> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://praison.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Channel Descriptor • AI Agent SDK

> ChannelDescriptor: Optional self-description a channel adapter may expose.

# ChannelDescriptor

> Defined in the [**protocols**](https://praison.ai/docs/sdk/reference/praisonaiagents/modules/protocols.md) module.

AI Agent

Optional self-description a channel adapter may expose.

A channel plugin declares — in one place, at registration — everything the
gateway needs to treat it as first-class:

* `config_fields`: its config keys, merged into `ChannelConfigSchema` at
  runtime instead of being dropped;
* `system_prompt_hint`: a hint injected whenever that channel is active so
  the agent knows which platform it is replying on and its constraints.

The YAML schema, the onboarding wizard, and the agent prompt all read this
single contract. Protocol-only (no heavy imports) so it stays in core; the
wrapper subsystems (`_config_schema.py`, `onboard.py`, prompt assembly)
are the consumers.

The two required members above are enough to be first-class: the onboarding
wizard derives its prompts directly from `config_fields` (both env-backed
secrets and plain config keys). A descriptor MAY additionally expose an
optional `setup(io)` hook for bespoke, multi-step flows the field list
cannot express; the wizard calls it when present and merges the returned
values. It MAY likewise expose an optional `standalone_sender` — a (sync or async)
`(target: DeliveryTarget, text: str) -> None` that raises on failure — so
scheduled `deliver:` targets reach the channel even when no gateway is
resident (`praisonai schedule tick` from OS cron / CI / scale-to-zero).
Because these are optional, a minimal descriptor (like the example
below) omits it — so this Protocol is intentionally *not* used as an
`isinstance` type guard; consumers read attributes with `getattr`
fallbacks instead.

Example (implementation ships in a `praisonai.channels` plugin)::

class IRCDescriptor:
config\_fields = \[
ChannelField("server", required=True, prompt="IRC server host"),
ChannelField("nickserv\_password", secret=True,
env="IRC\_NICKSERV\_PASSWORD"),
]
system\_prompt\_hint = (
"You are replying on IRC: plain text only, one short line."
)

register\_platform("irc", IRCBot, descriptor=IRCDescriptor())

## Properties

**config\_fields** `List[ChannelField]`

No description available.

**system\_prompt\_hint** `str`

No description available.

## Methods

> [card] [setup()](https://praison.ai/docs/sdk/reference/praisonaiagents/functions/ChannelDescriptor-setup.md)
>
> Optional interactive setup returning collected config/env values.

## Source

> [card] [View on GitHub](https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI/blob/main/src/praisonai-agents/praisonaiagents/bots/protocols.py#L237)
>
> `praisonaiagents/bots/protocols.py` at line 237


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