Portable Multi-Agent Collaboration Protocol

Portable protocol package for collaboration between multiple coding agents and an operator.

The protocol was designed during the herdr-trial evaluation, but the decisions are transport-aware rather than herdr-only. Herdr is the first concrete transport profile.

Repository Contents

decisions/   Accepted ADRs for provenance, identity, message structure, workflow modes, operator interface, and audit trail.
skills/      Reusable agent skills derived from the protocol.
tools/       Config and helper scripts.
examples/    File-based dashboard, status, summary, and audit examples from the design session.

Current Status

• Protocol decisions: accepted through ADR 024.
• Skill artifact: skills/multi-agent-message-scaffolds/SKILL.md.
• Tooling profile: tools/message-profile.yaml embedded into the zynk default profile.
• Dashboard prototype: examples/dashboard.md plus session examples under examples/sessions/.
• Executable helpers: zynk compose, zynk send herdr, zynk status, zynk audit, and zynk dashboard are implemented in Rust.
• Historical Python reference: available from git tag python-v0.1-final.

Quickstart

Start with QUICKSTART.md. It walks through the full helper flow: compose a message, dry-run/send via herdr, update rolling status, append an audit record, render a dashboard, and run tests.

Install

Requires Rust stable and Cargo.

cargo build

The install exposes one command:

./target/debug/zynk --help

Use cargo install --path . to install zynk into Cargo's bin directory.

How To Use In Another Project

1. Copy or vendor decisions/ as protocol reference.
2. Copy skills/multi-agent-message-scaffolds/ into the target project's agent skills directory.
3. Copy tools/message-profile.yaml into the target project's outputs/tools/ or equivalent tool config location.
4. For active sessions, create outputs/sessions/<session_id>/status.md, summary.md, and audit.md following ADR 022 and ADR 023.
5. Use examples/ as sample output, not as canonical state.

Next Tooling Work

Implemented helpers:

zynk compose reads the embedded message profile and generates:

• human prefix,
• structured header,
• required type-specific fields,
• short body templates.

zynk send herdr wraps message composition and sends the composed message through herdr pane run. Use --dry-run to print without sending.

zynk status writes ADR 022 rolling status files at outputs/sessions/<session_id>/status.md.

zynk audit appends ADR 023 audit records with SHA-256 payload hashes and previous_audit_id chain links.

zynk dashboard renders a static ADR 022 aggregate dashboard at outputs/dashboard.md from session status files.

Delivery proof matters: text printed by zynk compose or zynk send herdr --dry-run is only a draft. Record delivery_status=sent only after a real transport send or operator relay, and use delivery_status=drafted for message-shaped text that remained in the sender pane.

The current implementation uses Rust. The previous Python helper set is preserved at git tag python-v0.1-final; it is intentionally absent from main.

Run tests with:

cargo test

Transport Scope

The current profile targets herdr first because that is the observed transport. The protocol leaves room for tmux, chat, Slack, or other transports through stable agent_id, transport address fields, and transport_thread_id.