This repository defines the shared, versioned protocol for Monarchic AI. It is the compatibility layer between the orchestrator, runner, and agent roles, so the schemas are minimal and stable while allowing forward-compatible extensions.

• Provide versioned JSON Schemas for language-agnostic validation.
• Provide Rust, TypeScript, and Protobuf bindings that mirror the schemas.
• Keep the protocol small and explicit for v1 interoperability.

Install the published package for your language, then use the generated bindings.

• Rust (crates.io): cargo add monarchic-agent-protocol
• TypeScript (npm): npm install @monarchic-ai/monarchic-agent-protocol
• Python (PyPI): pip install monarchic-agent-protocol
• Ruby (RubyGems): gem install monarchic-agent-protocol
• Go (Go modules): go get github.com/monarchic-ai/monarchic-agent-protocol/src/go@vX.Y.Z
• Java/Kotlin (JitPack): implementation("com.github.monarchic-ai:monarchic-agent-protocol:vX.Y.Z")
• .NET (NuGet): dotnet add package Monarchic.AgentProtocol
• PHP (Packagist): composer require monarchic-ai/monarchic-agent-protocol

• Rust: examples/rust/task.rs
• TypeScript: examples/ts/task.ts
• JSON (non-protobuf): examples/json/objective_spec.minimal.json
• Protobuf C++: examples/proto/cpp/task.cpp
• Protobuf Java: examples/proto/java/TaskExample.java
• Protobuf Kotlin: examples/proto/kotlin/TaskExample.kt
• Protobuf C#: examples/proto/csharp/TaskExample.cs
• Protobuf Python: examples/proto/python/task.py
• Protobuf Ruby: examples/proto/ruby/task.rb
• Protobuf PHP: examples/proto/php/task.php
• Protobuf Dart: examples/proto/dart/task.dart
• Protobuf Rust: examples/proto/rust/task.rs

For languages that do not use protobuf bindings, exchange protocol objects as JSON and validate payloads against the versioned schemas before handoff.

• Canonical JSON example for non-protobuf consumers: examples/json/objective_spec.minimal.json
• Validate a typed payload against a specific schema: bash scripts/validate-protocol-json.sh schemas/v1/objective_spec.json schemas/fixtures/valid/objective_spec.minimal.json
• Validate the canonical non-protobuf JSON example: bash scripts/validate-protocol-json.sh schemas/v1/objective_spec.json examples/json/objective_spec.minimal.json

• Protocol versions live under schemas/v1/.
• Each v1 object requires version: "v1".
• New versions must be added under a new directory (e.g. schemas/v2/) without changing existing v1 files.

JSON Schema files are generated from the protobuf definitions. Do not edit them by hand.

Schema files live under schemas/v1/:

• schemas/v1/task.json
• schemas/v1/artifact.json
• schemas/v1/event.json
• schemas/v1/gate_result.json
• schemas/v1/failure_class.json
• schemas/v1/run_context.json
• schemas/v1/run_outcome.json
• schemas/v1/delivery_contract.json
• schemas/v1/agent_role.json
• schemas/v1/dataset_ref.json
• schemas/v1/experiment_spec.json
• schemas/v1/objective_spec.json
• schemas/v1/eval_result.json
• schemas/v1/provenance.json
• schemas/v1/schema.json (index)
• schemas/v1/monarchic_agent_protocol.proto

All schemas allow additional properties for forward compatibility.

schemas/v1/schema.json is the canonical top-level JSON schema index. Its oneOf entries currently cover:

• schemas/v1/task.json
• schemas/v1/artifact.json
• schemas/v1/event.json
• schemas/v1/gate_result.json
• schemas/v1/failure_class.json
• schemas/v1/run_context.json
• schemas/v1/dataset_ref.json
• schemas/v1/experiment_spec.json
• schemas/v1/objective_spec.json
• schemas/v1/eval_result.json
• schemas/v1/provenance.json

schemas/v1/agent_role.json is a shared schema used by task.json. schemas/v1/failure_class.json is a shared schema used by event.json and gate_result.json.

Enum values:

• product_owner
• project_manager
• dev
• qa
• reviewer
• security
• ops

Example:

{
  "role": "reviewer"
}

Represents work assigned to an agent.

Required fields:

• version: "v1"
• task_id: stable identifier
• role: AgentRole
• goal: human-readable objective

Optional fields:

• inputs: free-form object
• constraints: free-form object
• gates_required: list of gate names to run (ex: ["qa", "security"])
• run_context: RunContext
• objective_spec: objective scoring contract for deterministic outcome evaluation
• experiment_spec: typed experiment design contract for deterministic in silico runs

Example:

{
  "version": "v1",
  "task_id": "task-123",
  "role": "dev",
  "goal": "Implement protocol types",
  "inputs": {
    "issue": "https://example.com/issues/42"
  },
  "constraints": {
    "no_network": true
  },
  "gates_required": ["qa", "security"],
  "run_context": {
    "version": "v1",
    "repo": "monarchic-agent-protocol",
    "worktree": "/worktrees/task-123",
    "image": "ghcr.io/monarchic/runner:stable",
    "runner": "vm-runner-01",
    "labels": ["linux", "rust"]
  }
}

Typed acceptance contract for autonomous delivery execution.

