N-PAMP™
Native Post-Quantum Agent Messaging Protocol
N-PAMP™ is a binary, multi-channel, wire-level protocol for authenticated communication between autonomous software agents. It operates beneath application-layer agent protocols and provides a single fixed-size frame format, a registry of multiplexed channels, and three escalating security profiles (Standard, High, and Sovereign) built on standard post-quantum and classical cryptography.
This repository is the public home of the N-PAMP™ specification: the Internet-Draft, the IANA registration requests, and supporting material.
Draft Status & ALPN
The specification draft is prepared for independent posting and active review. Once posted, it is accessible via the official IETF Datatracker.
| Item | State |
|---|---|
| Specification | draft-bubblefish-npamp-00 (Internet-Draft, Independent Submission stream, Informational) |
| Wire major version | 2 (ALPN identifier n-pamp/2) |
| IETF Datatracker | Prepared for posting |
| ALPN n-pamp/2 | Registration requested from IANA (Expert Review, RFC 7301) |
| npamp URI scheme | Provisional registration requested from IANA (First Come First Served, RFC 7595) |
What N-PAMP™ Provides.
N-PAMP™ is designed explicitly as a low-level wire-format substrate. Rather than defining agent task semantics, it ensures secure, performant message delivery.
- Fixed 36-octet frame header with mandatory AEAD and CRC32C
- 20 multiplexed full-duplex channels (Control, Memory, Compliance, Settlement, etc.)
- Three security profiles: Standard, High, and Sovereign
- Hybrid PQC key establishment: X25519 combined with ML-KEM (FIPS 203)
- QUIC transport primary, TCP with TLS 1.3 fallback
Channel Registry
Twenty independent channels isolate operations (e.g., separating Memory, Governance, Immune, and Settlement). Each channel operates full-duplex with its own per-direction sequence space and traffic keys, limiting attack blast radiuses.
Reading & Rendering the Spec.
The normative specification is the Internet-Draft source file draft-bubblefish-npamp-00.md (kramdown-rfc format). You can render it locally using IETF author tools or submit it to the hosted renderer.
IANA Registrations
Registration templates are provided in IANA_ALPN_n-pamp-2_registration_request.md for the ALPN protocol identifier n-pamp/2 and the provisional npamp URI scheme.
$ gem install kramdown-rfc
$ pip install xml2rfc
# Compile Markdown to XML and Text/HTML
$ kramdown-rfc draft-bubblefish-npamp-00.md > draft-bubblefish-npamp-00.xml
$ xml2rfc draft-bubblefish-npamp-00.xml --text --html
Versioning.
Wire version: The digit in the ALPN label n-pamp/2 corresponds directly to the value 0x02 carried in the Ver field of the frame header. Any change triggers a wire-incompatible major version and a new ALPN identifier.
Draft revision: The -NN counter at the end of the draft name increments with each publication revision, fully independent of wire major versions.
License.
The codebase and original content are licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
The Internet-Draft and resulting RFCs are subject to the IETF Trust Legal Provisions (BCP 78); see the IPR notice (ipr: trust200902) in the draft front matter.