feat(motd): message-of-the-day banner on every pilotctl command#253
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Add an always-on "message of the day" notice that the pilot team can
publish for a single UTC day at a time. It appears ahead of every
pilotctl command's output, and disappears on its own when cleared.
Design keeps both the CLI and the daemon off the hot path:
- The daemon is the only component that touches the network. A new
background loop (motdPollLoop) fetches the feed on --motd-interval
(default 15m), selects the entry dated for the current UTC day,
holds it in d.motd, and mirrors it to ~/.pilot/motd.json. Modeled
on the existing skill-reconciler loop — no new binary ships.
- pilotctl reads only that local mirror (one file read, no network,
no IPC) and re-validates the UTC day on read, so a stale mirror
never shows yesterday's message.
Output:
- text mode prepends "Message of the day: <text>"
- --json mode carries it as a top-level important_update envelope
field (text would break parsing); also surfaced as motd in info.
Clearing is first-class: an empty feed, a removed entry, or a blank
text all resolve to a cleared mirror within one poll interval.
New internal/motd package (pure-stdlib leaf): Fetch, Parse,
SelectForToday, WriteMirror, ReadActiveMirror, with unit tests for
UTC-day selection, stale-mirror rejection, and clearing. Daemon flags
--motd-feed-url / --motd-interval and PILOT_MOTD_URL env override.
Feed source: https://github.com/pilot-protocol/pilot-motd (motd.json).
Publishing is gated to maintainers with push access to the feed. The doc now describes only the feature, design, output, configuration, and semantics — not how to post or clear a message.
Alexgodoroja
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Jun 16, 2026
Adds the message-of-the-day banner (merged via #253). See CHANGELOG for the full entry. Co-authored-by: Alex Godoroja <alex@vulturelabs.io>
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What
Adds an always-on message of the day (MOTD) notice the pilot team can publish for a single UTC day at a time. It is prepended to every
pilotctlcommand's output, and disappears on its own when cleared.Design (fast CLI, no on-demand DB calls)
motdPollLoopfetches the feed every--motd-interval(default 15m), selects the entry dated for the current UTC day, holds it ind.motd, and mirrors it to~/.pilot/motd.json. Modeled on the existing skill-reconciler loop — no new binary ships.pilotctlreads only the local mirror — one file read, no network, no IPC — and re-validates the UTC day on read, so a stale mirror (daemon offline across midnight) never shows yesterday's message.Output
Message of the day: <text>.--jsonmode: carries it as a top-levelimportant_updateenvelope field (prepending text would break parsing); also surfaced asmotdinpilotctl info.Clearing is first-class
An empty feed, a removed entry, or a blank
textall resolve to a cleared mirror within one poll interval — committing an empty MOTD updates the value just like posting one.Changes
internal/motd(Fetch/Parse/SelectForToday/WriteMirror/ReadActiveMirror) + unit tests (UTC-day selection, stale-mirror rejection, clearing, HTTP fetch).motdfield,Config.MOTDFeedURL/MOTDInterval, poll loop, mirror path,DaemonInfo.MOTD,infoIPC field,--motd-feed-url/--motd-intervalflags +PILOT_MOTD_URL.cmd/pilotctl/motd.goreader, banner injection inmain(),important_updateinoutput/fatalCode/fatalHintenvelopes + tests.layers.yaml: classifyinternal/motdas a utility leaf.docs/motd.md: operator + design docs.Feed source
Consumes
motd.jsonfrom the new pilot-motd repo (separate PR). Default URL:https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pilot-protocol/pilot-motd/main/motd.json.Test
go build ./...,go vet, andgo test ./internal/motd/ ./cmd/pilotctl/ ./pkg/daemon/all pass. Smoke-tested with built binaries: text banner shows,important_updatepresent in--json, yesterday-dated mirror suppresses the banner.