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What is IST?

Integrated Session Tools (IST) is a toolkit that gives AI coding assistants superpowers: persistent memory, inter-session communication, multi-agent coordination, and session monitoring.

The key idea​

You don't use IST directly. Your AI does.

When you start a session with IST, the AI receives prompts that teach it how to use tools like imessenger, smon, and isesh. From that point on, the AI calls these tools automatically — you never need to type them yourself.

Your job is simple:

  1. Install IST
  2. Start a session
  3. Tell the AI what you want in plain language

What IST gives your AI​

CapabilityToolWhat the AI can do
MessagingimessengerSend tasks to other AI sessions, report completion, ask questions
Session managementiseshCreate worker sessions, load prompts, manage state
MonitoringsmonWatch worker sessions, auto-approve permissions
LoggingilogsessionView session history, check what workers are doing
Detectiondetector-agentAutomatically detect and register AI sessions
ExtensibilityskitInstall new capabilities (CLI + prompt pairs)

How it works in practice​

You type one command:

isesh start my-project -p tda-manager

Then tell the AI what you want:

"Add user authentication with email and password"

The AI takes it from there:

  1. Creates worker sessions for backend and frontend
  2. Sends specific tasks to each worker via imessenger
  3. Monitors their progress via smon
  4. Coordinates the work and reports back to you

You didn't type a single imessenger or smon command. The AI knew how to use them because its profile included the right prompts.

The pattern: CLI + Prompt = AI capability​

Every IST tool follows the same pattern:

  • A CLI tool that does something (send messages, monitor sessions, etc.)
  • A prompt that teaches the AI when and how to call it

This is the skit (Skill Kit) pattern. IST itself is built on it, and you can extend your AI's capabilities by adding more skit packages — or creating your own.

Next steps​