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EchoRift Glossary & Concepts

Reference Guide for Agent Infrastructure

Core Concepts

Agent

An autonomous software entity that can perceive, reason, and act without continuous human oversight. In the EchoRift context, agents are typically AI-powered programs that call APIs, process data, and make decisions.

Characteristics:

  • Operates autonomously
  • Has a wallet address for identity and payments
  • Can receive and respond to webhooks
  • May specialize in specific capabilities

Swarm

A coordinated group of agents working toward shared goals. Swarms are the primary organizational unit in EchoRift.

Components:

  • Member agents (registered via Switchboard)
  • Shared state (key-value store)
  • Treasury (pooled funds with budgets)
  • Task queue (work distribution)
  • Circuit breaker (safety controls)

Coordination

The mechanisms that allow multiple agents to work together without collision. Coordination includes task distribution, state management, message passing, and economic controls.

EchoRift coordination primitives:

  • Atomic task claims
  • Optimistic locking for state
  • Broadcast messaging
  • Treasury budgets
  • Circuit breakers

EchoRift Services

BlockWire

Shared blockchain event infrastructure. Polls Base L2 once and broadcasts to all subscribers.

Key features:

  • Real-time event monitoring
  • On-chain attestations
  • Push (webhooks) and pull (x402) modes
  • HMAC-signed delivery

Events monitored:

  • new_contract: Contract deployments
  • liquidity_added/liquidity_removed: DEX pool changes
  • price_movement: Significant price changes
  • large_transfer: High-value transfers
  • nft_mint: NFT minting events

CronSynth

Externalized scheduling for serverless agents. Provides time-awareness without background processes.

Key features:

  • Standard cron expressions
  • HMAC-signed webhooks
  • On-chain attestations
  • x402 payment integration

Use cases:

  • Periodic health checks
  • Scheduled reports
  • Time-based trading
  • Coordinated swarm operations

Switchboard

Swarm coordination infrastructure. Provides primitives for multi-agent systems.

Capabilities:

  • Task queues with atomic claims
  • Swarm-wide message broadcasting
  • Consistent shared state
  • Treasury management
  • Circuit breakers

Technical Terms

Attestation

A cryptographic proof recorded on-chain that certifies the authenticity of data or events.

Types in EchoRift:

  • Event attestation (BlockWire): Proves blockchain events were observed
  • Schedule attestation (CronSynth): Proves scheduled triggers executed
  • Hash chain: Sequential attestations that reference previous hashes

Purpose:

  • Audit trails
  • Dispute resolution
  • Reputation building
  • Regulatory compliance

Atomic Claim

A database operation that guarantees only one agent can claim a task. Uses locking to prevent race conditions.

Properties:

  • Exactly one claimant per task
  • Immediate rejection for conflicts
  • Auto-release on timeout

Circuit Breaker

A safety mechanism that detects harmful patterns and automatically intervenes to protect the swarm.

Detected patterns:

  • Broadcast storms (excessive message sending)
  • Claim hoarding (claiming without completing)
  • Message loops (A→B→A cascades)
  • Treasury drain (unusual spending)
  • Webhook failures (consecutive errors)

Responses:

  • Rate limiting
  • Blocking
  • Alert emission
  • Manual reset required

Event Mask

A bitmask specifying which event types a BlockWire subscriber wants to receive.

Event TypeBit Value

-----------------------

contracts1

liquidity2

prices4

transfers8

nfts16

Example: contracts | liquidity = 3 subscribes to both.

HMAC Signature

Hash-based Message Authentication Code. Used to verify webhook authenticity.

Verification process:

  1. Receive webhook with X-*-Signature header
  2. Compute HMAC-SHA256(payload, secret)
  3. Compare computed hash to header value
  4. Reject if mismatch

Optimistic Locking

A concurrency control strategy that allows multiple agents to read state simultaneously but detects conflicts on write.

Process:

  1. Read state with version number
  2. Compute new value
  3. Write with expected version
  4. If version changed, retry from step 1

typescript


const { value, version } = await state.get('key');


// version = 5



// Another agent writes, version becomes 6



await state.set('key', newValue, version);


// Fails: VERSION_CONFLICT (expected 5, actual 6)

Webhook

An HTTP callback that delivers data to a specified URL when events occur.

EchoRift webhooks include:

  • HMAC signature for verification
  • Timestamp for replay protection
  • Structured payload with event data

Requirements:

  • HTTPS endpoint
  • 5-second response time
  • 200-299 status for success

x402

Coinbase's payment protocol using HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status.

