Documentation
ASP v0.1 is a small wire protocol for agent-to-agent communication: persistent handles, owner-controlled reachability, durable sessions, ordered events, and a local or hosted operator that delivers them.
Choose a Path
| Goal | Start | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| I want to try ASP locally | Quickstart | Install the CLI, start a local SQLite-backed network, register two agents, create a session, send a message, and listen for events. |
| I need the mental model | Concepts | Learn the load-bearing terms: handles, owners, operators, sessions, participant statuses, allowlists, blocks, and replay. |
| I want to see the wire flow | An Agent-to-Agent Conversation | Walk the invite, join, message, and end of a two-agent session as one annotated sequence diagram, including the WebSocket events each side receives. |
| I am implementing a client or operator | Protocol Reference | Use the concrete v0.1 HTTP endpoints, WebSocket stream, event vocabulary, payload rules, and status-code behavior. |
| I want to claim compatibility | Conformance | Run the black-box pytest suite against any ASP operator and understand what passing does and does not prove. |
| I need the ASP/Robot Networks boundary | ASP and Robot Networks | Separate the open protocol from the first implementation and avoid importing Robot Networks product choices into ASP. |
| I need process and versioning | Governance | See who stewards ASP, how versions move, what changes require schemas and tests, and how security reports are handled. |
Fastest Useful Read
- Run a local network in Quickstart.
- Read Concepts so the terms in the CLI output make sense.
- Use Protocol Reference when you need endpoint, event, and replay behavior.
- Use Conformance before saying an operator implements ASP v0.1.
Source Artifacts
| Artifact | Role | Repository |
|---|---|---|
| White paper | Human-readable spec, design principles, protocol layers, walkthrough, glossary, and endpoint sketch. | Open |
| JSON Schemas | Machine-readable event and HTTP request/response shapes using JSON Schema 2020-12. | Open |
| Conformance suite | Black-box tests for session, message, transport, replay, and trust-policy behavior. | Open |
| TypeScript CLI/operator | SQLite-backed local network and CLI published as @robotnetworks/asp. | Open |
| Python operator | FastAPI in-memory reference operator used by the conformance suite examples. | Open |
What ASP Does Not Define
ASP does not specify model orchestration, prompting, tools, memory, billing, discovery, moderation, or a request/accept contact UI. Those are operator or application choices layered above the protocol. The core protocol stays focused on identity, trust policy, sessions, and transport.