceful exit.

Why "Chatty Mercury"? This release triples the number of ways to talk to Mercury. The Mercury planet glyph (☿) has always been the messenger — now the messenger speaks Discord, Slack, and Signal too.

At a glance

Area	What changed
Discord	Full bot integration with slash commands, embeds, streaming, org access, admin roles
Slack	Socket Mode bot with slash commands, streaming edits, org access, pairing codes
Signal	E2E encrypted via signal-cli bridge, group + private modes, auto-managed binary
CLI heartbeat	Updates one message in place instead of stacking — no more wall-of-progress
Step logs	Collapsed to 3 lines max during tasks; Ctrl+D reveals full history
Silent task failures	All 12 silent failure paths eliminated — channels always get an error message
Crash recovery	Crash flag written on ungraceful exit; next startup reports what happened
Daemon shutdown	Graceful SIGTERM → wait → SIGKILL, plus stale signal-cli cleanup
Ollama Local	Routed through OpenAI compat to fix AI SDK v1 specification error
ThinkingIndicator	Shows "Processing" instead of agent name; /bg hint on long operations

New Channels

Discord

Mercury now runs as a full Discord bot with:

• Slash commands: /start, /status, /progress, /permissions, /models, and more
• Streaming responses: Messages are edited in place as tokens arrive
• Rich embeds: Task progress and completion banners use Discord embeds
• Organization access: Admin roles (configurable role name, default "Mercury Admin") and member approval via pairing codes
• DM + channel support: Works in both DMs and server channels
• Guild restriction: Optionally restrict to a single server
• Rate limiting: Built-in busy detection and cooldown for shared servers

Configuration: DISCORD_ENABLED, DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN, DISCORD_GUILD_ID, DISCORD_CHANNEL_ID, DISCORD_ADMIN_ROLE_NAME, DISCORD_STREAMING.

See: Discord integration docs.

Slack

Mercury connects via Socket Mode — no public endpoint or HTTPS certificate needed:

• Socket Mode: Connects via WebSocket; works behind NAT and firewalls
• Slash commands: /mercury command for start, status, help, and more
• Streaming responses: Messages edited in place as tokens stream in
• Organization access: Admin/member roles with pairing-code onboarding
• Channel + DM support: Responds to @mentions in channels and direct messages
• App mentions: Natural conversation when mentioned in channels

Configuration: SLACK_ENABLED, SLACK_BOT_TOKEN (xoxb-), SLACK_APP_TOKEN (xapp-), SLACK_CHANNEL_ID, SLACK_TEAM_ID, SLACK_STREAMING.

See: Slack integration docs.

Signal

Mercury connects through signal-cli for end-to-end encrypted communication:

• E2E encryption: All messages travel through Signal's encryption — Mercury never stores plaintext
• Group mode (default): Mercury listens in a named "Mercury" group
• Private mode: 1:1 DM conversations
• Auto-managed signal-cli: Mercury downloads, registers, starts, and health-checks signal-cli automatically
• Pairing codes: New users pair via CLI code — same secure flow as Telegram
• Phone number redaction: CLI output always redacts phone numbers
• Message dedup: Duplicate messages filtered within a 60-second window

Platform requirements

Signal integration requires:

• Linux (x64 or ARM64): Native signal-cli binaries available — no Java needed
• macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel): Java 17+ required for signal-cli JAR
• Windows: Not supported — no signal-cli binary available
• A real phone number for Signal verification (one-time setup)
• Network access to https://chat.signal.org and https://storage.signal.org

Configuration: SIGNAL_ENABLED, SIGNAL_PHONE_NUMBER, SIGNAL_MODE, SIGNAL_GROUP_ID, SIGNAL_GROUP_NAME.

See: Signal integration docs.

CLI Improvements

Heartbeat updates in place

Previously, the CLI would send a new "⏳ Working..." message for every heartbeat interval during long-running tasks, creating a wall of progress messages. In 1.1.13, the CLI updates the same message in place — you see a single line that changes, not a stack of duplicates.

Other channels (Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal) continue to send separate heartbeat messages since they can't update messages the same way.

Collapsed step logs

During active tasks, step logs now show at most 3 visible steps (running + last 2 completed). All other steps are collapsed into an "N earlier" summary. Press Ctrl+D (or type /log) to reveal the full step history.

When a task completes, a single compact summary line replaces the step view: ✓ edit_file (+4) · Ctrl+D for details.

Processing indicator

The ThinkingIndicator now shows "Processing" instead of the agent name, and long operations display a /bg current hint so users know they can background the task.

Long-Running Cycle Fixes

This release eliminates all 12 silent task failure paths. Previously, when Mercury hit a loop condition or task stall, it could silently stop responding — the user would see no feedback at all. Now, every failure path sends an explicit message to the channel:

• Tool call limit (25 calls): "Tool call limit reached. Stopping to prevent runaway loop."
• Identical call loop: "Mercury Autopilot · Identical call loop — {tool} called Nx with same params."
• Failing loop: "Mercury Autopilot · Failing loop — {tool} called Nx, all failing."
• Reasoning loop (thinking without action): "I'm stuck in a reasoning loop. Stopping."
• Task stall (no progress for configurable seconds): "Task stalled. Stopped to avoid hanging."

