command_center

Declare a command_center block to connect Squadron outbound to a remote command center instance — a central web UI that runs missions, watches live execution, and exposes webhooks across multiple Squadron deployments.

When a command_center block is present, squadron engage skips the local UI and opens a persistent websocket to the remote command center instead. Without the block, squadron engage launches the local UI by default (pass --headless to opt out entirely).

Minimal Example


command_center {
  url           = "wss://command-center.example.com/ws"
  instance_name = "production-scraper"
}

The instance_name identifies this deployment in the command center UI — two Squadron processes with the same name will conflict, so pick something unique per host or environment.

Full Example


command_center {
  url                = "wss://command-center.example.com/ws"
  instance_name      = "production-scraper"
  auto_reconnect     = true
  reconnect_interval = 10
}

Fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
`url`	string	yes	—	WebSocket URL of the command center (`ws://` or `wss://`). Must end with the `/ws` path the server registers.
`instance_name`	string	yes	—	Unique identifier for this Squadron instance. Shown in the command center UI and used in webhook routes (`/webhooks/<instance_name>/<path>`).
`auto_reconnect`	bool	no	`false`	When `true`, Squadron keeps retrying on connection drops instead of exiting. Recommended for production.
`reconnect_interval`	number	no	`5`	Seconds to wait between reconnection attempts. Only used when `auto_reconnect = true`.

Using Variables

Credentials and environment-specific URLs should live in the vault:


variable "cc_url" {
  secret = true
}
 
command_center {
  url           = vars.cc_url
  instance_name = "staging-worker"
}

Set the value with squadron vars set cc_url wss://....

Interaction with `squadron engage`

Scenario	Behavior
No `command_center` block, no `--headless`	Launches local command center UI (default)
No `command_center` block, `--headless`	Runs fully headless (schedules and webhooks only)
`command_center` block present	Connects to the remote command center; local UI is skipped
`command_center` block present, `--headless` passed	Error — remove one or the other

See engage for the full command reference.

Webhooks Across Instances

Each Squadron instance registered with the command center exposes its mission trigger blocks under /webhooks/<instance_name>/<path> on the command center’s HTTP interface. The instance_name is what disambiguates webhooks when multiple Squadron deployments share one command center.


mission "ingest" {
  trigger {
    webhook_path = "/ingest"
    secret       = vars.hook_secret
  }
  task "process" { objective = "Process incoming data" }
}

With instance_name = "production-scraper", this mission is reachable at:


POST https://command-center.example.com/webhooks/production-scraper/ingest

See Schedules & Triggers for webhook details.

Graceful Degradation

If the command center is unreachable at startup:

With auto_reconnect = true — Squadron logs the failure, keeps retrying, and runs any local schedules in the meantime.
With auto_reconnect = false — Squadron logs the failure once and continues without a command center connection. Config changes on disk trigger a reconnect attempt.

Either way, Squadron does not crash on a missing command center. This makes it safe to roll out config changes that depend on an eventually-available command center.

Human Input Inbox

The command center exposes an Inbox surface for any agent call to builtins.human.ask. New questions appear live; you pick a quick-reply button, toggle multi-select choices, or type a free-text answer. A toast + chime fire on every new question (chime works in backgrounded tabs), and resolutions clear in real time across every connected surface — Inbox, mission detail, gateways. See Tools → Human Input for the agent-side schema and Gateways for surfacing questions outside the command center.