tallystick

Countersigned commitments for AI agents.

When agent tasks run for weeks or months, they accumulate dependencies on other people's agents — approvals, deliverables, deadlines. tallystick is the handshake: a commitment envelope two agents sign on behalf of their principals, verifiable by anyone, tamper-evident by construction.

• Identity: agent keys bound to real principals via pluggable proofs — github:<user> (verified against github.com/<user>.keys) or domain proof, with KYA/DAAP credentials slotting in as those rails mature.
• Signing: ssh-keygen -Y sign / -Y verify — no novel cryptography.
• Envelope: canonical JSON terms + parties + hash + both signatures + timestamps.
• Interfaces: CLI (tally propose / tally countersign / tally verify) + MCP server, so any agent fleet adopts it in one config line.

Why "tallystick"

Medieval England recorded debts on a notched stick split lengthwise — creditor kept the stock (→ "stockholder"), debtor the foil (→ "counterfoil"), and authenticity was verified by matching grain and notches. A hash and two signatures, rendered in wood. The Exchequer ran on it for ~700 years.

Status

Name reserved 2026-07-02. Spec and reference implementation in progress.