Slipstream Protocol Reference
Overview
Slipstream (SLIP) is a semantic quantization protocol for efficient multi-agent coordination. Instead of transmitting verbose natural language, agents communicate via compact references to a shared semantic codebook (UCR).
Key benefit: 70-80% token reduction vs JSON-wrapped messages.
Wire Format
SLIP v1 <src> <dst> <anchor> [payload...]
SLIP v1 - Protocol marker and version<src> - Source agent identifier<dst> - Destination agent identifier<anchor> - UCR semantic anchor (the intent)[payload...] - Optional unquantizable content
Core Anchors (UCR v1.0)
Requests
| Anchor |
Description |
RequestTask |
Ask agent to do something |
RequestPlan |
Ask for a plan |
RequestReview |
Ask for code/plan review |
RequestHelp |
Ask for assistance |
RequestCancel |
Request cancellation |
RequestResource |
Request resource allocation |
Information
| Anchor |
Description |
InformComplete |
Report task completion |
InformProgress |
Share progress update |
InformBlocked |
Report being blocked |
InformStatus |
General status update |
InformResult |
Share computed result |
Proposals
| Anchor |
Description |
ProposePlan |
Suggest a plan |
ProposeChange |
Suggest a modification |
ProposeAlternative |
Suggest alternative approach |
ProposeRollback |
Suggest reverting changes |
Evaluations
| Anchor |
Description |
EvalApprove |
Approve/accept something |
EvalReject |
Reject something |
EvalNeedsWork |
Request revisions |
EvalComplete |
Mark as complete |
Meta/Control
| Anchor |
Description |
Accept |
Accept a proposal/request |
Reject |
Decline a proposal/request |
MetaAck |
Acknowledge receipt |
MetaHandoff |
Hand off responsibility |
MetaEscalate |
Escalate issue |
Fallback |
Unquantizable (see payload) |
Examples
# Simple request
SLIP v1 alice bob RequestReview
# With payload
SLIP v1 planner executor RequestTask implement_auth_module
# Report completion
SLIP v1 developer team InformComplete user_service
# Approve with note
SLIP v1 reviewer author EvalApprove lgtm
# Fallback for complex content
SLIP v1 devops sre Fallback check kubernetes pods for OOMKilled
Python Usage
from slipcore import slip, decode, quantize, think_quantize_transmit
# Create message directly
wire = slip("alice", "bob", "RequestReview")
# -> "SLIP v1 alice bob RequestReview"
# Think-Quantize-Transmit pattern
wire = think_quantize_transmit(
"Please check the auth code for security issues",
src="dev", dst="reviewer"
)
# -> "SLIP v1 dev reviewer RequestReview"
# Decode
msg = decode(wire)
print(msg.anchor.canonical) # "Request review of work"
UCR Semantic Manifold
Each anchor is a position in a 4-dimensional semantic space:
| Dimension |
Range |
Meaning |
| ACTION |
0-7 |
observe, inform, ask, request, propose, commit, evaluate, meta |
| POLARITY |
0-7 |
negative to positive valence |
| DOMAIN |
0-7 |
task, plan, observation, evaluation, control, resource, error, general |
| URGENCY |
0-7 |
background to critical |
Extension Layer
Core anchors: 0x0000-0x7FFF (standard, immutable)
Extension anchors: 0x8000-0xFFFF (installation-specific)
from slipcore import ExtensionManager
manager = ExtensionManager()
anchor = manager.add_extension(
canonical="Request Kubernetes scaling",
mnemonic="RequestK8sScale",
)
Design Principles
- No special characters - Avoids BPE fragmentation
- Space-separated - Clean tokenization
- CamelCase anchors - Often single tokens
- Semantic not syntactic - Meaning over compression
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