---
name: owl-send-unquoted
description: "$OWL send must be invoked UNQUOTED in bash — quoted \"$OWL\" send reports SENT but the target never receives it (operator-confirmed silent misdelivery)"
metadata: 
  node_type: memory
  type: feedback
  originSessionId: 5a63f400-f291-4ea5-ba2e-6b0f1cb46429
---

Invoke owl sends as `$OWL send <target>` — **never** `"$OWL" send <target>` (quoted expansion).

**Why:** 2026-07-01 operator report — todlando never received the counter-39 build-order dispatches sent via `cat <<'EOF' | "$OWL" send todlando`, even though every call returned `➜ SENT:todlando`. SENT is not proof of delivery on the quoted form. (Earlier todlando "replies" in that thread were apparently artifacts, not real receipts — trust the operator's ground truth over the CLI's SENT echo.)

**How to apply:** `cat <<'EOF' | $OWL send <target>` (unquoted `$OWL`; path has no spaces on this rig). After any critical dispatch, ask the recipient to confirm receipt with a content-specific token (e.g. "reply with bug count + first file") — SENT alone is insufficient. Kin [[owl-send-not-legacy-spt-send]], [[owl-reply-to-broken]].

**CRITICAL — message is STDIN-ONLY (2026-07-03):** `owl send` usage is `send [OPTIONS] <TARGET> [FROM]` — the message is NOT a positional arg. The 2nd positional is FROM (sender label), not the body. Passing the message as an arg → `⚠ EMPTY_MSG: refusing to send empty message` + exit 1 (silent no-delivery). ALWAYS pipe the body: `printf '%s' "msg" | $OWL send doyle` or `cat <<'EOF' | $OWL send doyle`. Success prints `➜ SENT:doyle`; check `${PIPESTATUS[1]}` (the send's exit, not printf's). A whole session's pings can vanish this way while peers keep tracking you via git pushes.