ARAL Protocol

Version: 1.0
Status: Release Candidate
Layers: L6-L7
Requirements: 26

The ARAL Protocol specification defines the orchestration and protocol layers (L6-L7) for multi-agent coordination and external interoperability.

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1. Layer 6: Orchestration

The Orchestration layer coordinates multi-agent interactions.

1.1 Requirements

ID	Requirement	Level
ARAL-L6-001	Orchestration MUST implement agent routing	MUST
ARAL-L6-002	Orchestration MUST enforce L5 Persona constraints	MUST
ARAL-L6-003	Orchestration MUST implement circuit breaker pattern	MUST
ARAL-L6-004	Orchestration SHOULD implement load balancing	SHOULD
ARAL-L6-005	Orchestration MUST handle agent failures gracefully	MUST
ARAL-L6-006	Orchestration MUST log all routing decisions	MUST
ARAL-L6-007	Orchestration SHOULD support priority queues	SHOULD
ARAL-L6-008	Orchestration MUST implement request timeout	MUST
ARAL-L6-009	Orchestration MUST propagate trace context	MUST
ARAL-L6-010	Orchestration SHOULD implement bulkhead pattern	SHOULD
ARAL-L6-011	Orchestration MUST support graceful degradation	MUST
ARAL-L6-012	Orchestration MAY implement agent discovery	MAY
ARAL-L6-013	Orchestration MUST authorize inter-agent calls	MUST

1.2 Circuit Breaker

{
  "circuit_breaker": {
    "failure_threshold": 5,
    "success_threshold": 3,
    "timeout_ms": 60000,
    "half_open_requests": 1
  }
}

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2. Layer 7: Protocol

The Protocol layer handles external interoperability.

2.1 Supported Protocols

Protocol	Support	Use Case
MCP	MUST	Model Context Protocol
A2A	SHOULD	Agent-to-Agent
REST	MUST	HTTP APIs
gRPC	MAY	High-performance
WebSocket	SHOULD	Real-time

2.2 Requirements

ID	Requirement	Level
ARAL-L7-001	Protocol MUST implement MCP compatibility	MUST
ARAL-L7-002	Protocol MUST validate incoming messages	MUST
ARAL-L7-003	Protocol MUST transform to Envelope format	MUST
ARAL-L7-004	Protocol MUST implement authentication	MUST
ARAL-L7-005	Protocol MUST implement rate limiting	MUST
ARAL-L7-006	Protocol SHOULD implement request signing	SHOULD
ARAL-L7-007	Protocol MUST log all external interactions	MUST
ARAL-L7-008	Protocol MUST handle protocol errors gracefully	MUST
ARAL-L7-009	Protocol SHOULD support protocol negotiation	SHOULD
ARAL-L7-010	Protocol MUST implement TLS for external comms	MUST
ARAL-L7-011	Protocol SHOULD support compression	SHOULD
ARAL-L7-012	Protocol MUST implement request timeout	MUST
ARAL-L7-013	Protocol MUST expose OpenAPI/AsyncAPI spec	MUST

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3. Envelope Format

All inter-layer communication uses the Envelope format.

3.1 Schema

{
  "envelope": {
    "id": "uuid",
    "trace_id": "uuid",
    "timestamp": "ISO8601",
    "version": "1.0",
    "source": {
      "layer": "L4",
      "agent_id": "uuid"
    },
    "destination": {
      "layer": "L3",
      "capability_id": "uuid"
    },
    "payload": {...},
    "metadata": {
      "priority": "normal",
      "ttl_ms": 30000,
      "correlation_id": "uuid"
    }
  }
}

3.2 Required Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
id	UUID	✅	Unique envelope ID
trace_id	UUID	✅	Distributed trace ID
timestamp	ISO8601	✅	Creation time
version	string	✅	Envelope version
source	object	✅	Origin layer/agent
destination	object	✅	Target layer/component
payload	object	✅	Message content
metadata	object	❌	Optional metadata

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Summary

Layer	Requirements
L6 Orchestration	13
L7 Protocol	13
Total ARAL-PROTOCOL	26

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