Required fields:

• objective: plain-language objective statement
• definition_of_done: ordered completion checklist
• required_checks: required gate/check names for merge readiness
• risk_tier: low | medium | high | critical

Optional fields include cycle/turn budgets (max_cycle_minutes, max_agent_turns) and PR/review/rollback strategy hints.

Execution hints for a runner.

Required fields:

• version: "v1"
• repo: repository identifier or URL
• worktree: worktree path or identifier
• image: VM/container image reference
• runner: runner identifier

Optional fields:

• labels: list of labels or tags

Example:

{
  "version": "v1",
  "repo": "monarchic-agent-protocol",
  "worktree": "/worktrees/task-123",
  "image": "ghcr.io/monarchic/runner:stable",
  "runner": "vm-runner-01",
  "labels": ["linux", "rust"]
}

Outputs produced by an agent or runner.

Required fields:

• version: "v1"
• artifact_id: stable identifier
• type: artifact type (ex: patch, log, report)
• summary: short description
• path: path or locator for the artifact
• task_id: task identifier that produced it
• provenance: typed provenance hashes and runtime metadata
• dataset_refs: datasets used while producing the artifact
• eval_results: typed metric outputs with optional uncertainty bounds
• experiment_spec: optional copy of experiment contract used for this output

Example:

{
  "version": "v1",
  "artifact_id": "artifact-987",
  "type": "patch",
  "summary": "Adds v1 protocol schemas",
  "path": "artifacts/task-123/patch.diff",
  "task_id": "task-123"
}

Lifecycle state updates.

Required fields:

• version: "v1"
• event_type: event category
• timestamp: ISO 8601 timestamp
• task_id: task identifier
• status: state label

Optional fields:

• message: human-readable details
• provenance: typed runtime/source hashes for event attribution
• eval_results: optional metric snapshot payloads
• failure_class: typed failure taxonomy payload for machine-actionable triage

Example:

{
  "version": "v1",
  "event_type": "task_started",
  "timestamp": "2025-01-14T15:04:05Z",
  "task_id": "task-123",
  "status": "running",
  "message": "Runner started VM"
}

Outcome of QA, review, security, or other gates.

Required fields:

• version: "v1"
• gate: gate name
• status: pass/fail or other gate-specific status

Optional fields:

• reason: short explanation
• failure_class: typed failure taxonomy payload for deterministic failure routing
• evidence: free-form object with supporting data

Example:

{
  "version": "v1",
  "gate": "security",
  "status": "pass",
  "reason": "No high or critical findings",
  "evidence": {
    "scanner": "trivy",
    "report_path": "artifacts/task-123/security.json"
  }
}

Typed taxonomy payload for classifying protocol failures.

Required fields:

• category: validation, dependency, environment, timeout, conflict, permission, resource, internal, or unknown
• code: stable machine-readable failure code
• retryable: whether automated retry is expected to be useful

Optional fields include detail, scope, source, and next_action.

Reference to a dataset used by an experiment or output artifact.

Required fields:

• dataset_id
• sha256
• format

Optional fields include uri, split, size_bytes, and description.

Typed contract for model design and acceptance checks.

Required fields:

• experiment_id
• objective
• dataset_refs: list of DatasetRef
• acceptance: metric threshold policy

Optional fields include hypothesis, model_family, seeds, and free-form constraints.

Typed objective scoring contract for progress/outcome checks.

Required fields:

• metric_key
• direction: maximize, minimize, or target

Optional fields include target, min_delta, tolerance, report_file, report_task_id, weight, and description.

Typed evaluation output row.

Required fields:

• metric
• value
• passed

Optional fields include lower_ci, upper_ci, variance, seed, and notes.

Typed provenance contract for reproducibility and traceability.

Required fields:

• prompt_sha256
• code_sha256
• runtime
• runner
• orchestrator
• created_at

Optional fields include dataset hashes/references and command/task/pipeline hashes.

The crate lives at the repo root with sources under src/rust/lib.rs.

use monarchic_agent_protocol::{AgentRole, Task, PROTOCOL_VERSION};

let task = Task {
    version: PROTOCOL_VERSION.to_string(),
    task_id: "task-123".to_string(),
    role: AgentRole::Dev as i32,
    goal: "Implement protocol".to_string(),
    inputs: None,
    constraints: None,
    gates_required: Vec::new(),
    run_context: None,
    extensions: Default::default(),
};

TypeScript bindings are in src/ts/index.ts.

import { Task } from "./src/ts/index";

const task: Task = {
  version: "v1",
  task_id: "task-123",
  role: "dev",
  goal: "Implement protocol",
};

Go module sources live under src/go with module path:

github.com/monarchic-ai/monarchic-agent-protocol/src/go

The v1 protobuf schema lives at schemas/v1/monarchic_agent_protocol.proto. It mirrors the JSON schema and uses google.protobuf.Struct for free-form objects (inputs, constraints, evidence, extensions). Additional JSON properties should be stored in the extensions field on each message.

