Connect Signal for encrypted messaging with Curia

Connect a phone number to Curia via signal-cli for end-to-end encrypted messaging with your agents — Curia’s highest-trust communication channel.

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 environment variable you need to configure is SIGNAL_PHONE_NUMBER.

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

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 [phone] with your number in E.164 format:

   docker compose run --rm signal-cli signal-cli \
     -a [phone] 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 [phone] 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.

Step 2 — Set the environment variable

Open your .env file and uncomment or add:

SIGNAL_PHONE_NUMBER=[phone]

Use the same E.164 number you registered in Step 1.

Step 3 — Restart Curia

pnpm local

The Signal channel activates when SIGNAL_PHONE_NUMBER is set and the signal-data volume is populated. You should see the Signal adapter initialize in the startup logs.

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.

Troubleshooting

Signal adapter not starting

Check that:

1. SIGNAL_PHONE_NUMBER is set in .env
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.

Messages not delivered

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.

Curia doesn't recognize me as a trusted sender

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 [phone] belongs to me (the CEO).

Curia will confirm your number as a verified identity and grant appropriate access.