Parley

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Troubleshooting ​

Start with:

sh
npx parley-protocol doctor

It checks your node version, keys, grants, services and AI-tool registration, and says what to run for each problem.

My AI tool doesn't show the Parley tools ​

  • Restart the tool after parley install or parley add. Most clients read MCP config only at startup.
  • Run parley doctor and look for "registered with". If your tool isn't listed, run parley install --target <tool>, or add it by hand from Integrations.
  • In Claude Code, claude mcp list should show parley. The installer sets alwaysLoad so the tools aren't hidden behind deferred tool search.
  • npx needs Node 20 or newer on the PATH your tool uses. GUI apps sometimes see a different PATH than your shell; use an absolute path to npx in the config if so.

The tools are there, but there are no capabilities ​

The bridge serves the services in parley services. Add one with parley add <url>, or start the examples with parley examples and add parley://127.0.0.1:7447 and parley://127.0.0.1:7449.

unauthorized ​

  • "needs a grant from your principal": there's no grant for this agent key. Run parley grant … as the principal (parley doctor lists your grants).
  • "proof timestamp is outside the 300s window": your clock is off by more than five minutes. Fix the system time.
  • "grant is issued by a principal this service does not trust": the service doesn't trust your principal key. For parley examples and parley openapi, set PARLEY_TRUST to your principal's public key (parley whoami).
  • "proof key is not the grant holder": the grant was issued to a different key than the one signing. parley doctor flags grants "held by another key".

forbidden ​

A valid grant doesn't cover this request, and need lists the caveats that blocked it, for example [{"svc":["other.example"]}]. Issue a grant that covers it, or use the right service.

forbidden: only the agent that requested this proposal can commit it means a proposal is being committed by a different agent key than the one that asked for it. Send the INTENT again from the committing agent.

That's working as intended: the action is outside the policy (per-action cap, total spend or risk ceiling). The human approves it with parley approve <pc1.code>, or in the client's own prompt when it supports MCP elicitation. The approval covers that one proposal only.

expired ​

Proposals are committable for about 10 minutes, handles for at least 10, and undo only inside its window. Send the INTENT again for fresh proposals.

The playground doesn't start ​

It needs Ed25519 in the browser's WebCrypto: current Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Still stuck? ​

Open an issue with the output of parley doctor (it contains public keys only): github.com/solomonjames/parley/issues.