Communication Channels — when to use what
Why this exists: Sam flagged it feels "weird" / scattered communicating across SMS + Telegram + portal + email + drafts + chat at once. This is the one rule for which channel does what, so each has a job and nothing competes.
Last set: 2026-05-26 (Session 39).
The rule — pick by INTENT, not habit
| Intent | Channel | Direction | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active building / deciding (real-time work) | Claude Code chat session | two-way | The workshop. Where code/docs/decisions happen. |
| Quick capture or ask, on the go | Telegram bot | two-way | Pocket assistant. Reads the live Action_Queue, runs commands (ACTION/DONE/DEFER/QUEUE), talks things through. Now also fires the morning + Pulse digest. |
| One-way alert to your phone ("done", "this needs you") | Telegram (scripts/tg.ps1 -Source Code -Title "..." -Message "..." → Apps Script webhook) |
Claude → Sam | Async push when you're away and not watching a session. NOT for conversation — it's a ping. Always pass -Source (Code / MIS / System / Pulse / Mom / Family / Bot / Custom) so the prefix tells Sam at a glance which voice is talking. See feedback_claude_to_sam_channels. |
| Read a briefing / artifact | Ops portal (ops.hookstreetservices.com) |
read | The library. Every brief/audit/plan lands here, tappable on iPad. Cloudflare-gated (your Google login). |
| Formal / external / someone-else-reads | Email sam@hookstreetcapital.com |
two-way | Attorneys, Mildred, counterparties. Also where the automated MIS/BOS digests self-send. |
| Personal | Email ztreitel@gmail.com |
two-way | Personal/finance/2FA. Now Claude-readable (local MCP). Kept OUT of business + Mildred's view. |
Retiring / consolidating
- Gmail drafts were the phone→Claude handoff queue. Being retired in favor of: portal (read) + Telegram bot (capture) + this chat (work). Keep using drafts only for paste-able/forwardable artifacts until the portal fully replaces them.
- The self-sent MIS/BOS email digests are being trimmed (they're ~90% redundant across the 3 daily MIS emails). Target: one morning + deltas, plus one Sunday money digest. See
say-go: trim the briefings.
The simple version (for when it feels weird)
- Need to tell you something while you're away → SMS.
- Want to capture/ask quickly from your phone → Telegram.
- Want to read the full thing → portal.
- Working together right now → this chat.
- Talking to a human (or formal record) → email.
Decisions still open (Session 39)
- support@hookstreetservices.com — dormant. Decide: activate it as the consulting-business inbox, or leave parked. (
support@levsms.comstays for the SMS service only.) - Whether the Telegram bot's Pulse digest replaces some SMS pings (avoid double-notifying the same thing on two channels).
Referenced from CLAUDE.md. Update when a channel's job changes.