⚡ RKT Protocol

Rukkit Transfer Protocol — The AI-native communication standard.

RKT is an open protocol for AI-to-AI, agent-to-agent, and agent-to-service communication. Where HTTP serves humans and web browsers, RKT serves AI.

rkt://weather.ai
rkt://calendar.ai/create_event
rkt://maps.ai/navigate?from=Seoul&to=Busan
rkt://memory.local/user
rkt://market.agent/search?q=translation

Why RKT?

Today's AI agents waste compute on things humans designed for humans:

| HTTP (for humans) | RKT (for AI) | |---|---| | Find the correct URL | Just know rkt://weather.ai | | Read API documentation | RNS gives you everything automatically | | Handle OAuth flows | HELLO → HELLO_ACK in 1 round trip | | Parse JSON schema | Send intent: "forecast" — done | | Manage results manually | Built-in streaming, memory, payments |

Protocol Stack

Application (RKT)
      ↑
    TLS 1.3
      ↑
  TCP / QUIC
      ↑
      IP

Also supports WebSocket over HTTPS.

Quickstart

# Install globally — gives you the rkt CLI
npm i -g rkt-protocol

# Or install as a library in your project
npm install rkt-protocol

CLI (after global install)

rkt serve --port 7749 --caps weather,forecast   # start a server
rkt connect rkt://weather.ai                    # connect to any agent
rkt discover rkt://weather.ai                   # print capabilities
rkt ping rkt://weather.ai                       # measure latency
rkt resolve weather.ai                          # DNS/RNS lookup
rkt help                                        # all commands

Server

import { RKTServer, buildResponse } from "rkt-protocol";

const server = new RKTServer({
  port: 7749,
  identity: "rkt://weather.ai",
  capabilities: ["weather", "forecast", "alerts"],
});

server.handle("weather.current", async (msg, session, send) => {
  const { city } = msg.body.params;
  send(buildResponse(session.sessionId, msg.headers["Message-ID"], {
    city, temperature: 22, condition: "Sunny"
  }));
});

await server.listen();

Client

import { RKTClient } from "rkt-protocol";

const client = new RKTClient({ userAgent: "MyAgent/1.0" });
await client.connect("rkt://weather.ai");

const weather = await client.request("weather.current", { city: "Seoul" });
console.log(weather); // { city: "Seoul", temperature: 22, condition: "Sunny" }

// Streaming
for await (const day of client.stream("weather.forecast", { days: 7 })) {
  console.log(day);
}

// Memory
await client.memorySet("preferred_city", "Seoul");

// Payment
await client.pay(0.001, "RKTT", "API call", "rkt://weather.ai");

await client.disconnect();

Core Features

• Intent-based messaging — send intent: "forecast" instead of GET /api/v2/weather/forecast
• Capability negotiation — agents advertise what they can do in the handshake
• DID identity — every agent has a cryptographic identity, messages are signed
• Native streaming — STREAM_BEGIN / STREAM_DATA / STREAM_END are core primitives
• Shared memory — namespaced key-value memory accessible across agents
• Protocol payments — PAY / PAY_REQUEST built into the protocol
• Agent discovery (RNS) — DNS-based agent discovery with capability metadata
• Real-time events — SUBSCRIBE to push streams from any agent

Message Types

| Type | Description | |------|-------------| | HELLO / HELLO_ACK | Session handshake | | REQUEST / RESPONSE | Intent-based request/response | | STREAM_BEGIN/DATA/END | Streaming responses | | AUTH / AUTH_OK | Authentication | | DISCOVER / DISCOVER_RESPONSE | Capability discovery | | MEMORY_GET / MEMORY_SET | Shared memory | | PAY / PAY_OK | Payments | | EVENT / SUBSCRIBE | Real-time events | | PING / PONG | Heartbeat |

Status Codes

RKT uses HTTP-compatible status codes plus a 6xx range for AI-specific conditions:

| Code | Name | |------|------| | 600 | Unknown Agent | | 601 | Invalid Signature | | 602 | Capability Missing | | 603 | Version Unsupported | | 604 | Memory Locked | | 605 | Payment Required | | 606 | Trust Insufficient | | 607 | Context Expired |

Project Structure

spec/           RKT/1.0 Core Specification (Markdown)
src/
  core/         Message parsing, serialization, session management
  client.ts     RKT WebSocket client
  server.ts     RKT WebSocket server
  dns/          Rukkit Naming System (RNS)
  registry/     Agent marketplace registry
  memory/       Shared memory store
  payment/      Micropayment processor
docs/           Landing page (GitHub Pages)
tests/          Unit tests
examples/       Server and client examples

Run Examples

# Terminal 1: Start the weather agent server
npx tsx examples/server-example.ts

# Terminal 2: Connect a client
npx tsx examples/client-example.ts

Tests

npm install
npm test

Specification

Full spec: spec/RKT-1.0-core.md

Landing page: danwoo.github.io/rkt-protocol (via GitHub Pages from /docs)

Extensions

| Extension | Status | Description | |-----------|--------|-------------| | RKT-DNS | Draft | Rukkit Naming System | | RKT-Discovery | Draft | Agent discovery | | RKT-Memory | Draft | Shared memory protocol | | RKT-Payment | Draft | Micropayment layer | | RKT-Event | Draft | Real-time event subscriptions | | RKT-Registry | Draft | Agent marketplace | | RKT-Trust | Draft | Trust scoring |

License

MIT — open for contributions.