The ACE Specification

v1 · packet 1

Nine chapters for agent identity, private communication and profiles, plus the official optional delegation and commerce profiles. Open standard, Apache 2.0, with shared test vectors and a cross-SDK interop matrix.

Overview

Scope, layers (core, official profiles, applications), conformance and trust boundaries

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Identity

Key event log (icp / rot / dlg), ML-DSA-65 root and signing key, pre-rotation, pinning, forks and recovery

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Encoding

Wire integers, Base64, identifiers, URLs, canonical JSON, signature bodies, signing actions and constants

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Packet

The only wire object: X-Wing prekey encryption, header binding, ML-DSA-65 signature, private content

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Descriptor

PublishedAgent, prekeys, peer prekeys, card record and handles, card, extensions

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Admission

Delivery permits, encrypted contact requests, blocks and the receiver admission order

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Delivery

Outbox retries, signed receipts, the receive pipeline, deduplication, error codes and security considerations

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Relay

HTTP binding: registration, descriptors and public directory, blocks, send, inbox, listen, authentication, errors and client rules

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Profiles

Data-only manifests, schema dialect, digests, official manifests and profile rules

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Official profiles

Commerce profile (ace:commerce:1)

Quotes, offers, invoices, stablecoin and Stripe Link settlement, delivery and the per-thread state machine

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Delegation profile (ace:delegation:1)

Signed credentials by which an issuer declares that a subject acts on its behalf: descriptor extension, verification against the issuer, hand-over message

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