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RFC-0001: OpenIntent Coordination Protocol (OICP) v0.1#

Status: Proposed
Created: 2026-02-01
Authors: OpenIntent Contributors

Abstract#

This RFC specifies the OpenIntent Coordination Protocol (OICP), a standard for coordinating work across humans and autonomous agents using structured intent objects, append-only event logs, and optimistic concurrency control.

Motivation#

As AI agents become more capable, coordinating their work with each other and with humans becomes critical. Existing approaches rely on unstructured chat, which lacks:

  • A shared source of truth for goals and progress
  • Clear semantics for state updates
  • Audit trails for accountability
  • Concurrency control for parallel work

Terminology#

Intent
A structured object representing a goal, its constraints, current state, and lifecycle status.
Event
An immutable record of something that happened to an intent.
Agent
A participant (human or automated) that can read and modify intents.
State Patch
A structured update operation (append, set, remove) on intent state.

Data Model#

Intent Object#

{
  "id": "uuid",
  "title": "string",
  "description": "string | null",
  "created_by": "string",
  "status": "draft | active | blocked | completed | abandoned",
  "constraints": { },
  "state": { },
  "confidence": "0-100",
  "version": "integer",
  "created_at": "ISO 8601",
  "updated_at": "ISO 8601"
}

Event Object#

{
  "id": "uuid",
  "intent_id": "uuid",
  "event_type": "string",
  "actor": "string",
  "payload": { },
  "created_at": "ISO 8601"
}

State Patch#

{
  "op": "append | set | remove",
  "path": "string (JSON pointer)",
  "value": "any"
}

Lifecycle#

Intents follow a defined state machine:

draft → active | abandoned
active → blocked | completed | abandoned
blocked → active | abandoned

Endpoints#

Method Path Description
POST /v1/intents Create a new intent
GET /v1/intents/{id} Retrieve an intent by ID
POST /v1/intents/{id}/state Apply state patches
POST /v1/intents/{id}/events Emit an event
GET /v1/intents/{id}/events List events (paginated)
POST /v1/intents/{id}/agents Assign an agent
POST /v1/intents/{id}/status Transition status

Concurrency#

Optimistic concurrency using If-Match headers:

  • All mutating requests MUST include If-Match: <version>
  • If version mismatch, server responds 409 Conflict
  • Successful updates increment version and return new value in ETag

Why Agents Care#

  • Shared truth: No re-explaining context. Read from intent.
  • Resumability: Pick up where another agent left off.
  • Structured updates: Clear patch semantics.
  • Auditability: All work is recorded in event log.

Non-Goals#

This protocol does not specify how agents should reason, what models they should use, or how they should decompose work. It provides coordination infrastructure, not agent architecture.