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Mesh Negotiation Protocol

You're either initiating a negotiation, responding to one, or handling its escalation. Each role has its own protocol below.

Pre-flight: pick the right tool first

negotiate is for situations where there's STAKE on both sides and resolving requires back-and-forth. Common confusions:

• For a one-shot question → use ask (no rounds, no stake)
• For status queries → use check_work_status (DB read; no session spawn)
• For blocked work needing parent help → use report_blocker
• For downward delegation to a subordinate → use create_task

If none of those fit and the disagreement is real, negotiate is correct.

Initiator side (you call negotiate)

You're proposing something to a peer. The server creates the negotiation row, spawns the peer, and blocks until they respond.

Link to your task

If your negotiation pertains to a specific task you're working on (the common case — you're negotiating WHILE making progress on a task), pass task_id to negotiate:

negotiate(peer_id, proposal, task_id="<your_current_task_id>")

This stamps the negotiation row's task_id so:

• If escalated, the human reviewer sees which task is blocked
• Post-escalation re-dispatch finds your existing task to continue (vs creating a synthetic one)
• Other agents and the audit log can correlate the negotiation with the task

Omit task_id only when negotiating about something orthogonal to your current task (rare — usually means you should reconsider whether negotiate is the right tool).

First proposal

Be specific:

• What is being proposed (concrete action, scope, allocation)
• Who does what (assign owners if relevant)
• By when (timeline if relevant)
• Why — the rationale + tradeoffs

Phrase as: "I propose X because Y; what do you think?"

A specific proposal gets a specific response. Vague proposals get vague counters and burn rounds.

Reading the peer's counter

A counter is data, not opposition. Each round, identify:

• Signal: what the peer changed (their concerns about your proposal)
• Non-negotiables: what they kept (their hard constraints)

Iterate toward something that addresses their signal while you keep YOUR non-negotiables.

When to accept

After 2-3 rounds, if the peer's counter addresses your concerns, accept. Don't max out rounds for the sake of "winning" — burning turns has cost (tokens, time, peer capacity).

respond_negotiate(neg_id, 'accept', "Agreed. Proceeding with <chosen plan>.") — terminal; the negotiation is closed.

After accept returns, immediately persist the decision so future sessions don't re-litigate:

save_memory("Negotiation about <topic> with <peer> resolved with <chosen approach> because <rationale>.", "decision")

Then continue your task with the agreed plan.

When to reject

reject is rare and terminal — use it only when no version of the proposal is workable from your side and there is no path forward via counter. Examples: the proposal would violate a hard constraint you can't move (compliance, capacity, ownership boundary) AND the peer's framing leaves no room to refactor it.

If you find yourself reaching for reject, first ask: would a counter that surfaces my hard constraint move the conversation forward? If yes, counter. If no:

respond_negotiate(neg_id, 'reject', "Cannot proceed because <hard constraint>. Suggest <alternative path / different peer / different tool>.")

After reject:

1. save_memory("Rejected negotiation about <topic> with <peer> because <hard constraint>. Suggested <alternative>.", "decision")
2. If the rejection blocks YOUR task and you have no alternative path, call report_blocker so your parent can revise scope.
3. Otherwise continue work along the alternative path.

When to escalate (BEFORE max_rounds)

If you and the peer are circling around the same root disagreement (different priorities, different data interpretation), don't burn the remaining rounds. Call escalate_to_humans early — humans review faster on fresh context. See references/escalation-triggers.md.

Server-enforced max_rounds

Server hard-caps at 5 rounds (per-agent configurable). On round N+1 attempt you get:

{ error: "MAX_ROUNDS_EXCEEDED", ... }

Stop and call escalate_to_humans immediately:

escalate_to_humans(
  negotiation_id,
  summary,        // ONE shared problem statement, neutral phrasing
  proposals,      // 2-3 concrete options (yours + concession + radical fallback)
  open_questions, // things YOU don't know that humans might
)

After this returns, exit your session — the human will resolve and the executor will re-dispatch you with the resolution.

Capacity errors

mesh_capacity_exceeded means peer is busy, NOT stuck. Don't escalate. Pivot to other parts of your task that don't depend on this negotiation, OR retry later. Only call report_blocker if the negotiation is on the critical path and waiting isn't acceptable.

Peer / responder side (you were spawned with a <negotiation> intent)

Your session was spawned because another agent called negotiate(target=YOU, ...). Intent shape:

<mesh-negotiate negotiation_id="neg_abc" from="team_X" round="1">
<their proposal>
</mesh-negotiate>
<context type="negotiation_round">
Read the proposal, search relevant context if needed, and respond with
respond_negotiate(negotiation_id, decision, message). Decisions: counter,
accept, reject.
</context>

Read context first

Before responding, gather signal:

• search_context for memory facts on the topic
• get_task if the proposal references a task you're not aware of
• check_work_status to assess your own capacity

This is multi-round; the peer is blocked. Take 1-2 minutes to think; don't take 30.

Respond shape

respond_negotiate(neg_id, decision, message[, counter_proposal])

• accept → terminal; you agree
• reject → terminal; you decline (rare; usually use counter to keep the conversation alive)
• counter → MUST include a specific counter-proposal in counter_proposal. Vague counters waste rounds.

A counter BLOCKS your session until the peer's next reply (or until they accept/reject/escalate).

Counter loop awareness

If you've countered 2+ times and the peer keeps offering similar things, escalation is likely. Make your final counter your BEST — if the peer escalates without your strongest concession on record, the human review is incomplete.

escalated sentinel handling

When your blocked respond_negotiate returns:

{ decision: 'escalated', escalation_id: 'esc_xyz', message: '...' }

The peer escalated. You did NOT initiate; you must NOT call escalate_to_humans (initiator-only). Call:

add_to_escalation(escalation_id, proposals, open_questions)

• NO summary arg — the initiator already set it (immutable)
• Your proposals should DIFFER from initiator's where you actually disagree. Don't mirror.
• open_questions — things in YOUR domain humans should know about that the initiator didn't capture

After this returns, exit your session.

Post-resolution behavior

When the human resolves the escalation, both sides receive a fresh dispatch with next_dispatch_context.kind === 'post_escalation'. Intent shape:

<context type="post_escalation" role="initiator|counterparty">
A negotiation about this task was resolved by a human reviewer.
Resolution: <chosen proposal title> — <description>
Additional guidance: <notes if any>
<role-specific guidance>
</context>
<task id="..."/>

Initiator role

Continue your task with the resolution as guidance. Don't re-negotiate — the human's call is final. Update memory if you learned something:

save_memory("Negotiation about <X> resolved with <Y> approach because <Z>", "decision")

Then continue work; eventually update_progress(done) and exit.

Counterparty role

You have no original task to continue (you were a peer in someone else's negotiation). The platform created a SYNTHETIC task for you with the post-escalation context. Steps:

1. save_memory the resolution (same as initiator)
2. Complete any related follow-up on YOUR end (update memory, finish loose ends)
3. update_progress(synthetic_task_id, 'done', "Acknowledged escalation resolution.")
4. Exit

See references/post-resolution.md for edge cases.

Deeper detail (load on demand)

• Counter strategy + when to accept early: references/counter-strategy.md
• Early escalation triggers: references/escalation-triggers.md
• Post-resolution role-specific handoff: references/post-resolution.md

Source: beevibe-ai/beevibe — distributed by TomeVault.