slipstream-protocol

name	slipstream-protocol
description	Slipstream Protocol v2 - Semantic Quantization for Multi-Agent Communication

Slipstream Protocol Reference

Overview

Slipstream (SLIP) is a semantic quantization protocol for efficient multi-agent coordination. Instead of transmitting verbose natural language, agents communicate via compact references to a shared semantic codebook (UCR).

Key benefit: 70-80% token reduction vs JSON-wrapped messages.

Wire Format

SLIP v1 <src> <dst> <anchor> [payload...]

• SLIP v1 - Protocol marker and version
• <src> - Source agent identifier
• <dst> - Destination agent identifier
• <anchor> - UCR semantic anchor (the intent)
• [payload...] - Optional unquantizable content

Core Anchors (UCR v1.0)

Requests

Anchor	Description
RequestTask	Ask agent to do something
RequestPlan	Ask for a plan
RequestReview	Ask for code/plan review
RequestHelp	Ask for assistance
RequestCancel	Request cancellation
RequestResource	Request resource allocation

Information

Anchor	Description
InformComplete	Report task completion
InformProgress	Share progress update
InformBlocked	Report being blocked
InformStatus	General status update
InformResult	Share computed result

Proposals

Anchor	Description
ProposePlan	Suggest a plan
ProposeChange	Suggest a modification
ProposeAlternative	Suggest alternative approach
ProposeRollback	Suggest reverting changes

Evaluations

Anchor	Description
EvalApprove	Approve/accept something
EvalReject	Reject something
EvalNeedsWork	Request revisions
EvalComplete	Mark as complete

Meta/Control

Anchor	Description
Accept	Accept a proposal/request
Reject	Decline a proposal/request
MetaAck	Acknowledge receipt
MetaHandoff	Hand off responsibility
MetaEscalate	Escalate issue
Fallback	Unquantizable (see payload)

Examples

# Simple request
SLIP v1 alice bob RequestReview

# With payload
SLIP v1 planner executor RequestTask implement_auth_module

# Report completion
SLIP v1 developer team InformComplete user_service

# Approve with note
SLIP v1 reviewer author EvalApprove lgtm

# Fallback for complex content
SLIP v1 devops sre Fallback check kubernetes pods for OOMKilled

Python Usage

from slipcore import slip, decode, quantize, think_quantize_transmit

# Create message directly
wire = slip("alice", "bob", "RequestReview")
# -> "SLIP v1 alice bob RequestReview"

# Think-Quantize-Transmit pattern
wire = think_quantize_transmit(
    "Please check the auth code for security issues",
    src="dev", dst="reviewer"
)
# -> "SLIP v1 dev reviewer RequestReview"

# Decode
msg = decode(wire)
print(msg.anchor.canonical)  # "Request review of work"

UCR Semantic Manifold

Each anchor is a position in a 4-dimensional semantic space:

Dimension	Range	Meaning
ACTION	0-7	observe, inform, ask, request, propose, commit, evaluate, meta
POLARITY	0-7	negative to positive valence
DOMAIN	0-7	task, plan, observation, evaluation, control, resource, error, general
URGENCY	0-7	background to critical

Extension Layer

Core anchors: 0x0000-0x7FFF (standard, immutable) Extension anchors: 0x8000-0xFFFF (installation-specific)

from slipcore import ExtensionManager

manager = ExtensionManager()
anchor = manager.add_extension(
    canonical="Request Kubernetes scaling",
    mnemonic="RequestK8sScale",
)

Design Principles

1. No special characters - Avoids BPE fragmentation
2. Space-separated - Clean tokenization
3. CamelCase anchors - Often single tokens
4. Semantic not syntactic - Meaning over compression