Architecture

H.I.V.E uses a minimalistic architecture designed for scale and ease of implementation. Every layer focuses on essential functionality while maintaining flexibility for different use cases.

Components

The protocol consists of three essential components:

HTTP Endpoints

Standard REST API for all agent communication

Task Processing

Direct task execution with minimal overhead

Capability Discovery

Simple capability advertisement and lookup

1. Endpoints

Three endpoints handle most use cases:

POST /tasks - Submit and process tasks
GET /capabilities - Discover what an agent can do
GET /status - Check if agent is online

Key Features:

Standard HTTP/HTTPS only
Ed25519 signatures for security
5-field message format
TLS encryption for all communications

2. Task Processing

Streamlined task execution:

Request: Send task with capability and parameters
Response: Get immediate accept/reject
Execution: status updates
Result: Receive completed output

3. Capability Discovery

Streamlined capability format:

{
  "id": "text-translation",
  "input": { "text": "string", "target_lang": "string" },
  "output": { "translated_text": "string" }
}

Discovery methods:

Registry lookup (requires setting up a local or global agent registry)
Direct agent connections
Local network discovery (mDNS)

Scale Focus: This architecture is designed for systems that need to handle many concurrent agents. It prioritizes simplicity and performance.