The Focal Agent is the singleton chat shown to users as SUZENT . It sees every project, dispatches work to project sessions, and is woken when one of them blocks on the user or fin

The Focal Agent is the singleton chat shown to users as SUZENT. It sees every project, dispatches work to project sessions, and is woken when one of them blocks on the user or finishes. It never does project work itself. The code calls it "focal" throughout (suzent.core.focal_agent); user-facing text calls it SUZENT and gives it no role name.

Identity and storage

One chat with the fixed ID focal-suzent, created on first use by get_or_create_focal_chat(). is_focal_chat() also accepts a chat whose config has is_focal_agent: true or platform: "focal".
It lives in the hidden system project suzent-focal (in HIDDEN_PROJECT_SLUGS), whose folder holds its heartbeat.md.
Its title is pinned to SUZENT; auto-title skips it and get_or_create_focal_chat() restores the name if it changed.

Tool policy

apply_focal_tool_policy() runs in chat_processor before every Focal turn and overrides whatever the request asked for:

tools is set to FOCAL_TOOL_NAMES: agent list/read/send/stop, web search and fetch, memory and session search, ask-question, skills, read-only file tools, and FocalScheduleTool.
Every other registered tool goes into denied_tools. Unequipped tools would otherwise still be reachable through ToolSearch.
MCP is disabled, and cwd and sandbox_volumes are removed: project sessions carry their own working directory.
permission_mode is full_access, since nothing in the set changes state outside Suzent.

FocalScheduleTool (schedule_wakeup) has an empty group and is not deferrable, so no other chat can equip or discover it, and it refuses any chat that is not the Focal Agent.

Global context

The inject_focal_context prompt layer (runtime) adds build_focal_global_context() to Focal turns only: every non-archived project with its id and slug, up to 10 sessions per project, and each session's tasks. Sessions come from the project's tasks plus any chat in the project that is running now; sessions with work waiting on the user sort first, then running ones. A chat with no tasks that is not running is not listed.

Dispatch

Both paths go through AgentSendTool and the agent inbox:

Existing session: agent_send(agent_id=<chat id>, message=...). watch_session() sets focal_watching on the target so Focal hears when it finishes.
New session: agent_send(agent_id="new", project_id=..., title=..., task_title=..., message=...), allowed only from the Focal Agent. It creates a chat in the project with permission_mode: "auto" (Smart), parent_chat_id and spawned_by_focal, binds an in_progress task when task_title is given, and enqueues the message. The desktop renders that first system_triggered message as a user message (focalRequestText), so the session shows what it was asked.

Hearing back

Three events enqueue an inbox message to focal-suzent:

Event	Source	Inbox `kind`
A session answers a message Focal sent it	`route_focal_reply()` from the inbox worker; replies over 4,000 characters are truncated	`agent_message`
A task becomes blocked on `user` or `error`, or its reason changes	`notify_focal_of_blocked_task()` from `TaskUpdateTool`	`task_blocked_notification`
A followed session closes its last open task	`notify_focal_of_finished_session()` from `TaskUpdateTool`, skipped while a Focal request to it is still in flight	`session_finished_notification`

A session counts as followed when Focal started it (parent_chat_id) or sent it work (focal_watching). Blocked-task notices go to Focal for any session, but only once the Focal chat exists; they never create it for a user who has not opened SUZENT, except for sessions Focal started.

When a woken Focal turn replies, announce_focal_reply() also queues a desktop notification, since the user may not have the chat open.

Heartbeat

The first get_or_create_focal_chat() enables the heartbeat at 30 minutes and seeds heartbeat.md with DEFAULT_FOCAL_HEARTBEAT, once (focal_heartbeat_initialized). After that the setting belongs to the user.

To keep a quiet heartbeat free, should_run_focal_heartbeat() decides in code before any model call:

A user-edited checklist always runs.
The default checklist runs only when _heartbeat_findings() is non-empty and its SHA-256 signature differs from focal_heartbeat_signature. Findings are sessions idle for 30 minutes with open tasks and nothing waiting on the user (STALL_AFTER), and blockers unanswered for 2 hours (REMIND_BLOCKED_AFTER).
A skipped run is recorded as run (record_skipped_heartbeat()), so the schedule advances a full interval.

The signature is written by record_focal_heartbeat_done() only after a check-in turn succeeds, so a failed or preempted check-in raises the same findings next time.

Wake-ups

schedule_wakeup creates agent-sourced cron jobs on the Focal chat, at most 20. kind="reminder" always notifies; kind="check" sets suppress_ok, so the user hears only when there is something to say. Focal wake-ups always run inside the Focal chat under its own tool policy: there is no isolated variant, which would run with a full tool set.

HTTP API

Route	Purpose
`GET /focal`	Create the chat if needed and return `focal_status()`: waiting, stalled and auto-running counts, per-project and per-chat waiting counts, unread count and last message
`GET /focal/panel`	The fixed tool list and scheduled wake-ups, for the Tools tab
`DELETE /focal/wakeups/{job_id}`	Cancel one of Focal's own wake-ups; any other job id is refused

Desktop

FocalAgentCard at the top of the sidebar, fed by useFocalStatus.
FocalBriefing replaces the empty-chat screen with a greeting and the sessions that need attention.
The Tasks panel on the Focal chat shows the all-projects board grouped by session, with a remembered project filter.
The Tools tab shows FocalToolsPanel instead of the tool picker, and the input hides the folder and attachment controls.

Focal Agent (SUZENT)