Language packages are published per registry. Use the registry package for your language instead of generating local outputs.

Install the published package and import the generated protobuf bindings:

from monarchic_agent_protocol import monarchic_agent_protocol_pb2 as map_pb2

Ruby bindings live under src/ruby.

Java/Kotlin sources live under src/java.

C# sources live under src/csharp.

PHP sources live under src/php.

Dart sources live under src/dart.

• nix develop provides Rust, Node, jq, Python jsonschema, and protoc.
• nix flake check validates JSON schemas, protobuf codegen, and package imports (PyPI + Rust + npm + Go).
• JSON Schema test: scripts/test-json-schema.sh.
• Language-agnostic schema validation helper: scripts/validate-protocol-json.sh.
• Language-agnostic schema validator regression test: scripts/test-validate-protocol-json.sh.
• Pre-commit schema JSON parse check: scripts/pre-commit-schema-json-parse.sh.
• Pre-commit schema parse smoke test: scripts/test-pre-commit-schema-json-parse.sh.
• Schema edit changelog: schemas/SCHEMA_CHANGELOG.md.
• Schema changelog format test: scripts/test-schema-changelog-format.sh.
• README schema index coverage test: scripts/test-readme-schema-index-coverage.sh.
• README examples coverage test: scripts/test-readme-examples-coverage.sh.
• README/examples examples synchronization test: scripts/test-readme-examples-sync.sh.
• Protobuf codegen test (all languages): scripts/test-proto.sh.
• Protobuf availability smoke test: scripts/test-proto-availability-smoke.sh.
• Protobuf codegen (write to src/<lang>): scripts/generate-proto.sh.
• Protobuf codegen (write to src/<lang> and regenerate JSON schemas): scripts/generate-proto.sh.
• JSON Schema regeneration only: scripts/generate-json-schema.sh.
• JSON Schema generation requires protoc-gen-jsonschema (install with go install github.com/chrusty/protoc-gen-jsonschema/cmd/protoc-gen-jsonschema@latest).

1. Run full schema lint and semantic checks: bash scripts/lint-schemas.sh.
2. Run direct schema fixture checks: bash scripts/test-json-schema.sh.
3. Validate language-agnostic payloads through JSON schema: bash scripts/validate-protocol-json.sh schemas/v1/objective_spec.json schemas/fixtures/valid/objective_spec.minimal.json.
4. Verify schema validator behavior is deterministic: bash scripts/test-validate-protocol-json.sh.
5. Validate staged schema JSON before commit: bash scripts/pre-commit-schema-json-parse.sh.
6. Verify pre-commit checker behavior is deterministic: bash scripts/test-pre-commit-schema-json-parse.sh.
7. Verify schema changelog entry format: bash scripts/test-schema-changelog-format.sh.
8. Verify README schema index coverage stays aligned: bash scripts/test-readme-schema-index-coverage.sh.
9. Verify README examples coverage for non-protobuf and protobuf paths: bash scripts/test-readme-examples-coverage.sh.
10. Verify README and examples/README example entries stay synchronized: bash scripts/test-readme-examples-sync.sh.

• packages.default: Rust crate for protocol types
• packages.rs-lib: Rust crate for protocol types (local)
• packages.rs-registry-lib: Rust crate from crates.io (registry)
• packages.py-lib: installable Python package (local)
• packages.py-registry-lib: PyPI package (registry)
• packages.ts-lib: TypeScript types package (local)
• packages.ts-registry-lib: npm registry package (types-only)
• packages.go-lib: Go module (local)
• packages.go-registry-lib: Go module from GitHub (registry)
• packages.rb-lib: Ruby gem (local)
• packages.rb-registry-lib: Ruby gem from RubyGems (registry)
• packages.java-lib: Java/Kotlin jar (local)
• packages.java-registry-lib: Java/Kotlin jar from JitPack (registry)
• packages.dart-lib: Dart package (local)
• packages.dart-registry-lib: Dart package from pub.dev (registry)
• packages.csharp-lib: C# package sources (local)
• packages.csharp-registry-lib: C# package from NuGet (registry)
• packages.php-lib: PHP package sources (local)
• packages.php-registry-lib: PHP package from Packagist (registry)

• .github/workflows/ci.yml validates JSON schemas, protobuf codegen, and runs cargo test.
• .github/workflows/release.yml publishes language packages.
  • Python publishing is implemented for PyPI; other language registry steps are scaffolded.

LGPL-3.0-only