Real-Time Channels

FrontMCP Channels let your MCP server push real-time events directly into Claude Code. Unlike resources (which are pulled by the client), channels are server-initiated — your server decides when to send notifications based on external triggers.

What Channels Enable

Webhook forwarding — CI/CD pipelines, GitHub events, monitoring alerts stream into Claude’s context automatically
Chat bridges — WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack users can message Claude Code and receive replies
Error monitoring — Application errors pushed to Claude for immediate debugging assistance
Agent/Job completion — Background AI agents and jobs notify Claude when they finish
Event bus — Any in-process event can trigger a channel notification

How It Works

External Event → Channel Source → onEvent() → ChannelNotificationService → Claude Code
                                                                            ↓
                                                 onReply() ← channel-reply tool ← Claude

An event arrives from a source (webhook HTTP POST, event bus, agent emitter, or manual push)
The channel’s onEvent() transforms the payload into a { content, meta } notification
ChannelNotificationService sends notifications/claude/channel to all capable sessions
Claude sees the event as <channel source="..." ...meta>content</channel> in its context
For two-way channels, Claude can reply using the auto-registered channel-reply tool

Declarative Definition

Channels use the same decorator pattern as tools, resources, and prompts:

@Channel({
  name: 'deploy-alerts',
  source: { type: 'webhook', path: '/hooks/deploy' },
  twoWay: true,
})
class DeployChannel extends ChannelContext {
  async onEvent(payload: unknown): Promise<ChannelNotification> {
    return { content: `Deploy event received` };
  }
  async onReply(reply: string): Promise<void> {
    await forwardToSlack(reply);
  }
}

Seven Source Types

Source	Use Case	Trigger
`webhook`	GitHub, CI/CD, Stripe, any HTTP POST	External HTTP request
`app-event`	Application errors, status changes	In-process event bus
`agent-completion`	AI agent results	Agent registry emitter
`job-completion`	Background job results	Job execution manager
`service`	WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack connectors	Persistent connection with tools
`file-watcher`	Log files, config changes, build outputs	File system events
`manual`	Custom logic	`scope.channelNotifications.send()`

Capability-Based Delivery

Channel notifications are only sent to MCP sessions that advertise experimental: { 'claude/channel': {} } in their capabilities. Non-Claude Code clients (Cursor, Cody, generic MCP) are automatically filtered out — no errors, no wasted bandwidth.

Get Started

Concepts

Build

Deploy

Plugins

Adapters

Extensibility

Testing

React SDK

Guides

What Channels Enable

How It Works

Declarative Definition

Seven Source Types

Capability-Based Delivery

Learn More

Channels Guide

@Channel API

​What Channels Enable

​How It Works

​Declarative Definition

​Seven Source Types

​Capability-Based Delivery

​Learn More

Channels Guide

@Channel API

What Channels Enable

How It Works

Declarative Definition

Seven Source Types

Capability-Based Delivery

Learn More