diff --git a/services/communication/atlasbot-configmap.yaml b/services/communication/atlasbot-configmap.yaml
index aba33da..034d55e 100644
--- a/services/communication/atlasbot-configmap.yaml
+++ b/services/communication/atlasbot-configmap.yaml
@@ -17,8 +17,31 @@ data:
     MODEL = os.environ.get("OLLAMA_MODEL", "qwen2.5-coder:7b-instruct-q4_0")
     API_KEY = os.environ.get("CHAT_API_KEY", "")
     BOT_MENTIONS = os.environ.get("BOT_MENTIONS", f"{USER},atlas")
-    MENTION_LOCALPARTS = [m.strip().lstrip("@") for m in BOT_MENTIONS.split(",") if m.strip()]
+    SERVER_NAME = os.environ.get("MATRIX_SERVER_NAME", "live.bstein.dev")
+    MENTION_TOKENS = [m.strip() for m in BOT_MENTIONS.split(",") if m.strip()]
+    MENTION_LOCALPARTS = [m.lstrip("@").split(":", 1)[0] for m in MENTION_TOKENS]
     MENTION_RE = re.compile(r"(?<!\\w)@(?:" + "|".join(re.escape(m) for m in MENTION_LOCALPARTS) + r")(?:\\:[^\\s]+)?(?!\\w)", re.IGNORECASE)
+    def normalize_user_id(token: str) -> str:
+        t = token.strip()
+        if not t:
+            return ""
+        if t.startswith("@") and ":" in t:
+            return t
+        t = t.lstrip("@")
+        if ":" in t:
+            return f"@{t}"
+        return f"@{t}:{SERVER_NAME}"
+
+    MENTION_USER_IDS = {normalize_user_id(t).lower() for t in MENTION_TOKENS if normalize_user_id(t)}
+
+    def is_mentioned(content: dict, body: str) -> bool:
+        if MENTION_RE.search(body or "") is not None:
+            return True
+        mentions = content.get("m.mentions", {})
+        user_ids = mentions.get("user_ids", [])
+        if not isinstance(user_ids, list):
+            return False
+        return any(isinstance(uid, str) and uid.lower() in MENTION_USER_IDS for uid in user_ids)
 
     def req(method: str, path: str, token: str | None = None, body=None, timeout=60, base: str | None = None):
         url = (base or BASE) + path
@@ -123,7 +146,7 @@ data:
                     # Only respond if bot is mentioned or in a DM
                     joined_count = data.get("summary", {}).get("m.joined_member_count")
                     is_dm = joined_count is not None and joined_count <= 2
-                    mentioned = MENTION_RE.search(body) is not None
+                    mentioned = is_mentioned(content, body)
                     hist_key = key_for(rid, sender, is_dm)
                     history[hist_key].append(f"{sender}: {body}")
                     history[hist_key] = history[hist_key][-80:]
diff --git a/services/communication/atlasbot-deployment.yaml b/services/communication/atlasbot-deployment.yaml
index 12f3e30..fbb9b3d 100644
--- a/services/communication/atlasbot-deployment.yaml
+++ b/services/communication/atlasbot-deployment.yaml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ spec:
       labels:
         app: atlasbot
       annotations:
-        checksum/atlasbot-configmap: cb29da6de63e087511e1936d41a6d12eff7f43c55cf266d1e71c3c2e14661c7b
+        checksum/atlasbot-configmap: c57538d33dc02db7aaf7b2f4681f50620c2cbcde8ddc1c51ccb5fa693247b00a
     spec:
       nodeSelector:
         hardware: rpi5