By name: hq-cowork-dm description: Send HQ Sync direct messages from Cowork through the host-side DM tool. allowed-tools: mcp__hq__hq_dm
/hq-cowork-dm — DM a teammate from a sandboxed agent
Sends person-to-person HQ DMs from inside Cowork, where the hq CLI is
unreachable. Routes through the host-side MCP server. The recipient gets it
as an HQ Sync menubar notification.
Args: $ARGUMENTS — recipient + message, plus optional flags.
| Arg | Meaning |
|---|---|
<recipient> |
Email address or personUid of the teammate. Required. |
<message> |
The message body. Required. |
--prompt <text> |
Agent-context prompt the recipient can one-click copy into their agent. |
--details <text> |
Longer detail shown in the recipient's DM detail window. |
--at <ISO8601> |
Schedule delivery at an absolute time (store-and-forward). |
--in <delay> |
Schedule after a relative delay: 30s, 10m, 2h, 1d. |
Humanize before send
Before calling the tool, run the channel-aware humanize pass on the message
(and any prompt / details text) per
core/knowledge/public/hq-core/humanize-before-send.md — channel cowork-dm,
default intensity light: strip the obvious AI tells while keeping the message
terse and conversational. Never rewrite the recipient or scheduling fields.
Call the tool
{
"recipient": "<email-or-personUid>",
"message": "<body>",
"prompt": "<optional agent prompt>",
"details": "<optional detail body>",
"in": "30m"
}
Call mcp__hq__hq_dm. Use at OR in, not both.
Notes
- Reach is scoped to shared companies. You can only DM people you share an active company with. A delivery failure usually means no shared company.
- DM yourself for a note-to-self / reminder (use your own email).
- Receive-only in the app — the menubar app shows incoming DMs; sending happens from a session or the CLI (this tool).
When to use this instead of /dm
Only inside Cowork or another sandboxed plugin host. On a host-side session,
prefer the unprefixed /dm (or hq dm).
Why this skill exists
hq dm authenticates with the user's Cognito session under ~/.hq, which
isn't visible from Cowork's Linux VM. The host-side MCP server runs the real
hq dm and returns its confirmation back to the sandboxed agent.