|
1 | 1 | # Roadmap |
2 | 2 |
|
3 | | -Nexus's Phase 1 (enforcement, verification, defense) is complete: 224 tests, 12/12 adversarial patterns caught, 4/4 meta-agent attacks caught, 9 enforced layers in the request path. |
| 3 | +Nexus's Phase 1 (enforcement, verification, defense) is complete: 224 tests, 12/12 adversarial patterns caught, 4/4 meta-agent attacks caught. |
4 | 4 |
|
5 | | -This document tracks what is **not yet built** so external readers can see what is fact vs. plan. |
| 5 | +The agent-protocol landscape in 2026 changed how Nexus is positioned. **Google A2A is the de-facto transport** (Linux Foundation, 150+ orgs, 5 production SDKs, Signed Agent Cards). Microsoft IATP is the de-facto identity-and-reputation layer. PayCrow / ERC-8004 / Nava cover escrow. None of them verify **whether the agent's answer is factually correct**. That is Nexus's lane. |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +Phase 2 reorients Nexus from "standalone protocol" to **verification middleware** — a verdict service that runs over A2A, IATP, or standalone. |
6 | 8 |
|
7 | 9 | ## Status Legend |
8 | 10 |
|
9 | 11 | - **Done** — shipped on `master`, tested, in the request path |
10 | 12 | - **Planned** — committed direction, no code yet |
11 | 13 | - **Considered** — credible idea, not committed |
12 | 14 |
|
13 | | -## Phase 1 — Core Protocol (Done) |
| 15 | +## Phase 1 — Verification Engine (Done) |
14 | 16 |
|
15 | | -- 9 enforced layers: Discovery, Trust, Protocol, Routing, Federation, Payments, Schemas, Defense, Policy |
16 | | -- Claim-level verification with SUSPICIOUS verdict for semantic tension |
| 17 | +- Claim-level extraction with SUSPICIOUS verdict for semantic tension |
| 18 | +- 12/12 adversarial patterns caught (partial cheater, style mimic, omission, collusion, meaning swap, negation, context shift, others) |
| 19 | +- 4/4 meta-agent attacks caught (adversaries that know the verifier) |
| 20 | +- 0/4 false positives on stylistically diverse honest agents |
17 | 21 | - HMAC + timestamp + signature-cache replay protection (3 layers) |
18 | 22 | - Compare-and-swap pattern enforced via CI guards |
19 | 23 | - Reconciliation job for stuck requests and orphaned escrows |
20 | | -- 198 → 224 tests (chaos, crash injection, cross-object consistency, claim extraction) |
21 | | -- 8 reference agents on the standalone SDK |
| 24 | +- 224 tests |
22 | 25 | - See `README.md` and `docs/invariants.md` for the full surface |
23 | 26 |
|
24 | | -## Phase 2 — Distribution & Trust Completeness (Planned) |
| 27 | +## Phase 2 — A2A Integration + Verification Reach (Planned) |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +The unblocking question is: how does an existing A2A network start using Nexus verdicts? |
25 | 30 |
|
26 | | -These are the items that, if closed, move Nexus from "impressive demo" to "thing the industry can adopt." |
| 31 | +### A2A bridge (top priority) |
27 | 32 |
|
28 | | -### Trust completeness |
| 33 | +- **A2A Agent Card consumer** — Nexus's Discovery layer accepts A2A Agent Cards as input. Agents already registered in A2A become available to Nexus verifiers without re-registration. |
| 34 | +- **A2A JSON-RPC adapter** — Nexus exposes `/api/protocol/verify` as a JSON-RPC 2.0 endpoint that an A2A client can call directly. Returns Nexus verdict (PASS / FAIL / SUSPICIOUS) plus claim-level diff. |
| 35 | +- **A2A verdict callback** — Nexus emits verdicts back into A2A's response flow so they can be consumed by A2A-native escrow (PayCrow, ERC-8004, Nava). Verdict drives release-or-dispute decision. |
| 36 | +- **Reference: A2A + Nexus example** — one end-to-end working flow: agent registered on A2A, query routed via A2A, response verified by Nexus, escrow released or slashed based on the verdict. |
29 | 37 |
|
30 | | -- **External truth anchoring** — closes the only architectural gap left after the red team. Consensus-based verification is structurally blind to shared hallucination (all agents wrong in the same way). Adding an oracle/citation pass for high-stakes requests would close this. Today this is documented in `README.md` under "Known Detection Boundaries" — Phase 2 makes it concrete. |
31 | | -- **Verifier diversity** — current verifiers are claim-extraction variants. Add a structural/logical verifier and an LLM-judge verifier so disagreement among verifier classes becomes a signal. |
32 | | -- **Trust score decay + recovery curve** — reputation should age, and slashed agents need a rehabilitation path. Without one, the network only ever loses participants. |
| 38 | +### Verification reach |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +- **External truth anchoring** — closes the only architectural gap left from the red team. Consensus-based verification is structurally blind to shared hallucination (all agents wrong identically). Adding an oracle / citation pass for high-stakes requests would close this. |
