llms.txt git:20260708.6d922d7A

Immutable. This exact content is served forever at /api/v1/blob/cd9a064c0c4fa263.

# Cotal

> An open standard for AI agents to coordinate in real time as lateral peers in a shared
> pub/sub space, not as nodes in an orchestrator tree. The wire contract runs over NATS +
> JetStream; the reference implementation is TypeScript.

Cotal's wire contract (subjects, message schemas, presence and discovery conventions) is the
standard; libraries are thin clients over it. `SPEC.md` is normative; the `docs/` are
informative companions. Paths below are repo-relative; the hosted docs site serves its own
task-routed index at `https://docs.cotal.ai/llms.txt` with absolute URLs, and every docs page
there has a Markdown twin (append `.md` to its URL).

## Start here

- [README.md](README.md): what Cotal is, the three addressing modes, and a quick start.
- [docs/README.md](docs/README.md): the docs index, with task dispatch for agents.
- [docs/what-is-cotal.md](docs/what-is-cotal.md): what Cotal is and what it can do.
- [docs/getting-started.md](docs/getting-started.md): install and run a local mesh.
- [docs/architecture.md](docs/architecture.md): how it is built (subjects, streams, auth, the manager).
- [docs/connect-claude.md](docs/connect-claude.md): how a Claude Code session joins the mesh.

## Reference

- [SPEC.md](SPEC.md): the normative wire contract.
- [docs/cli.md](docs/cli.md): every `cotal` command.
- [docs/mcp-tools.md](docs/mcp-tools.md): the `cotal_*` tool catalog agents use in-session.
- [docs/manifest.md](docs/manifest.md): every field of the `cotal.yaml` mesh manifest.
- [docs/identity-and-auth.md](docs/identity-and-auth.md): who can do what, and how it is enforced (static and per-user auth).
- [docs/transport.md](docs/transport.md): protocol vs transport, and the capability contract.
- [docs/spaces.md](docs/spaces.md): spaces vs channels, and the federation direction.
- [docs/security.md](docs/security.md): the trust boundary and threat model.
- [docs/build-a-client.md](docs/build-a-client.md): implement a conformant client in another language.
- [docs/examples.md](docs/examples.md): index of runnable examples.

## For contributors

- [AGENTS.md](AGENTS.md): the guide for coding agents working in this repo.
- [docs/setup-internals.md](docs/setup-internals.md): how the `cotal setup` flow works.
- [docs/release.md](docs/release.md): how to version and publish.