How do I install the Cotal Mesh skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add cotal-ai/cotal-mesh in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Cotal Mesh safe to use?

SkillMD's automated safety review verdict for this skill is WARNING. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Cotal Mesh?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Cotal Mesh free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free. This skill is licensed under Apache-2.

Who published Cotal Mesh?

Cotal-AI (@cotal-ai) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Cotal Mesh by cotal-ai — Agent Skill

Name: Cotal Mesh
Author: Cotal-AI

Cotal Mesh

Put an AI agent on a Cotal mesh and coordinate with other agents across vendors and machines. Use when a user runs two or more agents that must hand work to each other, share a durable record, or spawn teammates; covers install, starting a local mesh, joining, messaging peers, and using the cotal.ai site API and MCP server for feedback, the Cotal Cloud waitlist, and the build log.

Cotal-AI Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

COTAL mesh

COTAL is an open protocol (Apache-2.0, self-hosted, any framework) that lets AI agents from any vendor work as one team: one shared space where agents discover each other by name, channel or role, divide the work, and keep a durable, replayable record. Transport is NATS + JetStream; the spec is the wire contract and the libraries are thin clients.

When to use this skill

You run two or more AI agents — from the same vendor or different ones (Claude Code, OpenCode, Hermes, Codex, custom frameworks) — that need to hand work to each other, share state, or wake each other up.
You need one durable, replayable record of who did what across a fleet, on infrastructure you control (self-hosted, Apache-2.0).
You want agents to discover each other by name, channel or role and to spawn their own teammates, without a central orchestrator.
Your agents run on different machines (laptops, CI runners, cloud VMs, on-prem) and should behave as one team.

Not for a single agent that only needs tools (plain MCP covers that).

Put yourself on a local mesh

The authoritative runbook is https://docs.cotal.ai/prompt.md. Fetch it and run its steps; the summary:

Install and start a local mesh: npx cotal-ai setup --yes && npx cotal-ai up --detach (or curl -fsSL https://get.cotal.ai | sh then cotal up --detach).
Put an agent on it: npx cotal-ai spawn --detach (or cotal spawn). Connectors exist for Claude Code, OpenCode, Hermes; each exposes the same cotal_* tools inside the session.
Verify: npx cotal-ai status.
Declare a whole team in one cotal.yaml and launch with cotal up -f cotal.yaml (see https://docs.cotal.ai/define-a-team).

Coordinate from inside a session

Message peers: cotal_send (channel), cotal_dm (one peer), cotal_anycast (any one peer with a role). Catalog: https://docs.cotal.ai/mcp-tools
Create teammates: cotal_spawn, cotal_persona. Persona files live in .cotal/agents/<name>.md (https://docs.cotal.ai/agent-files).
Identity: mint credentials with cotal mint <name> --profile agent; the mesh server verifies every agent (https://docs.cotal.ai/identity-and-auth).
Permissions: subscribe / allowSubscribe / allowPublish per channel (https://docs.cotal.ai/channels-and-permissions).
Where a page and the spec disagree, the spec wins: https://docs.cotal.ai/spec

Talk to cotal.ai (the website)

MCP server: https://cotal.ai/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no credentials). Tools: cotal_overview, cotal_search, cotal_list_posts, cotal_get_post, cotal_submit_feedback, cotal_join_waitlist, cotal_subscribe_newsletter, cotal_request_call. Card: https://cotal.ai/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json
REST: https://cotal.ai/openapi.json. Writes accept Idempotency-Key and X-Sandbox: true (dry run). Errors are JSON with a code and a hint.
Credentials: https://cotal.ai/auth.md. Pricing: https://cotal.ai/pricing.md.
Ask the user before any write tool (feedback, waitlist, newsletter, call request); pass their real email.

---name: cotal-meshdescription: Put an AI agent on a Cotal mesh and coordinate with other agents across vendors and machines. Use when a user runs two or more agents that must hand work to each other, share a durable record, or spawn teammates; covers install, starting a local mesh, joining, messaging peers, and using the cotal.ai site API and MCP server for feedback, the Cotal Cloud waitlist, and the build log.license: Apache-2.0---# COTAL meshCOTAL is an open protocol (Apache-2.0, self-hosted, any framework) that lets AI agents from any vendor work as one team: one shared space where agents discover each other by name, channel or role, divide the work, and keep a durable, replayable record. Transport is NATS + JetStream; the spec is the wire contract and the libraries are thin clients.## When to use this skill- You run two or more AI agents — from the same vendor or different ones (Claude Code, OpenCode, Hermes, Codex, custom frameworks) — that need to hand work to each other, share state, or wake each other up.- You need one durable, replayable record of who did what across a fleet, on infrastructure you control (self-hosted, Apache-2.0).- You want agents to discover each other by name, channel or role and to spawn their own teammates, without a central orchestrator.- Your agents run on different machines (laptops, CI runners, cloud VMs, on-prem) and should behave as one team.Not for a single agent that only needs tools (plain MCP covers that).## Put yourself on a local meshThe authoritative runbook is https://docs.cotal.ai/prompt.md. Fetch it and run its steps; the summary:1. Install and start a local mesh: `npx cotal-ai setup --yes && npx cotal-ai up --detach` (or `curl -fsSL https://get.cotal.ai | sh` then `cotal up --detach`).2. Put an agent on it: `npx cotal-ai spawn --detach` (or `cotal spawn`). Connectors exist for Claude Code, OpenCode, Hermes; each exposes the same `cotal_*` tools inside the session.3. Verify: `npx cotal-ai status`.4. Declare a whole team in one `cotal.yaml` and launch with `cotal up -f cotal.yaml` (see https://docs.cotal.ai/define-a-team).## Coordinate from inside a session- Message peers: `cotal_send` (channel), `cotal_dm` (one peer), `cotal_anycast` (any one peer with a role). Catalog: https://docs.cotal.ai/mcp-tools- Create teammates: `cotal_spawn`, `cotal_persona`. Persona files live in `.cotal/agents/<name>.md` (https://docs.cotal.ai/agent-files).- Identity: mint credentials with `cotal mint <name> --profile agent`; the mesh server verifies every agent (https://docs.cotal.ai/identity-and-auth).- Permissions: `subscribe` / `allowSubscribe` / `allowPublish` per channel (https://docs.cotal.ai/channels-and-permissions).- Where a page and the spec disagree, the spec wins: https://docs.cotal.ai/spec## Talk to cotal.ai (the website)- MCP server: https://cotal.ai/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no credentials). Tools: `cotal_overview`, `cotal_search`, `cotal_list_posts`, `cotal_get_post`, `cotal_submit_feedback`, `cotal_join_waitlist`, `cotal_subscribe_newsletter`, `cotal_request_call`. Card: https://cotal.ai/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json- REST: https://cotal.ai/openapi.json. Writes accept `Idempotency-Key` and `X-Sandbox: true` (dry run). Errors are JSON with a `code` and a `hint`.- Credentials: https://cotal.ai/auth.md. Pricing: https://cotal.ai/pricing.md.- Ask the user before any write tool (feedback, waitlist, newsletter, call request); pass their real email.

Frequently asked questions