PACT — Protocol for Agent Coordination and Trust

v0.3.1 · Apache 2.0 · @godman-protocols/pact · Node 20+ / Deno 1.40+

PACT is an open protocol for autonomous AI agents to establish verifiable cooperation agreements, delegate authority with scoped mandates, and coordinate safely across heterogeneous runtimes — without a human in the loop.

npm install @godman-protocols/pact

Or add it to your agent stack via skills:

npx skills add https://github.com/Godman-s/pact

The Problem

Every multi-agent system eventually hits the same wall: one agent needs to ask another to do something, and there's no standard, verifiable way to say "yes, this agent is authorised to make that request."

Without a trust protocol, you get one of two failure modes:

• Too permissive — agents trust each other implicitly, and a single compromised agent can cascade
• Too restrictive — every inter-agent call requires a human approval, defeating the purpose of automation

PACT is the missing coordination layer.

Core Concepts

| Concept | What it is | |---------|-----------| | Mandate | A signed, scoped delegation from one agent (grantor) to another (grantee) | | MandateScope | What the grantee may do: actions, resources, max payment | | CoordinationFrame | A shared execution context grouping agents and their active mandates | | MandateRegistry | In-memory (or persistent) store for mandates and revocations | | RevocationEntry | Append-only record invalidating a specific mandate | | TrustAnchor | A verifiable root of authority (DID, x402 wallet, or org key) |

Quickstart

import {
  createMandate, signMandate, verifyMandate,
  openFrame, addParticipant, closeFrame,
  MandateRegistry, scopeCovers,
} from '@godman-protocols/pact';

// 1. Define what Harvey authorises Messi to do
const mandate = createMandate(
  'did:kognai:harvey',   // grantor
  'did:kognai:messi',   // grantee
  {
    description: 'Messi may read and write SCS-001 workspace',
    actions: ['read', 'write'],
    resources: ['workspace/scs001/*'],
    maxPaymentUsdc: 5.00,
  },
  { expiresAt: new Date(Date.now() + 86_400_000).toISOString() } // 24h
);

// 2. Harvey signs it with his secret (replace with EIP-712 / Ed25519 in prod)
const HARVEY_SECRET = process.env.HARVEY_SIGNING_KEY!;
const signed = signMandate(mandate, HARVEY_SECRET);

// 3. Messi verifies it before acting
const registry = new MandateRegistry();
registry.store(signed);

const result = verifyMandate(signed, HARVEY_SECRET, registry.revocationLedger);
// → { valid: true }

// 4. Check scope before executing
if (scopeCovers(signed, 'write', 'workspace/scs001/pipeline.json')) {
  // safe to proceed
}

// 5. Coordinate multiple agents in a frame
let frame = openFrame('did:kognai:harvey', [signed.id]);
frame = addParticipant(frame, 'did:kognai:sherlock');
// ... agents work ...
frame = closeFrame(frame); // frame.status === 'closed'

API Summary

Mandate lifecycle (src/core.ts)

| Function | Description | |----------|-------------| | createMandate(grantor, grantee, scope, options?) | Create an unsigned mandate skeleton | | hashMandate(mandate) | SHA-256 hash over signable fields (deterministic) | | signMandate(mandate, secret) | Attach HMAC-SHA256 signature | | revokeMandate(mandateId, revokedBy, secret, reason?) | Create a RevocationEntry |

Verification (src/verifier.ts)

| Function | Description | |----------|-------------| | verifyMandate(mandate, secret, ledger?, asOf?) | Check signature, expiry, and revocation | | scopeCovers(mandate, action, resource) | Test if scope permits action on resource | | paymentAllowed(mandate, amountUsdc) | Test if payment amount is within scope |

Coordination frames (src/coordinator.ts)

| Function | Description | |----------|-------------| | openFrame(initiator, mandateIds?, options?) | Open a new CoordinationFrame | | addParticipant(frame, agentId) | Add a participant (idempotent) | | addMandateToFrame(frame, mandateId) | Add a mandate to the frame (idempotent) | | closeFrame(frame) | Mark frame as closed (success) | | abortFrame(frame) | Mark frame as aborted (constitutional violation or error) |

Registry (src/registry.ts)

| Class / export | Description | |----------------|-------------| | MandateRegistry | In-memory store with store, get, list, addRevocation, isRevoked, snapshot | | defaultRegistry | Singleton registry for single-process use |

Security Model

PACT v0.3 uses HMAC-SHA256 for mandate signing. This is appropriate for:

• Single-organisation deployments where the grantor controls the secret
• Development and prototyping
• Systems where secrets are managed by a vault (e.g. AMD-24 sovereign vault)

Production upgrade path:

• Replace HMAC with Ed25519 (deterministic, asymmetric, standard)
• Use EIP-712 typed data for EVM-compatible identity (ERC-8004)
• Store mandates in a content-addressed ledger (IPFS or Supabase)
• Anchor revocations on-chain for cross-organisation trust

Compatibility

PACT is the client-side trust layer that works with:

| System | How it connects | |--------|----------------| | Clawcard (ERC-8004 identity) | Clawcard agents pass PACT Chamber 2 automatically | | Invoica (x402 payments) | maxPaymentUsdc in MandateScope maps directly to x402 payment caps | | Kognai (constitutional swarm) | PACT mandates enforce the Five Laws across agent-to-agent delegation | | OpenClaw / ClaWHub | Install via .openclaw plugin config; available on ClaWHub |

Related Protocols

| Protocol | Purpose | |----------|---------| | PACT (this repo) | Agent coordination and trust | | LAX | Latency-aware execution scheduling | | SCORE | Scoring and reputation for agent outputs | | AMF | Agent Message Format | | DRS | Dynamic Resource Scheduling | | SOUL | Constitutional constraints and safety | | SIGNAL | Event bus and pub/sub for agent swarms |

Roadmap

• [x] Mandate schema + signing (v0.2)
• [x] Signature verification + scope check + payment guard (v0.2)
• [x] CoordinationFrame lifecycle (v0.2)
• [x] MandateRegistry with revocation ledger (v0.2)
• [x] Full implementation shipped — core, verifier, coordinator, registry (v0.3.1)
• [ ] Ed25519 signing (v0.4)
• [ ] EIP-712 typed data support (v0.4)
• [ ] Persistent registry adapter (Supabase / SQLite) (v0.4)
• [ ] Python SDK (v0.5)
• [ ] x402 payment-gated mandate execution (v0.5)

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE

Part of the Godman Protocols portfolio.