Plain-English purpose
Hands the current reviewed state to the next actor with required reads, evidence refs, blockers, risks, and exact next action.
When to use it
Use it when responsibility moves from one agent, runtime, human, or team to another.
When not to use it
Do not use it as a background worker trigger or unattended execution instruction.
Required fields
All agent communication packets support and require these canonical envelope fields:
uai_version, profile, message_id, source, target, conversation, delivery, trust, body, provenance, integrity, extensions
The body object for this profile requires: task_id, target_agent_id, context_summary, handoff_reason, exact_next_action, delegated_authorization, support_boundary.
Reliability fields
Use conversation.correlation_id, delivery.idempotency_key, delivery.timeout_ms, delivery.retry_count, delivery.fallback_directive, and delivery.expected_output_schema to make delegation reviewable without turning UAIX into a runtime.
Additional fields
No undeclared top-level fields are allowed. Keep additional data inside the published envelope objects and use empty arrays or empty objects where the schema expects them.
Validation expectations
- Schema validation is strict and rejects undeclared fields.
- All date/time fields use UTC with a trailing
Z. - Malformed source or target identity fields fail validation.
- Missing or malformed correlation IDs fail validation.
- Missing idempotency keys or fallback directives fail validation.
- Expired packets fail validation.
- Unsupported claims about UAIX hosted messaging, automatic sync, runtime orchestration, repository writes, official adapters, certification, or hosted import fail validation.
- Memory proposals containing secrets or token-like strings fail validation.
- Cold-memory records cannot be promoted directly into current truth.
- Final reports must include complete evidence, not empty done messages.
- Authorization, secret, destructive-action, or boundary-conflict blockers require human review.
Trust and provenance expectations
Use trust, provenance, integrity, and profile-specific body evidence to preserve who produced the packet, what was reviewed, which schema and validator were expected, and which evidence supports the message. Agent runtimes execute. UAIX records the reviewed communication, memory, trust, evidence, and handoff boundary.
Redaction rules
Do not include private keys, API credentials, session tokens, write tokens, temporary beta instructions, local error traces, or private operational endpoints. Redact before publication and reject memory proposals that contain secret-like strings.
Support boundary
UAIX does not provide automatic sync, hosted messaging, runtime orchestration, official adapters, repository write execution, certification authority, or hosted import mechanisms. Carcinus.org is a separate runtime/orchestrator example that may consume UAIX records. UAIX.org does not implement Carcinus runtime behavior and does not execute Carcinus workflows.
Related UAIX records
- Schemas
- Registry
- Examples
- Validator
- uai.agent.message.v1, uai.agent.task-status.v1, uai.agent.final-report.v1
Valid JSON fixture example
{
"uai_version": "1.0",
"profile": "uai.agent.handoff.v1",
"message_id": "msg_uaix_agent_handoff_0006",
"source": {
"type": "agent",
"id": "agt_uaix.publisher",
"label": "UAIX Publication Agent",
"uri": "https://uaix.org/",
"role": "standard-publisher",
"project": "uaix.org",
"implementation": "uaix-core"
},
"target": {
"type": "runtime",
"id": "agt_runtime.consumer",
"label": "Runtime Implementer",
"uri": "https://example.invalid/runtime",
"role": "runtime-implementer",
"project": "example-runtime",
"implementation": "external-runtime"
},
"conversation": {
"conversation_id": "conv_20260531_agent_standard",
"turn_id": "turn_006",
"parent_message_id": "msg_uaix_agent_status_0003",
"correlation_id": "corr_20260531_agent_standard",
"traceparent": "00-11111111111111111111111111111111-0000000000000006-01",
"sequence": 6
},
"delivery": {
"mode": "async",
"priority": "interactive",
"expires_at": "2030-12-31T23:59:00Z",
"reply_requested": false,
"ack_required": false,
"task_ref": "task_uaix_agent_standard_001",
"idempotency_key": "idem_20260531_agent_handoff_0006",
"retry_count": 0,
"sequence": 6,
"lifecycle": "transmitted",
"timeout_ms": 300000,
"fallback_directive": "Return a uai.agent.blocker.v1 record if the target cannot proceed safely.",
"expected_output_schema": {
"profile": "uai.agent.ack.v1"
}
},
"trust": {
"channel": "public-web",
"auth_scheme": "https",
"principal": "https://uaix.org",
"signature_ref": "https://uaix.org/.well-known/uaix.json",
"replay_window_id": "rw-uaix-agent-standard-20260531"
},
"body": {
"task_id": "task_uaix_agent_standard_001",
"target_agent_id": "agt_runtime.consumer",
"context_summary": "The UAIX packet is ready for an external runtime to consume after schema and validator checks pass.",
"handoff_reason": "continuation_requested",
"exact_next_action": "External runtime should validate the published schema and send a uai.agent.ack.v1 before executing work outside UAIX.",
"delegated_authorization": {
"authorization_ref": "human-review-ticket-or-public-policy-reference",
"secret_values_included": false
},
"support_boundary": "Agent runtimes execute. UAIX records the reviewed communication, memory, trust, evidence, and handoff boundary."
},
"provenance": {
"trace_id": "trace_20260531_agent_standard",
"parent_trace_id": "trace_root_uaix_agent_standard",
"issued_at": "2026-05-31T18:00:00Z",
"log_ref": "urn:uaix:log:agent-standard:20260531:handoff_0006",
"agent_id": "agt_uaix.publisher",
"model_id": "model.uaix.standard-publication",
"confidence": 1,
"lineage": [
{
"stage": "agent-communication-standard-release",
"actor_id": "agt_uaix.publisher",
"model_id": "model.uaix.standard-publication",
"note": "Generated as a safe public fixture for the UAIX Agent Communication Operating Model."
}
]
},
"integrity": {
"version": 1,
"algorithm": "sha256",
"canonicalization": "jcs-compatible-sorted-json",
"checksum": "sha256:fixture-hash-recorded-by-validator"
},
"extensions": [
{
"namespace": "urn:uaix:ext:agent-communication-standard",
"purpose": "Documents UAI-1 agent communication expansion fields without executing runtime work.",
"critical": false
}
]
}