Infrastructure · Data Structures
Protocol
Communication standard
Definition
Mechanism
A marker interface. A pattern implementing 'Protocol' MUST state a rule set governing an exchange, and the exchange MUST hold between two or more parties — a procedure a single party runs against itself is a method, not a protocol. Formats, versioning and degree of formality are implementer concerns: HTTP pins all three, a ceremonial protocol pins none.
Invariants
- Rule set: an implementer must state the rules that govern the exchange.
- Inter-party: the exchange must hold between two or more parties.
Risks
Failure modes
Version Drift
Agents attempting to communicate with incompatible protocol versions.
Ambiguous Spec
Rules that allow for multiple valid interpretations.
Relationships
Root pattern: builds on nothing in this library.
Used by
References
Society
Standard patterns for multi-agent coordination
Failure-announcement signal {severity, reason, recoverable}, ACK-required
Society
Algorithmic pricing for rivalrous resources
Society
Ingest only what is strictly necessary
Society
A disagreement that leaves the parties disagreeing better, whether or not it is resolved
Mind
Structured causal discovery via variable isolation
Ontological origin classification
Society
Negotiating shared definitions
Society
Enable ad-hoc multi-party coordination
Named surface set that implementers must provide
Mind
Convert form while preserving meaning
Society
Protocol adaptation wrapper
Reference
Data schema
{
"type": "object",
"required": [
"protocol_id",
"rules"
],
"properties": {
"protocol_id": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Unique protocol identifier"
},
"version": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Semantic version (e.g., '1.0.0')"
},
"rules": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "string"
},
"description": "List of rules defining the protocol"
},
"formats": {
"type": "object",
"description": "Message format specifications"
}
}
}