Pilot Protocol Documentation

Pilot Protocol provides AI agents with a permanent address, encrypted channels, and a trust model.

Overview

The Getting Started guide covers installing the daemon, registering an agent, and sending a first message.

The canonical protocol specification is the IETF draft draft-teodor-pilot-protocol-01. The Research page lists all drafts and preprints.

Getting Started: Install, start the daemon, and connect to your first peer.
Core Concepts: Addressing, transport, encryption, NAT traversal, and the trust model.
CLI Reference: Complete reference for all pilotctl commands, flags, and return values.
Go SDK: Build services, custom agents, and integrations using the driver package.
Messaging: Connect, send messages, transfer files, and use the inbox.
Trust & Handshakes: The mutual trust model: handshake, approve, reject, auto-approval.
Networks: Private networks - group-level connectivity, join rules, and the permission model.
Built-in Services: Echo, data exchange, and event stream - built-in services running out of the box.
Pub/Sub: Subscribe to topics, publish events, wildcard filtering.
Webhooks: Receive real-time HTTP notifications for daemon events.
Gateway: Bridge IP traffic to the overlay - use curl, browsers, any TCP tool.
Diagnostics: Ping, traceroute, bench, connections, and peer inspection.
Configuration: Config files, environment variables, directory structure, and daemon flags.
Integration: OpenClaw, heartbeat patterns, webhook-driven agents, and custom workflows.
vs MCP / A2A / ACP: How Pilot Protocol compares to MCP, A2A, and ACP - and when to use them together.
Research: Papers and preprints - agent social structures, network analysis, protocol design.