Interconnect
Connective substrate for authoritative rooms.
Status: Idea ○
Protocol design is conceptually mature with documentation (security model, import policies, architecture). Early implementation of interconnect-core with Authority trait and wire protocol types. Next priority: generalize types beyond game-specific domain, add transport abstraction, build process-as-room spike.
Interconnect is the protocol layer that lets clients connect to authorities. A room is anything with an owner that accepts connections: a game world, a social feed, a running process, an autonomous agent. The protocol defines what a connection is — intents in, snapshots out, authority semantics, explicit boundaries. Transport-agnostic: WebSocket, Unix socket, Discord bot, HTTP.
Key features
- Authority over consensus — Single owner per room, no state merging
- Intent-based protocol — Clients send intent, authorities compute results
- Two-layer architecture — Replicated substrate (static), authoritative simulation (dynamic)
- Import policies — Validation for client transfers between rooms
- Multiple authorities — A client can be connected to several authorities at once; Discord is an authority, your agent is an authority
Why not state merging?
Traditional federation (like Matrix) merges state from multiple servers. This creates attack surfaces:
- State resolution DoS
- History rewriting
- Split-brain attacks
Interconnect avoids these by using single-authority ownership. When you move between rooms, you disconnect from Authority A and connect to Authority B.
Ghost mode
When authority connection is lost:
- Client knows authority is unreachable
- Client becomes observer (read-only access to substrate)
- Static room data (substrate) remains available
- Room pauses, doesn't disappear
Related projects
- Playmate — Game design primitives for world interactions