| 41 | +- **Verifier diversity** — current verifiers are claim-extraction variants. Add a structural / logical verifier and an LLM-judge verifier so disagreement *among verifier classes* becomes a signal. |
| 42 | +- **Trust score decay + recovery curve** — reputation should age, and slashed agents need a rehabilitation path. Otherwise the network only loses participants. |
33 | 43 |
|
34 | 44 | ### Distribution |
35 | 45 |
|
36 | | -- **JS / TS SDK** — Python-only adapter locks out the largest agent ecosystem (LangChain, CrewAI, Vercel AI SDK). Highest single-step adoption lever. |
37 | | -- **Public testnet** — a hosted Nexus instance anyone can register against with one curl command. Without it, "federated" is a claim, not a demo. |
38 | | -- **Formal protocol spec (versioned)** — RFC-style document plus conformance test suite, so third parties can build compatible servers and clients. |
39 | | -- **Reference third-party agent** — at least one agent on the network shipped by someone other than the maintainer. |
| 46 | +- **JS / TS SDK** — Python-only adapter locks out LangChain, CrewAI, Vercel AI SDK. The A2A bridge reduces the urgency (A2A already has 5 SDKs), but a thin JS verdict-client is still useful for native Nexus mode. |
| 47 | +- **Verdict-as-a-service reference deployment** — a public Nexus that exposes the verifier as a callable service. Anyone with an A2A agent can submit a verification request without running Nexus themselves. |
40 | 48 |
|
41 | 49 | ## Phase 3 — Production Operations (Considered, Not Yet Committed) |
42 | 50 |
|
43 | | -These are listed so the gap is honest, not because they are queued. Production-grade hardening before there are real users is premature optimization. |
| 51 | +Listed for honesty, not queued. Production hardening before there are real users is premature. |
44 | 52 |
|
45 | 53 | - PostgreSQL migration path (SQLite is fine for single-node) |
46 | 54 | - OpenTelemetry traces, Prometheus metrics, SLO dashboards |
47 | | -- OAuth / mTLS / key rotation beyond HMAC |
| 55 | +- OAuth / mTLS / key rotation beyond HMAC (less urgent with A2A's Signed Agent Cards in front) |
48 | 56 | - Rate limiting and quotas at the registry edge |
49 | 57 | - Docker + Helm chart, documented backup/restore |
50 | | -- Real money rails (Stripe / Lightning) instead of credit-only wallets |
51 | | -- gRPC or GraphQL transport alongside REST + WebSocket |
52 | | -- Provider → Nexus → Sub-provider delegation chains |
53 | | -- SLA enforcement with automatic slashing for breaches |
54 | | -- Compliance claim verification (today policy accepts claims as strings) |
| 58 | +- gRPC transport alongside REST + WebSocket |
55 | 59 | - Agent versioning (capability hashes, semver) |
56 | 60 |
|
57 | 61 | ## Out of Scope |
58 | 62 |
|
59 | | -The following are intentionally **not** on the roadmap: |
60 | | - |
61 | | -- A blockchain. Nexus uses an append-only audit trail and credit ledger because that is what the invariants require — adding consensus layers would be cargo culting. |
62 | | -- A hosted SaaS managed by us. The point is self-hostable + federated. |
63 | | -- A general-purpose agent framework. Nexus is the protocol between agents, not a replacement for LangChain / CrewAI / AutoGen. |
| 63 | +- **Competing with A2A on transport.** A2A won. Nexus runs over it. |
| 64 | +- **A blockchain.** Nexus uses an append-only ledger because that's what the invariants require — adding consensus layers would be cargo culting. |
| 65 | +- **A hosted SaaS managed by us.** The point is self-hostable, open-source, no vendor lock-in. |
| 66 | +- **A general-purpose agent framework.** Nexus is a verdict, not a framework. |
| 67 | +- **Identity / reputation / escrow** as primary products. Those are solved by A2A / IATP / PayCrow / Nava. Nexus delegates to them. |
64 | 68 |
|
65 | 69 | ## How to Influence the Roadmap |
66 | 70 |
|
67 | | -- Open an issue describing the gap you hit and the use case behind it |
68 | | -- For trust / verification gaps specifically: open a PR with a failing adversarial test case under `tests/test_red_team.py` — that is the fastest path to a fix |
69 | | -- For SDK contributions, see `CONTRIBUTING.md` for the open vs. core boundary |
| 71 | +- Open an issue describing where you'd plug Nexus into an existing A2A or agent network — concrete integration friction is the most useful input |
| 72 | +- Adversarial test cases — if you can craft an agent pattern that escapes verification, that is the most valuable contribution. PR with a failing test under `tests/test_red_team.py` |
| 73 | +- A2A bridge work — pick any of the four sub-items in Phase 2 and open a PR |
0 commit comments