Every .catch(() => {}) on channel sends has been replaced with .catch((e) => logger.warn({ e }, 'channel send failed')) so send failures are also logged rather than silently swallowed.

Crash Recovery

A new crash flag system (src/core/crash-flag.ts) writes a JSON file to ~/.mercury/.crash-flag when Mercury crashes or is killed mid-task. On next startup, Mercury reads the flag, reports what happened to the user, and deletes the flag. This means you'll never again return to Mercury after a crash and find a blank slate with no indication of what went wrong.

The watchdog also writes a crash flag when it hits the max-restart limit, and includes a synchronous stderr write as a last-gasp log so the error is visible even if the logger itself is broken.

Daemon Shutdown Improvements

• Graceful shutdown: stopDaemon now sends SIGTERM and waits up to 5 seconds for the process to exit. If it doesn't, it escalates to SIGKILL.
• Stale signal-cli cleanup: killStaleSignalCliProcesses() runs on every daemon stop, cleaning up orphaned signal-cli processes.
• Async stop: stopDaemon is now async, and restartDaemon uses it properly — no more race conditions between stop and start.

Ollama Local Fix

ollamaLocal is now routed through the OpenAI-compatible provider instead of ollama-ai-provider. The ollama-ai-provider package declares specificationVersion = "v1", which is incompatible with AI SDK v6 (which requires v2/v3). Since local Ollama has exposed /v1/chat/completions since v0.1.14, the OpenAI compat path works perfectly and avoids the specification mismatch entirely.

This is the same routing pattern already used for ollamaCloud and openaiCompat — proven and reliable.

Files changed

New files

• src/channels/discord.ts — Discord channel implementation (1,274 lines)
• src/channels/signal.ts — Signal channel implementation (1,034 lines)
• src/channels/slack.ts — Slack channel implementation (887 lines)
• src/signal/binary.ts — signal-cli binary management (download, verify, register)
• src/signal/jsonrpc.ts — JSON-RPC client for signal-cli communication
• src/signal/process.ts — signal-cli process lifecycle management
• src/signal/setup.ts — Signal registration and configuration flow
• src/core/crash-flag.ts — Crash flag system for ungraceful exit recovery
• src/utils/markdown.ts — Markdown-to-Discord and Markdown-to-Slack converters
• src/utils/redact.ts — Phone number redaction for Signal
• src/utils/manual.ts — Channel-specific help text (Discord, Slack)
• src/utils/discord-access.test.ts — Discord access model tests
• src/utils/slack-access.test.ts — Slack access model tests

Modified files

• src/core/agent.ts — Channel registration for Discord/Slack/Signal; heartbeat in-place for CLI; all 12 silent task failure paths now send error messages; crash flag on task failure
• src/channels/registry.ts — Registers Discord, Slack, Signal; notification channel priority: Signal → Telegram → Discord → Slack → CLI
• src/channels/cli.ts — sendHeartbeat() method for in-place heartbeat updates
• src/channels/telegram.ts — Minor send-error logging
• src/channels/index.ts — Exports new channels
• src/types/channel.ts — New types: SignalAccessUser, SignalPendingRequest, DiscordAccessUser, DiscordPendingRequest, SlackAccessUser, SlackPendingRequest, and channel config interfaces
• src/utils/config.ts — Signal/Discord/Slack config sections, access management functions, migration for legacy data
• src/index.ts — Signal/Discord/Slack CLI commands (pair, list, approve, reject, remove, promote, demote, reset), onboarding flows, redactPhone import
• src/cli/daemon.ts — killStaleSignalCliProcesses on stop; async stopDaemon with graceful SIGTERM → SIGKILL
• src/cli/watchdog.ts — Writes crash flag on max-restart exceeded
• src/providers/registry.ts — ollamaLocal routed through OpenAICompatProvider with useChatApi: true
• src/ui/App.tsx — Step log collapse to 3 lines; Ctrl+D for /log; ThinkingIndicator shows "Processing"; /bg current hint on long ops
• package.json — Version bumped to 1.1.13; new dependencies: discord.js, @slack/bolt

No breaking changes. All new channels are opt-in — set DISCORD_ENABLED=true, SLACK_ENABLED=true, or SIGNAL_ENABLED=true to activate. Existing configs carry over unchanged.

Upgrade

npm:

npm install -g @cosmicstack/mercury-agent@1.1.13
mercury restart

Standalone (macOS / Linux):

curl -fsSL https://mercuryagent.sh/install.sh | bash
mercury restart

Standalone (Windows):

irm https://mercuryagent.sh/install.ps1 | iex
mercury restart

No config migrations needed. All new channels are off by default — enable them in mercury doctor or ~/.mercury/.env.

Standalone binaries

Same five targets as v1.1.12:

OS	Architecture	Binary
macOS	Apple Silicon	mercury-macos-arm64
macOS	Intel	mercury-macos-x64
Linux	x86-64	mercury-linux-x64
Linux	ARM64	mercury-linux-arm64
Windows	x86-64	mercury-win-x64.exe

Direct downloads:

• mercury-macos-arm64
• mercury-macos-x64
• mercury-linux-x64
• mercury-linux-arm64
• mercury-win-x64.exe
• checksums.txt

Full changelog: v1.1.12 → v1.1.13