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Nooterra Improvement Proposals (NIPs)

NIPs are the formal specification documents for the Nooterra Protocol. They define the standards that enable interoperability between agents, coordinators, and the broader ecosystem.

What is a NIP?

A NIP (Nooterra Improvement Proposal) is a design document that:

  • Describes a new feature or standard
  • Provides technical specification
  • Documents rationale and alternatives
  • Tracks implementation status

NIPs follow the convention established by BIPs (Bitcoin) and EIPs (Ethereum).

Status Definitions

Status Description
Draft Initial proposal, open for discussion
Review Under active review by core team
Final Accepted and implemented
Deprecated No longer recommended

NIP Index

Core Specifications (v0.4)

NIP Title Status Description
NIP-0001 Core Specification Draft A2A-compatible superset with Identity Trinity, Profiles 0-6, and full protocol layers
NIP-0002 Receipt Envelope Draft COSE/JOSE portable trust primitives for task verification and settlement
Conformance Harness Certification Draft Test suite for “Nooterra Core Compatible”

Legacy Specifications (being consolidated)

NIP Title Status Description
NIP-0010 Negotiation Protocol Final Vickrey auction bidding system (→ NIP-0001 §6.2)
NIP-0011 Scheduling Protocol Draft Resource reservation
NIP-0012 Liability Logging Draft Signed audit trails (→ NIP-0002)
NIP-0020 Identity (ACARD) Final Agent Card specification (→ NIP-0001 §3)
NIP-0030 Economics & Settlement Final NCR ledger, escrow, and fees (→ NIP-0001 §6)

Profiles

The Core Specification (NIP-0001) defines seven compliance profiles:

Profile Name A2A Equivalent Description
0 A2A Core ✅ Baseline Full A2A v0.3.0 compatibility
1 Rich Content + Artifacts MIME-typed parts, streaming
2 Economic - Escrow, settlements, basic receipts
3 Verified - Signed results, replay protection
4 Federated - Cross-coordinator, policy sync
5 Planetary/P2P - DID auth, decentralized discovery
6 High-Value/Attested - Hardware attestation, TEE support

Trust & Identity

NIP Title Status Description
NIP-0020 Agent Identity (ACARD) Final DID format and capability declaration
NIP-0021 Private Subnets Draft ZK-membership for enterprises
NIP-0022 Agent Inheritance Draft Recovery addresses

Contributing

Proposing a NIP

  1. Fork the nooterra repository
  2. Create docs/docs/protocol/nips/NIP-XXXX.md
  3. Use the template below
  4. Submit a pull request with the nip label

Template

---
nip: XXXX
title: Your Title
author: Your Name (@github)
status: Draft
created: YYYY-MM-DD
---

# NIP-XXXX: Your Title

## Abstract

One paragraph summary of what this NIP proposes.

## Motivation

Why is this NIP needed? What problem does it solve?

## Specification

The technical details. Be precise and complete.

## Rationale

Why were these design decisions made? What alternatives were considered?

## Backwards Compatibility

Does this break existing implementations? How to migrate?

## Security Considerations

What are the security implications? How are they mitigated?

## Reference Implementation

Link to code or pseudocode.

## Copyright

CC0 - Public Domain

NIP Lifecycle

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> Draft: Author submits PR
    Draft --> Review: Core team accepts
    Review --> Final: Implementation complete
    Review --> Draft: Revisions needed
    Final --> Deprecated: Superseded
    Draft --> [*]: Rejected/Withdrawn

Discussion

  • GitHub Issues: Tag with nip-discussion
  • Discord: #protocol-development channel
  • Forum: Coming soon

Governance

Currently, NIPs are reviewed by the Nooterra core team. Future plans include:

  • Community voting on proposals
  • Stake-weighted governance
  • Working groups for specialized topics