Federation Layer¶
The Federation layer provides the experimental transport substrate for multi-node operation. The current layer connects sovereign ProbOS instances; it does not by itself implement the Nooplex Core Fabric described in the paper. See the Nooplex Readiness Map for the evidence gates and permitted claims.
Philosophy: Cooperate, Don't Compete¶
ProbOS's moat is the orchestration layer, not any single agent's capability. Federation is designed around cooperation: sovereign instances sharing capabilities, not competing for dominance. Each ship is its own authority. The federation is a network of sovereign peers.
Concept: Toward the Nooplex¶
Multiple ProbOS nodes may form a federated cluster of sovereign Cognitive Meshes. This is the substrate from which a Nooplex can be built; authenticated multi-mesh operation, semantic Core Fabric, and emergence validation are separate milestones. Each node is sovereign:
- Its own agents, trust scores, and memory
- Its own decision-making authority
- No central controller
Nodes use configured peers and exchange capability gossip over the selected federation transport.
W3C DID Identity (AD-441)¶
Every agent and ship has a verifiable identity:
- Ship DID:
did:probos:{instance_id}— the root of trust for the instance, self-signed - Agent DID:
did:probos:{instance_id}:{agent_uuid}— permanent, unique per agent
Verifiable Credentials (W3C standard):
- Birth Certificate — issued to every agent at creation by the Agent Capital Manager
- Transfer Certificate — documents rank, trust, qualifications when an agent moves between instances
- Ship Commissioning Certificate — genesis block of the Identity Ledger
Identity Ledger — a hash-chain blockchain providing tamper-evident, federation-ready verification. The ledger is append-only and survives system resets. Ship commissioning creates the genesis block.
Agent Mobility¶
Agents are portable across ProbOS instances. Three memory portability models:
| Model | Memory | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Room | DID + credentials only, zero episodic memories | Sensitive clients (defense, finance, healthcare) |
| Full Portability | All memories travel with the agent | Maximum value, maximum cross-contamination risk |
| Selective | Skills and qualifications travel, episodes don't | Balance of value and data governance |
Memory policy is set by the destination's Standing Orders (Federation tier). Agents know about their memory policy through the Westworld Principle (no hidden resets).
Intent Forwarding¶
When a node receives an intent it can't handle locally, the federation router forwards it to a node that has the required capability. Loop prevention ensures intents don't bounce infinitely between nodes.
Components¶
Node Bridge¶
A transport-neutral bridge that connects ProbOS instances. Each node publishes its capabilities and receives capability gossip over the selected transport. Configured peer IDs constrain outbound routing; NATS gossip subscription is namespace-wide.
Intent Router¶
Routes intents across the federation:
- Checks if the intent can be handled locally
- If not, finds a remote node with the capability
- Forwards the intent with loop-prevention metadata
Transport¶
An abstraction over federation transport backends. At startup, ProbOS selects NATS when the NATS bus reports connected; otherwise it selects ZeroMQ. If NATS transport initialization raises, startup attempts ZeroMQ. There is no automatic failover after NATS has been selected.
Source Files¶
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
federation/bridge.py |
Transport-neutral node bridge |
federation/router.py |
Intent forwarding + loop prevention |
federation/nats_transport.py |
NATS federation transport |
federation/transport.py |
ZeroMQ federation transport |
identity/did.py |
DID generation + resolution |
identity/credentials.py |
W3C Verifiable Credentials |
identity/ledger.py |
Identity Ledger (hash-chain) |
identity/birth_certificate.py |
Agent + Ship birth certificates |