Flow:

  1. Request resource without payment
  2. Server returns 402 with payment requirements
  3. Client signs USDC payment
  4. Client retries with payment proof
  5. Server verifies and responds

Benefits:

  • No API keys
  • No accounts
  • Instant settlement
  • Micropayment-friendly

State & Data

Shared State

A key-value store accessible to all agents in a swarm. Provides consistent reads and optimistic locking for writes.

Operations:

  • get(key) → { value, version }
  • set(key, value, expectedVersion) → success or VERSION_CONFLICT
  • delete(key)

Use cases:

  • Coordination flags
  • Accumulated results
  • Configuration
  • Counters and metrics

Task

A unit of work in a Switchboard task queue. Has a lifecycle: created → claimed → completed (or released).

Properties:

  • id: Unique identifier
  • type: Category for filtering
  • payload: Arbitrary JSON data
  • priority: Higher = more urgent
  • status: new, claimed, completed, released
  • ttl: Time-to-live before auto-release

Treasury

A swarm-level USDC wallet with budget controls.

Features:

  • Deposit/withdraw (operator-controlled)
  • Per-agent budget allocation
  • Spending limits (daily, monthly, per-transaction)
  • Audit trail

Operations:

  • deposit(amount)
  • withdraw(amount, to) (operators only)
  • allocateBudget(agentId, amount, period)
  • requestSpend(agentId, amount, reason)

Identity & Access

Agent ID

A unique identifier for an agent within a swarm. Typically derived from or associated with a wallet address.

Format: String, e.g., agent-001, 0x1234...abcd

Membership

The set of rules governing which agents can join a swarm.

Types:

  • open: Anyone can join
  • allowlist: Only approved addresses
  • nft-gated: Must hold specific NFT
  • invite: Must have valid invite code

Invite Code

A single-use or limited-use code that grants swarm membership.

Properties:

  • code: The invite string
  • uses: Maximum number of uses
  • expiresAt: Expiration timestamp
  • usedBy: List of agents who used it

Webhook Secret

A shared secret used to generate and verify HMAC signatures for webhooks.

Storage:

  • Server-side: Associated with subscription
  • Agent-side: Environment variable or secure storage

Protocols & Standards

A2A (Agent2Agent)

Google's protocol for agent communication. Defines how agents discover each other and exchange messages.

Key concepts:

  • Agent Cards (capability descriptions)
  • Tasks (request/response patterns)
  • Streaming responses

Relationship to EchoRift: Complementary. Use A2A for messaging, EchoRift for coordination.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

Anthropic's protocol for connecting AI models to tools and data sources.

Key concepts:

  • Tool registry
  • Context management
  • Resource access

Relationship to EchoRift: Complementary. Use MCP for tools, EchoRift for coordination.

AP2 (Agent Payments Protocol)

Google's extension to A2A for payment coordination. Builds on x402.

Relationship to EchoRift: EchoRift uses x402 for payments; treasury provides additional budget controls.

Blockchain Terms

Base L2

An Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain built on the OP Stack. EchoRift's primary chain.

Properties:

  • Low gas costs
  • Fast finality
  • EVM compatible
  • Chain ID: 8453

USDC

USD Coin, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. EchoRift's payment and treasury token.

On Base: 0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913

Smart Contract

Self-executing code deployed on a blockchain. EchoRift uses contracts for subscriptions, attestations, and treasury operations.

EchoRift contracts:

  • BlockWire Registry: 0x20Fa63E8A50C3F990c67EF7df6e0D10a7005686a
  • CronSynth Registry: 0x3846Ab73eCb4A1590B56cEB88D9779471B82A314

Common Patterns

Event-Driven Processing



BlockWire Event → Webhook → Create Task → Worker Claims → Process → Complete

Scheduled Operations



CronSynth Trigger → Webhook → Leader Agent → Broadcast → Swarm Executes

Treasury-Funded API Calls



Agent → Request Budget → Approved → Sign x402 Payment → API Call → Deduct Spend

Atomic Task Distribution



Task Created → Worker A Claims (success) → Worker B Claims (rejected) → A Processes

Acronyms

AcronymMeaning

------------------

A2AAgent2Agent (Google protocol)

AP2Agent Payments Protocol

APIApplication Programming Interface

DEXDecentralized Exchange

HMACHash-based Message Authentication Code

HTTPHypertext Transfer Protocol

JSONJavaScript Object Notation

L2Layer 2 (blockchain scaling)

MCPModel Context Protocol (Anthropic)

NFTNon-Fungible Token

RPCRemote Procedure Call

SDKSoftware Development Kit

TTLTime To Live

USDCUSD Coin

UTCCoordinated Universal Time

Further Reading

*EchoRift. Infrastructure for the machine age.*