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Federation Layer

The Federation layer enables multi-node operation — multiple ProbOS instances forming a cognitive mesh of meshes.

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: The Nooplex

Multiple ProbOS nodes form a Nooplex — a federated cognitive mesh. Each node is sovereign:

  • Its own agents, trust scores, and memory
  • Its own decision-making authority
  • No central controller

Nodes discover each other and exchange capabilities via ZeroMQ gossip protocol.

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 ZeroMQ-based bridge that connects ProbOS instances. Each node publishes its capabilities and subscribes to capability announcements from other nodes.

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

Abstraction over the ZeroMQ transport layer, allowing for different transport backends.

Source Files

File Purpose
federation/bridge.py ZeroMQ node bridge
federation/router.py Intent forwarding + loop prevention
federation/transport.py Transport abstraction
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