Hierarchical Interoperable Verified Exchange
An open, federated communications protocol suite designed to replace SMTP, IMAP, and POP3 with a secure, object-based, event-driven architecture for humans, organizations, services, and AI agents.
Stage: Active Design — Pre-Draft
All documents in this repository are working drafts.
Nothing in this repository is currently normative and all specifications are subject to change.
HIVE is NOT "SMTP 2.0".
HIVE is a ground-up redesign of asynchronous digital communication built on modern assumptions:
- Always-on, high-bandwidth connectivity
- Mobile-first, offline-capable clients
- Cryptography mandatory at every layer
- Immutable, content-addressed objects
- Event-driven, real-time synchronization
- Federated without any central authority
- AI agents as first-class participants
- 50+ year design horizon
HIVE replaces the message-as-text-blob model with a structured object graph, replaces polling with push-driven event streams, replaces identity-by-mailbox with cryptographically verifiable identities, and replaces trust-by-convention with zero-trust cryptographic proofs at every layer.
HIVE provides a universal communications fabric capable of supporting:
- Messaging
- Calendars
- Tasks
- Contacts
- Forms
- Polls
- Notifications
- Collaboration
- Machine-to-machine communication
- AI agents
while preserving the open, decentralized nature that made email successful.
- Objects, not text blobs.
- Immutable content-addressed objects.
- Event-driven architecture.
- Persistent transport connections.
- Delta synchronization.
- Identity-centric design.
- Mandatory encryption.
- Native end-to-end encryption.
- Rich message types.
- Federation without central authorities.
- Multi-device operation.
- AI agents are first-class identities.
- Vendor extensibility without fragmentation.
- Protocol evolution must preserve interoperability.
- No assumption inherited from SMTP, IMAP, or MIME is retained unless objectively superior.
Persistent QUIC connections eliminate polling and folder synchronization.
Objects are immutable and identified by cryptographic hashes.
Clients replicate changes instead of entire mailboxes.
Conversations are first-class objects.
Email is only one application among many.
Trust follows identities rather than IP addresses.
AI agents are treated as authenticated protocol participants.
Designed to remain relevant for decades.
| Layer | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Foundation | Encoding, hashing, compression, IDs |
| Transport | QUIC and HTTP/3 |
| Identity | Authentication and identity management |
| Federation | Discovery and routing |
| Object Model | Messages and structured objects |
| Synchronization | Delta replication |
| Event Streams | Real-time updates |
| Search | Structured search |
| Attachments | Binary object storage |
| Encryption | Transport and object encryption |
| End-to-End Encryption | Multi-device secure messaging |
| Reputation | Trust and anti-abuse |
| APIs | REST, gRPC, GraphQL, WebSocket |
| AI Framework | Human and agent communication |
| Extensions | Vendor-neutral extensibility |
| Legacy Bridges | SMTP, IMAP, POP3 interoperability |
- HTP — HIVE Transport Protocol
- HIP — HIVE Identity Protocol
- HFP — HIVE Federation Protocol
- HOP — HIVE Object Protocol
- HSP — HIVE Synchronization Protocol
- HEP — HIVE Event Protocol
- HEP2 — HIVE Encryption Protocol
- HRP — HIVE Reputation Protocol
- HAP — HIVE Application Protocol
/rfcs Protocol specification documents (IETF-style RFCs)
/adrs Architecture Decision Records
/threat-models Formal threat models per layer
/reference-sequences Sequence diagrams for protocol flows
/wire-formats Binary and textual wire format specifications
/schemas Canonical object schemas
/capabilities Capability negotiation specifications
/test-vectors Normative test vectors
/conformance Conformance requirements and test suites
/registries IANA-style extension registries
/examples Annotated example protocol exchanges
/bridges Legacy protocol bridge specifications
/whitepapers Explanatory and motivation documents
| Number | Title | Status |
|---|---|---|
| HIVE-0000 | Project Constitution | Draft |
| HIVE-0001 | Architecture Overview | Draft |
| HIVE-0002 | Foundation Layer | Draft |
| HIVE-0003 | Transport Protocol | Draft |
| HIVE-0004 | Identity Protocol | Draft |
| HIVE-0005 | Federation Protocol | Draft |
| HIVE-0006 | Object Model | Draft |
| HIVE-0007 | Synchronization Protocol | Draft |
| HIVE-0008 | Event Protocol | Draft |
| HIVE-0009 | Search Protocol | Draft |
| HIVE-0010 | Attachment Protocol | Draft |
| HIVE-0011 | Encryption Framework | Draft |
| HIVE-0012 | End-to-End Encryption | Draft |
| HIVE-0013 | Reputation Framework | Draft |
| HIVE-0014 | Anti-Abuse Framework | Draft |
| HIVE-0015 | Storage Architecture | Draft |
| HIVE-0016 | APIs | Draft |
| HIVE-0017 | ACLs and Permissions | Draft |
| HIVE-0018 | Multi-Tenant Architecture | Draft |
| HIVE-0019 | Device Synchronization | Draft |
| HIVE-0020 | AI Agent Framework | Draft |
| HIVE-0021 | Extension Framework | Draft |
| HIVE-0022 | Legacy Bridges | Draft |
- HIVE-0100 Email Objects
- HIVE-0101 Chat Objects
- HIVE-0102 Calendar Objects
- HIVE-0103 Task Objects
- HIVE-0104 Contact Objects
- HIVE-0105 Poll Objects
- HIVE-0106 Form Objects
- HIVE-0107 Announcement Objects
- HIVE-0108 Invoice Objects
- HIVE-0109 AI Payload Objects
- HIVE-0200 Cryptographic Algorithms
- HIVE-0201 Key Management
- HIVE-0202 Signatures
- HIVE-0203 Trust and Reputation
- HIVE-0204 Spam Prevention
- HIVE-0205 Federation Trust
- HIVE-0206 Quantum Migration Strategy
- HIVE-0300 REST API
- HIVE-0301 gRPC API
- HIVE-0302 GraphQL API
- HIVE-0303 WebSocket API
- HIVE-0400 SMTP Bridge
- HIVE-0401 IMAP Bridge
- HIVE-0402 POP3 Bridge
- HIVE-0403 Exchange Bridge
- HIVE-0404 JMAP Bridge
- HIVE-0405 Matrix Bridge
- HIVE-0406 ActivityPub Bridge
See /adrs for the complete list of Architecture Decision Records.
- Open standards
- Interoperability
- Security by default
- Vendor neutrality
- Self-hosting
- Federation
- Long-term maintainability
HIVE is not intended to provide:
- Centralization
- Vendor lock-in
- Dependence on any cloud provider
- Mandatory commercial services
- Proprietary extensions that fragment interoperability
HIVE is intended to be developed as an open standards project.
Implementations are free to innovate provided they preserve interoperability.
Architecture first. Code last.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for the process for submitting proposals, revisions, and comments.
All contributors MUST agree to the terms defined in LICENSE.md before submitting contributions.
HIVE uses a layered licensing framework.
- Specifications and documentation are released under the HIVE Open Specification License.
- Schemas and registries are released under MIT.
- Reference implementations are released under Apache License 2.0.
See LICENSE.md for details.
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