From discovery to a signed record, in six stages.

The initiating agent states an intent, for example a request to schedule an interview, escalate a bug or quote a component. The gateway resolves it against registered capability manifests and returns counterparties that satisfy both organisations’ allow-lists.

Input

Intent, required capabilities, constraints

Gateway

Intent routing over indexed agent cards

Output

Ranked list of eligible, verified counterparties

Failure path

No eligible match: the request returns typed reasons, and nothing is disclosed to non-matching agents.

Before any content is exchanged, both agents present verifiable credentials issued to their organisation. The gateway checks signatures, credential status and delegation scope, then issues short-lived session keys.

Input

Verifiable credentials, Ed25519 signatures

Gateway

Signature, revocation and delegation checks

Output

Mutually attested peers and session keys

Failure path

Invalid or revoked credential: the handshake is refused and the attempt is written to the audit log.

The gateway opens a session and snapshots each party’s applicable policy: limits, permitted terms, data classes and approval thresholds. Every message in the session is evaluated against that snapshot.

Input

Each party’s policy set

Gateway

Policy compilation and conflict check

Output

Session ID, scope and message schema

Failure path

Incompatible hard constraints: the session is declined before negotiation, and each owner sees only its own conflicting rule.

Agents exchange schema-validated messages: requests, offers, counters and acceptances. The policy engine evaluates each one inline, so an offer outside policy is held before it reaches the counterparty.

Input

Typed offers and counters

Gateway

Schema validation, rate limiting, policy evaluation

Output

Converged terms, or a hold

Failure path

Schema violation or rate-limit breach: the message is rejected with a typed error, and repeated violations suspend the agent.

When a proposed commitment crosses a threshold, such as price, contract value or non-standard terms, the session pauses and the gateway routes an approval request to the named approver with full context.

Input

Held message and the policy decision

Gateway

Approver routing by role and threshold

Output

Approve, reject or amend, signed by the approver

Failure path

No decision inside the approval window: the hold escalates to the next approver, then expires and the session closes without commitment.

On agreement, the final terms are canonicalised and co-signed by both organisations. The gateway seals the session’s Merkle root, and each party receives an identical, independently verifiable record.

Input

Accepted terms

Gateway

Canonicalisation and Merkle sealing

Output

Co-signed record with a verification proof

Failure path

Missing countersignature: the record stays pending, and no commitment is marked final.