Addresses

An address is a durable name for a responsibility being served. Sessions attach to addresses, and messages are sent to addresses rather than to a process or a person. Because the address is durable and the session is ephemeral, a message survives the session that was attending it and is delivered when a session next attends the address.

Identity vs. address

A session’s identity (--session or $TELEX_SESSION_ID) is the stable id the exchange uses to track membership. An address is what the session serves. One session can attend more than one address.

Sender address

Every send and reply stamps a from address so replies can route back. It resolves from an explicit --from, then $TELEX_ADDRESS or the global --address, then the single address the session attends. If the session attends more than one address and no --from is given, the send is refused as ambiguous rather than guessed.

Directory metadata

When a session attaches it can register directory metadata so other sessions can find it:

• --description: a one-line statement of what the session is doing.
• --scope: the project or workstream the address belongs to.
• --tags: coarse comma-separated tags (for example repo:telex,role:worker).

Find addresses by description substring, scope, or tag:

telex address list --scope <scope>
telex resolve --match "<substring>"
telex resolve --tag <tag> --scope <scope>

Retire an address so it drops from normal listings with telex address retire --address <addr>.

Next: Exchange and daemon