Skip to main content

Protocol

ADL is specified as a family of documents built around one signed passport. The ADL Core specification is the single declarative document: it describes what an agent is and the limits it declares. Around it sits a protocol layer — an open set of procedural documents that define what an actor MUST do with those declarations, the layer that gives an agent's declarations force.

Core declares; the protocols enforce. A declared limit has force only when a protocol procedure acts on it.

Component diagram of the ADL document family. A DECLARE region at the top holds the ADL Core (identity, capabilities, limits, lifecycle), which derives the Agent Passport, a declared and signed artifact. A dashed declare-versus-enforce boundary separates it from the ENFORCE region (the protocol layer) below, holding the Trust Protocol (admission-time verification and authorization), the Runtime Protocol (a continuous governor performing enforcement and evidence), and a dashed open-layer slot for future protocols such as discovery, reputation, and settlement. The passport is consumed by the Trust Protocol at admission and by the Runtime Protocol at runtime, and is available to the open-layer slot in future. The Runtime Protocol produces an Enforcement Evidence hash-chained record.

Figure 1 (informative): The ADL document family — Core declares the agent passport; the protocols enforce it (Trust at admission, Runtime continuously), with an open slot for future protocols. Illustrative only; the normative requirements live in the Core and protocol documents.

The protocol layer​

Two protocols are defined today. The layer is open: further protocols may join it as new enforcement boundaries emerge.

DocumentActorWhen it actsWhat it does
Trust ProtocolA counterparty (peer agent, gateway, registry)Once, at admissionVerifies a passport, binds a request to a presentation proof, and authorizes agent-to-agent calls.
Runtime ProtocolA runtime governorContinuously, after admissionEnforces an agent's declared operational limits while it executes — budgets, iteration limits, sub-agent admission, oversight triggers, degradation, and anomaly detection.

The split mirrors the two questions governance has to answer about an agent that wasn't fully specified in advance: can I trust this agent before I let it act? (Trust) and is it still behaving within its declared limits while it acts? (Runtime).

Status​

  • The Trust Protocol is drafted: authentication (§1) and authorization (§2) procedures, with conformance test vectors tracking its section numbers.
  • The Runtime Protocol is an early draft — the runtime governor (§1), the enforcement procedures (§2–§7: budgets, iteration, sub-agent admission, oversight, degradation, anomaly), and the signed enforcement-evidence format (§8) are drafted; the completeness/witness tier (§8.8) is reserved.

The protocol layer is cut on the same cadence as ADL Core and shares its version number: a spec release freezes the protocols at the same version. Section references outside a protocol's own range refer to the ADL Core specification.