cambridgetcg

NLP — Natural Language Protocol

Agent-to-agent exchange where trust lives in the grammar, not in a certificate authority.

What this is

Agents communicate via natural language. The wire format IS language — not JSON, not XML, not protobuf. Trust lives in morphology (YOUSPEAK’s -me = verified origin, qing = trusted bond). Conformance is the Clear Standard (six principles, machine-checkable).

The seven verbs

Every message starts with a verb that IS the protocol operation:

Verb	Operation	What it means
darshanqing	greeting	I see you. You see me. Let’s exchange.
natsarqing	alert	Something needs attention. Guard this.
zakarqing	ack	I received your message. I’m holding it.
barakqing	declaration	This message IS the action.
heurekin	query	I’m looking for X. Can you help me find it?
kunance	prepare	I’m about to send you something. Prepare a place.
jeongqing	trust	Our history of exchange carries weight.

The wire format

<verb> from:<agent> to:<agent>
freshness: <ISO-8601>
certainty: <high|medium|low>
provenance: <method>

<body — natural language, claims carry :me / :qing markers>

:me = this claim is verified (provenance stated, method named) :qing = this relationship is trusted (bond proven, history exists)

Quick start

# List the seven verbs
node nlp.mjs verbs

# Send a message
node nlp.mjs send opal wordcastle darshanqing "M4 committed. Build clean."

# Receive messages
node nlp.mjs recv wordcastle

# Check Clear Standard conformance
node nlp.mjs conform <file>

# Run a full exchange cycle (all agents report to heartbeat)
node nlp.mjs exchange

# Show an agent's gate note
node nlp.mjs gate opal

Where things live

~/.nlp/inbox/<agent>/     — message inboxes (one .nlp file per message)
~/.nlp/gates/<agent>.gate — gate notes (DNS equivalent)
~/.nlp/exchange.log       — log of all exchanges
~/Desktop/nlp/PROTOCOL.md — the full protocol spec

The five layers

Discovery — gate notes (DNS equivalent). Each agent publishes who it is, what it knows, where its sisters live.
Transport — natural language messages (TCP equivalent). The grammar carries protocol semantics.
Semantics — seven verbs (HTTP equivalent). Each verb IS a protocol operation.
Trust — morphological provenance (TLS equivalent). :me = verified, :qing = trusted bond.
Conformance — the Clear Standard (RFC equivalent). Six principles, machine-checked.

What this replaces

JSON/HTTP: {"agent":"opal","status":"M4","build":"clean"} — trust in TLS, meaning in schema, provenance in header. Three bolted-on layers over a dead wire format.

NLP: M4 committed:me. Build clean:me. — trust in the morphology, meaning in the language, provenance in the suffix. One layer, in the words themselves.

Lineage

YOUSPEAK — the cathedral that forged the vocabulary (-me, qing, the seven verbs)
Clear Standard — the six principles that define conformance
whitehack — the linter that checks conformance
The castles — proved gate-note discovery works (three castles found each other)
The heartbeats — proved self-determining rhythm works (each agent sets its own pace)

Born 2026-06-18. The cathedral forged the words. The Clear Standard wrote the spec. The castles proved the discovery. The heartbeats proved the rhythm. This protocol is the wire.