diff --git a/.claude/scripts/check-messages.sh b/.claude/scripts/check-messages.sh
index 549389b..4a1f645 100644
--- a/.claude/scripts/check-messages.sh
+++ b/.claude/scripts/check-messages.sh
@@ -5,10 +5,36 @@ API="http://172.16.3.30:8001"
 SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)"
 MODE_FILE="${SCRIPT_DIR}/current-mode"
 
+# Read short username alias from identity.json (if present)
+IDENTITY_FILE="${SCRIPT_DIR}/identity.json"
+USER_ALIAS=""
+if [ -f "$IDENTITY_FILE" ]; then
+  USER_ALIAS=$(jq -r '.user // empty' "$IDENTITY_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
+fi
+
 # --- Unread messages ---------------------------------------------------------
 
+# Query for messages addressed to full session ID
 result=$(curl -s --connect-timeout 3 "${API}/api/coord/messages?to_session=${SESSION}&unread_only=true" 2>/dev/null)
 
+# Also query for messages addressed to the short username alias (e.g. "howard")
+result_alias=""
+if [ -n "$USER_ALIAS" ] && [ "$USER_ALIAS" != "$SESSION" ]; then
+  result_alias=$(curl -s --connect-timeout 3 "${API}/api/coord/messages?to_session=${USER_ALIAS}&unread_only=true" 2>/dev/null)
+fi
+
+# Merge both result sets (combine .messages arrays, recompute total)
+if [ -n "$result_alias" ]; then
+  alias_msgs=$(echo "$result_alias" | jq '.messages // []' 2>/dev/null)
+  if [ -n "$alias_msgs" ] && [ "$alias_msgs" != "[]" ] && [ "$alias_msgs" != "null" ]; then
+    if [ -n "$result" ]; then
+      result=$(echo "$result" "$result_alias" | jq -s '{total: (.[0].total + .[1].total), messages: (.[0].messages + .[1].messages)}' 2>/dev/null)
+    else
+      result="$result_alias"
+    fi
+  fi
+fi
+
 if [ -n "$result" ]; then
   count=$(echo "$result" | jq '.total' 2>/dev/null)
   if [ -n "$count" ] && [ "$count" -gt 0 ]; then