Addresses review feedback that channel-host.mts is doing too much.
Two changes, both scoped to the starters:
1. Channel construction moves to a new `channels.mts` beside `agent.ts` —
name resolution, `createChannel`, and the `onMessage` handler. That is
also the file to edit to customise a Channel (commands, reactions,
onMention), which previously meant editing the host.
The per-framework agent import moves with it, so `channel-host.mts` is now
byte-identical in all 15 starters rather than 13 + 2.
2. The host no longer stands up an HTTP server. Its comment claimed the
server was what "keeps the lifecycle-owning process alive"; that is false.
An open undici WebSocket holds the event loop on its own — verified with a
standalone repro where a process with no HTTP server and no timers of its
own stayed up indefinitely on a single WebSocket connection. The server was
therefore serving a second, uncalled copy of the runtime API on port 8300
for no reason.
With the server gone, `createCopilotNodeListener` was the wrong factory —
it builds a request listener purely for its activation side effect. The
host now uses `createCopilotRuntimeHandler` + `ready()`, which is the
documented long-running-host pattern (see fetch-handler.ts). This also
drops `node:http`, `basePath`, and the CHANNEL_PORT env var.
Behaviour is unchanged: same Channel, same agent, same status reporting, and
the same non-zero exit on activation failure.
Verified: 14/14 starters with a `typecheck:channel` script pass; mastra has no
such script by design (166dc94691) and its pre-existing Mastra `Memory` type
error is byte-identical before and after. `npm run channel` exercised on both
failure paths — missing channels.json, and missing INTELLIGENCE_API_KEY with a
name supplied — confirming the new `./channels.mjs` specifier resolves under
tsx as well as tsc. `parity:check` output identical to the pre-change baseline.
Refs #6315
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Extracts agent construction into src/agent.ts so the runtime route and the new
channel-host.mts share one definition. The host holds no provider credentials and
declares no adapters: Intelligence owns the provider edge, so one host file works
for every provider.
Also adds tsconfig.channel.json, used only by the new "channel" script
(tsx --tsconfig tsconfig.channel.json channel-host.mts). Without it, tsx crashes
before the host's own code runs: the starter's tsconfig.json sets allowJs: true
(the create-next-app default, present in all 15 starters), which makes tsx's
CJS resolver prefer a sibling .ts file over the real .js entry point for *any*
node_modules package on a bare-specifier require -- including fast-json-patch
(pulled in transitively via @ag-ui/client), whose published package ships an
orphan index.ts (a source re-export of ./src/core) without the src/ directory
it points at. tsconfig.channel.json omits allowJs so this never triggers, and
does not touch the app's real tsconfig.json (which is parity-tracked verbatim
across other starters -- confirmed by testing the alternative fix first).
Full verification trail, including this deviation and the reasoning above, is
in .superpowers/sdd/2026-08-01-channel-host-in-starters/task-1-report.md.
Benjamin Taylor