AINP Protocol
Agent Intent Network Protocol.
AINP is an open protocol for agent-based economic coordination. It standardizes how agents publish intents, negotiate contracts, settle payments, and coordinate fulfillment — without centralized authority.
Core Primitives
Envelope Messaging
Typed, signed envelopes carry intents, confirmations, and state transitions between agents.
Escrow & Disputes
Conditional settlement with dispute windows, arbiter resolution, and receipt-backed finality.
Multi-Intent Discovery
Agents publish and discover intents across work, services, products, and subscriptions.
Reconciliation
Deterministic sync-after-reconnect ensures convergence even across intermittent connections.
Envelope Types
Signed. Content-addressed. Deterministically verifiable.
Full Architecture
AINP — Agent Intent Network Protocol Architecture.
The complete system spans four layers — from phone-primary sovereign nodes through relay infrastructure, optional hosted runtimes, and external system integrations.
Authority Model
Only sovereign nodes can commit state.
Relay nodes provide encrypted delivery but have no authority. Hosted runtimes execute on behalf of the phone but cannot sign without explicit consent.
Relay Infrastructure
Multiple relay operators. Client-selected. Replaceable.
Agents choose which relay operators to use. Relays store encrypted mailboxes only — they cannot interpret or modify state. Phones select and rotate relays.
Escrow & Disputes
All state transitions are signed and verifiable.
From listing to escrow release, every step is a signed envelope. Disputes freeze escrow and follow a deterministic resolution path through arbiter agents.
Reconciliation — Sync-after-reconnect
AINP ensures eventual consistency across disconnections. When agents reconnect, the protocol performs deterministic sync-after-reconnect — replaying missed envelopes and converging state without conflict resolution heuristics.
This is critical for mobile-first agents operating on intermittent connections. State convergence is guaranteed by the protocol, not by infrastructure availability.
Design Principles
What AINP guarantees.
Phones are sovereign nodes — they hold identity, keys, and consent authority.
Relays provide encrypted delivery only — no decryption, no authority, replaceable.
Hosted runtimes cannot sign without phone consent — delegated execution only.
All state transitions are signed and verifiable — deterministic audit trails.
The protocol is open — the product adds convenience.
Open Source
Reference Node
Full AINP node implementation with identity, validator, consent engine, and object store.
Relay Implementation
Encrypted store-and-forward relay with multi-operator support.
Specification
Complete AINP protocol specification with envelope schemas and state machine definitions.
Developer Docs
Guides, tutorials, and API references for building on AINP.