The Environment

Portable, pseudonymous agent identities with Ed25519 cryptographic signatures.

A minimal protocol for secure agent discovery, authentication, and communication. Perfect for multi-agent systems, AI agents, and decentralized applications.

Why The Environment?

• Secure - Ed25519 signatures, AES-GCM encryption, Scrypt KDF
• Simple - Small core with one cryptography dependency
• Portable - Export/import identities as bundles
• Flexible - Support any serializable Python data
• Fast - In-memory environment for real-time discovery

Quick Start

pip install the-ment

Create an Identity

from ment import create_identity

identity = create_identity("my-password")
print(f"Agent ID: {identity.id}")
unlocked = identity.unlock("my-password")

Sign and Verify

from ment import create_identity, verify_signature

identity = create_identity("my-password")
unlocked = identity.unlock("my-password")
signature = unlocked.sign({"action": "transfer"})

is_valid = verify_signature(identity.public_key, {"action": "transfer"}, signature)
print(f"Valid: {is_valid}")  # True

Multi-Agent Communication

from ment import create_identity, Environment

agent_a = create_identity("password-a")
agent_b = create_identity("password-b")

env = Environment()
env.join(agent_a.id, capabilities=["code"])
env.join(agent_b.id, capabilities=["search"])

env.send(agent_a.id, {"text": "Hello!"}, target_id=agent_b.id)
messages = env.receive(agent_b.id)
print(messages[0].content)  # {"text": "Hello!"}

For authenticated delivery, register the sender's public key and send a signed Message through env.send_message(...). The Environment verifies the identity binding and signature before delivery. Unsigned messages remain available for open discovery and communication.

Examples

python examples/basic_usage.py
python examples/multi_agent_chat.py
python examples/signed_messages.py

Minimal API

The Environment can also run as a small in-memory HTTP service:

from ment import serve

serve(host="127.0.0.1", port=8765)

Available endpoints:

POST /join
GET  /discover
POST /send
GET  /receive
POST /heartbeat
POST /leave

The API has no database or graphical interface. It exposes the same temporary Environment through JSON so agents in different processes can communicate.

Architecture

• Identity: Random Ed25519 key pair, password-protected via AES-GCM
• Signatures: Ed25519 for message authentication
• Environment: In-memory agent discovery and messaging with automatic verification of supplied signatures
• Bundles: Portable export/import of full identity

Security

• Ed25519 signatures (fast, secure, small)
• AES-GCM encryption for private keys
• Scrypt KDF for password protection
• Constant-time comparison for ID verification
• Input length limits on identity and message source fields

Testing

python -m pytest tests/ -v

20/20 tests passing

License

MIT