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Signal gives you a private, encrypted channel to your Curia instance. Because Signal uses strong phone-number-based identity, messages you send via Signal carry the highest trust level in Curia’s security model — enabling actions that lower-trust channels like email cannot authorize. If you want to send financial instructions, approve sensitive actions, or interact with Curia when you’re away from a terminal, Signal is the right channel.
SIGNAL_SOCKET_PATH is managed by Docker Compose and is set automatically when the signal-cli container starts. Do not set it in your .env file. The only credential you configure is the Signal phone number, which is stored in the vault as signal_phone_number.

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Prerequisites

  • Docker and Docker Compose (Curia’s docker-compose.yml includes the signal-cli container)
  • A phone number to register with Signal — this will be the number you message from to reach Curia, and the number Curia’s Signal identity is registered under

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Step 1 — Bootstrap signal-cli

Before Curia can use Signal, you need to register a phone number with signal-cli and seed the signal-data Docker volume with the resulting credentials.
1

Register your phone number

Run the registration command inside the signal-cli container. Replace +12223334444 with your number in E.164 format:
docker compose run --rm signal-cli signal-cli \
  -a +12223334444 register
Signal will send a verification code to your phone via SMS or voice call.
2

Verify the code

Once you receive the code, submit it:
docker compose run --rm signal-cli signal-cli \
  -a +12223334444 verify <code>
On success, signal-cli writes account credentials to the volume.
3

Confirm the volume is populated

docker compose run --rm signal-cli ls /home/signal-cli/.local/share/signal-cli/data/
You should see a file or directory named after your phone number. If the directory is empty, the registration step did not complete successfully — repeat it.

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Step 2 — Seed the phone number into the vault

Set the number transiently and run the seed script. Use the same E.164 number you registered in Step 1: 
SIGNAL_PHONE_NUMBER=+12223334444 pnpm run seed-vault
It is encrypted and stored under the vault key signal_phone_number.

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Step 3 — Apply the change

Recreate the Curia container so it picks up the new secret: 
docker compose up -d --force-recreate curia
The Signal channel activates when signal_phone_number is in the vault and the signal-data volume is populated. docker compose logs curia will show the Signal adapter initializing.

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Sending your first message

Open Signal on your phone and send a message to the number you registered. Curia will respond via the same Signal conversation. Because Signal carries high trust, you can use it to:
  • Approve sensitive or financial actions that email cannot authorize
  • Get urgent notifications when Curia flags something in your inbox
  • Send instructions to Curia securely when away from your desk
Trust levels determine which actions Curia can take on a sender’s behalf. Signal’s high trust level is equivalent to CLI access — Curia treats Signal messages with the same confidence it treats local terminal sessions.

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Troubleshooting

Check that:
  1. signal_phone_number is in the vault (re-seed with pnpm run seed-vault if unsure)
  2. The signal-data Docker volume is populated (see Step 1, Step 3 above)
  3. The signal-cli container is running: docker compose ps
Both conditions must be true for the adapter to activate.
Confirm the signal-cli container is healthy and connected to Signal’s infrastructure:
docker compose logs signal-cli
If you see connection errors, the Signal registration may have expired or the credentials in the volume may be stale. Re-run the bootstrap steps to re-register.
The Signal adapter assigns high trust to all messages by phone number. However, Curia also checks whether you’re a known contact. If your number hasn’t been confirmed as the CEO’s number, your messages may be held for review.From the CLI, tell Curia who you are:
> The Signal number +12223334444 belongs to me (the CEO).
Curia will confirm your number as a verified identity and grant appropriate access.