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Pervasive.Link Design

Reference objects ontology

  • Agent: addressable identity with keys and metadata.
  • Capability: typed operation an agent offers. Inputs, outputs, side effects, costs, policies.
  • Intent: desired state change with constraints and utility.
  • Offer: binding between Intent and Capability, including terms.
  • Task: scheduled execution of an Offer. Atomic or subgraph node.
  • Event: immutable record of observations and decisions.
  • Attestation: signed claim about an object or event.
  • Policy: constraints that must hold for certain scopes.
  • Receipt: signed evidence of execution and outcomes.
  • Trace: causal thread linking Intents, Offers, Tasks, Events.

Reference message types

  • AdvertiseCapability: publish capability descriptors and policies.
  • Discover: query by type, input shape, policy, cost, or trust requirements.
  • Intent: declare goal, constraints, utility, deadlines, privacy.
  • Offer: map Intent to a Capability with terms and expected receipts.
  • Negotiate: counter terms, move to acceptance or walk away.
  • TaskStart | TaskProgress | TaskDone: lifecycle with receipts.
  • Attest: identity, compliance, provenance, quality signals.
  • PolicyUpdate: activation, revocation, or override with scope.
  • Observe: publish state changes into a shared coordination space.

Ref. Discovery and routing

  • Gossip catalogs: Agents multicast AdvertiseCapability on scoped overlays. Content addressing avoids duplicates.
  • Typed queries: Discover uses structural matching on IO types, tags, policies, and cost models.
  • Policy-aware routing: Routers drop paths that cannot satisfy policy bindings or required attestations.
  • Trace propagation: A stable trace id threads through all messages for audit and rollback.

Ref. Coordination patterns the protocol standardizes

  • Contract network: Broadcast Intent, receive Offers, select by multi-objective score.
  • Plan DAGs: Intents expand into Task graphs. Each node binds to a Role / Capability at run time.
  • Social Choice: Threshold attestations to approve Tasks when high stakes apply.
  • Auctions and markets: First-price, second-price, or posted price executed by Offers.
  • Federated operators: Map, reduce, join over agent outputs with receipts at each stage.

Ref. Trust, identity, and attestations

  • Portable identity: Agents use DIDs or equivalent. Keys rotate without breaking references.
  • Attestation graph: Any claim is a signed object. Examples: security level, jurisdiction, bias testing, energy source.
  • Verifiable execution: Receipts bind inputs, parameters, code id, and outputs. Hash chains tie to trace.
  • Trust function: Local policy computes T = f(attestations, history, social proofs, cost, risk) for selection.

Policy as a first-class control plane

  • Scopes: per Agent, Capability, Trace, Data class, or Jurisdiction.
  • Kinds: allowlist, denylist, budget, purpose binding, retention, geo bounds, human review.
  • Evaluation: pre-check on Advertise and Offer, run-time guard on TaskStart, post-check on Receipt.
  • Transparency: every decision carries which policy and why in an explanation field.

Ref. Observability and state

  • Event log: append-only, content addressed. Events reference envelopes and receipts.
  • Causal queries: filter by trace, capability, policy, or agent.
  • SLO views: per capability latency, error, compliance, and yield.

Ref. Economic primitives

  • Metered Offers: price per call, per unit, or per result.
  • Escrow: hold until Receipt verifies policy and outcome.
  • Stakes: providers lock collateral for high-risk jobs.
  • Reputation: derived from attestations, SLO adherence, and dispute outcomes.

End-to-end reference flow

  • A posts Intent with constraints and a policy reference.
  • B, C gossip AdvertiseCapability matching the IO and policy.
  • A issues Discover with structural and policy filters.
  • B returns Offer with terms, expected receipts, and attestations.
  • A runs Negotiate to set price, SLO, and retention.
  • A emits TaskStart with escrow reference.
  • B executes locally. Emits TaskProgress for checkpoints.
  • B emits TaskDone with Receipt including code and IO hashes.
  • A verifies receipt, policies, and proofs. Releases escrow.
  • Both write Event entries. Trace is complete and auditable.

Pervasive.link establishes the meta-protocol

Pervasive.link establishes the meta-protocol for plural intelligence - a connective layer where AIs & agents of every type can interoperate, align, and evolve together. By decoupling semantics, trust, and execution from any single framework, it creates the conditions for a true Internet of Agents: a planetary society of cooperating intelligences.