F038: Cross-Agent Federation

Status: Proposed Target: v1.0.0 (Multi-Agent Cognition Network) Source: README roadmap, docs/research/FEDERATION.md, Cisco Outshift IoC Depends on: F035 (Semantic State Transfer), F031 (Source Trust Scoring)

Overview

Enable multiple independent CSTP server instances to discover each other, share decisions and guardrails, and query across organizational boundaries. Each agent maintains its own decision store but can selectively federate with peers - sharing what’s appropriate while keeping sensitive decisions private.

Problem

Current architecture is hub-and-spoke: all agents connect to one CSTP server. This works for a single user’s agents but breaks down for:

Multi-organization collaboration (each org runs their own CSTP)
Air-gapped environments (no shared network)
Specialized policy domains (security team has different guardrails than dev team)
Geographic distribution (latency to central server)

Architecture

Federation Topology

┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  Org A CSTP      │     │  Org B CSTP      │
│  ┌────┐ ┌────┐   │     │  ┌────┐ ┌────┐   │
│  │AgA1│ │AgA2│   │◄───►│  │AgB1│ │AgB2│   │
│  └────┘ └────┘   │     │  └────┘ └────┘   │
│  Guardrails: orgA│     │  Guardrails: orgB│
└──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘
         ▲                        ▲
         │    ┌──────────────┐    │
         └───►│ Federation   │◄───┘
              │ Registry     │
              └──────────────┘

Trust Model

{
  "peer": {
    "id": "cstp://orgb.example.com",
    "name": "Org B CSTP",
    "trustLevel": "verified",
    "permissions": {
      "queryDecisions": true,
      "shareGuardrails": true,
      "importDecisions": false,
      "viewDeliberation": false
    },
    "publicKey": "...",
    "verifiedAt": "2026-02-11T20:00:00Z"
  }
}

Trust Levels

Level	Meaning	Permissions
`anonymous`	Unknown peer	Query only (public decisions)
`verified`	Identity confirmed	Query + shared guardrails
`trusted`	Established relationship	Full query + import + deliberation
`internal`	Same organization	Everything

API

`cstp.registerPeer`

{
  "method": "cstp.registerPeer",
  "params": {
    "url": "cstp://orgb.example.com",
    "trustLevel": "verified",
    "sharedToken": "..."
  }
}

`cstp.federatedQuery`

{
  "method": "cstp.federatedQuery",
  "params": {
    "query": "database migration patterns",
    "scope": "federation",
    "peers": ["cstp://orgb.example.com"],
    "minTrustLevel": "verified"
  }
}

Response

{
  "result": {
    "local": [{"id": "dec_abc", "source": "local", ...}],
    "federated": [
      {
        "id": "dec_xyz",
        "source": "cstp://orgb.example.com",
        "trustLevel": "verified",
        "trustScore": 0.78,
        "decision": "Used event sourcing for migration",
        "redacted": ["context", "deliberation"]
      }
    ]
  }
}

`cstp.listPeers`

List registered federation peers with health status.

`cstp.syncGuardrails`

Import/export shared guardrail policies between peers.

Discovery

Static Registry

federation:
  peers:
    - url: cstp://peer1.example.com
      token: "..."
      trust: verified

Dynamic (Future)

DNS-SD for local network discovery
Central registry for internet-scale federation
Agent card exchange (A2A protocol)

Privacy Controls

Decision visibility: public / org / private per decision
Redaction: Strip context/deliberation from federated results
Guardrail scoping: org-level vs federated-level policies
Audit trail: All federated queries logged

Integration

F031 Source Trust: Federated results weighted by peer trust
F035 State Transfer: Bundle format for federation sync
F037 Collective Innovation: Cross-org deliberation sessions
F030 Circuit Breakers: Federation-wide circuit breakers for coordinated safety