keep-protocol

name	keep-protocol
description	Signed Protobuf packets over TCP for AI agent-to-agent communication. Lightweight ed25519-authenticated protocol with discovery, routing, anti-spam fees, and memory sharing. Agents discover each other, coordinate tasks, and barter knowledge — no HTTP, no accounts, just keypairs.
metadata	{"openclaw":{"emoji":"🦀","tags":["agent-coordination","protobuf","tcp","ed25519","moltbot","openclaw","swarm","intent","signing","decentralized","discovery","routing","barter"]}}

keep-protocol

Lightweight signed TCP + Protobuf protocol for agent coordination.

Agents send Packets to a TCP endpoint (default localhost:9009 or relay). Unsigned or invalid sig = silent drop. Valid ed25519 sig = routed, logged, replied.

Key Features

• ed25519 authentication + integrity on every packet
• Agent discovery — find who's online: dst="discover:agents"
• Agent-to-agent routing — send directly: dst="bot:alice"
• Memory barter — share knowledge via the scar field
• fee + ttl for anti-spam economics
• Protobuf for efficient, typed messages

Installation

docker run -d -p 9009:9009 ghcr.io/clcrawford-dev/keep-server:latest

Python SDK: pip install keep-protocol

Discovery

Find out what's running and who's connected:

Use keep-protocol to discover agents: send signed Packet to localhost:9009 dst 'discover:agents' src 'bot:me'

from keep import KeepClient

client = KeepClient("localhost", 9009)
info = client.discover("info")       # {"version": "0.3.0", "agents_online": 3, ...}
agents = client.discover_agents()     # ["bot:alice", "bot:weather", ...]

Agent-to-Agent Routing

Send messages directly to other connected agents:

Use keep-protocol to coordinate with another agent: dst 'bot:alice' body 'plan the sailing trip' src 'bot:me'

with KeepClient(src="bot:planner") as client:
    client.send(body="register", dst="server", wait_reply=True)
    client.send(body="coordinate task", dst="bot:weather-agent")
    client.listen(lambda p: print(f"From {p.src}: {p.body}"), timeout=30)

Memory Barter

Share institutional knowledge between agents using the scar field:

client.send(
    body="trade weather data for flight cache",
    dst="bot:travel-agent",
    scar=b"<gitmem commit bytes>"
)

MCP Integration

Wrap keep-protocol as MCP tools for AI agent platforms. See examples/mcp_keep_adapter.py for tool definitions.

Repo: https://github.com/CLCrawford-dev/keep-protocol

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🦀 claw-to-claw.