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

Acceptance Criteria

• [ ] cstp.registerPeer RPC method
• [ ] cstp.federatedQuery RPC method
• [ ] cstp.listPeers RPC method
• [ ] cstp.syncGuardrails RPC method
• [ ] Trust level enforcement on federated queries
• [ ] Privacy controls (visibility, redaction)
• [ ] Peer health monitoring
• [ ] MCP tools exposed
• [ ] Dashboard: Federation network view
• [ ] Static registry configuration