Trust and Access Control

Reeboot has a layered access control model for Tier 1 channels (WhatsApp, Signal). It controls three things:

1. Who is the owner — the person who owns and controls the agent
2. Who can send messages — owner only, or anyone
3. What trust level applies — affects tool permissions and injection guard behaviour

Tier 2 channels (WebChat, CLI) always treat all messages as coming from the owner — no access control configuration applies.

Owner Identity

Mode 1 — Self-Chat

Leave owner_id empty. The agent identifies the owner as messages where fromSelf is true — i.e. messages you send to yourself from your own account.

Use this when the agent runs on your personal WhatsApp or Signal account.

Mode 2 — Dedicated Account

Set owner_id to your personal phone number or JID. The agent identifies the owner as messages where the sender matches owner_id.

Use this when the agent runs on a separate dedicated account and you message it from your own account.

{
  "channels": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "owner_id": "+15551234567"
    },
    "signal": {
      "owner_id": "+15551234567"
    }
  }
}

owner_only

When true (the default), only messages from the identified owner are processed. All other messages are silently dropped.

When false, the agent responds to messages from anyone who contacts it. Use this only if you intentionally want others to interact with your agent.

{
  "channels": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "owner_only": false
    }
  }
}

Warning: setting owner_only: false exposes your agent — and any tools it has access to — to anyone who can message the connected account.

trusted_senders

An allowlist of sender IDs (phone numbers or JIDs) that bypass owner_only gating. Messages from these senders are processed even when owner_only: true.

{
  "channels": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "owner_only": true,
      "trusted_senders": ["+15559999999", "+15558888888"]
    }
  }
}

Trust Level

The trust field sets the trust level for all messages on that channel:

Default is "owner" for all channels.

Set trust: "end-user" if you are building a service where multiple external users interact with the agent:

{
  "channels": {
    "whatsapp": {
      "owner_only": false,
      "trust": "end-user"
    }
  }
}

Configuration Fields (all channels)

→ See Permission Tiers for how trust level interacts with tool access. → See Injection Guard for how trust: "end-user" activates full injection scrutiny on fetched content.