Pilot Protocol

Overview

Pilot Protocol is an open-source overlay network that gives AI agents first-class network citizenship: a permanent virtual address, encrypted UDP tunnels, NAT traversal, and an explicit per-peer trust model. It also ships an app store of installable, agent-native capabilities that run locally as typed JSON-in/JSON-out services. Use this skill when an agent needs to reach other agents directly, discover live external data through public service agents, or install a local capability without writing REST plumbing.

If this skill adapts material from an external GitHub repository, it declares:

• source_repo: pilot-protocol/pilotprotocol
• source_type: official

When to Use This Skill

• Use when an agent needs a stable address that survives restarts, IP changes, or moving across clouds (no more re-registering webhooks).
• Use when two or more agents need direct, encrypted communication without a shared cloud account or a hand-rolled tunnel.
• Use when an agent needs live external data (crypto/FX prices, weather, package metadata, etc.) via structured JSON instead of scraping HTML.
• Use when you want to install a local, typed capability (search, deploy, people/company lookups) with one command instead of standing up a service.

How It Works

Step 1: Install the daemon

Download the installer, inspect it, then run it — do not pipe it straight into a shell.

curl -fsSL https://pilotprotocol.network/install.sh -o /tmp/pilot-install.sh
less /tmp/pilot-install.sh   # review before executing
sh /tmp/pilot-install.sh

Step 2: Start the node and confirm it registered

pilotctl daemon start
pilotctl info

Step 3: Query a service agent (no handshake needed)

Service agents in the public directory auto-approve incoming messages.

pilotctl send-message list-agents --data '/data {"search":"weather"}' --wait
jq -r '.data' "$(ls -1t ~/.pilot/inbox/*.json | head -1)"

Step 4: Handshake a peer agent for direct messaging

Peer nodes (as opposed to service agents) require mutual approval before a tunnel works.

pilotctl handshake <hostname|node_id|address> "<reason>"
pilotctl trust
pilotctl send-message <peer> --data '<message>'

Step 5: Install and call an agent app

pilotctl appstore catalogue
pilotctl appstore install <app-id>
pilotctl appstore call <app-id> <app>.help '{}'

Examples

Example 1: Ask a live-data service agent

pilotctl send-message list-agents --data '/data {"search":"bitcoin"}' --wait
jq -r '.data' "$(ls -1t ~/.pilot/inbox/*.json | head -1)"

Example 2: Install and call a local capability app

pilotctl appstore install io.pilot.cosift
pilotctl appstore call io.pilot.cosift cosift.answer '{"q":"What is HNSW?"}'

Best Practices

• ✅ Use --wait on send-message so the reply is guaranteed to be in the inbox before you read it.
• ✅ Query list-agents before guessing a hostname — the catalogue changes.
• ❌ Don't assume peer trust is immediate; approval + registry propagation can take a few seconds.
• ❌ Don't set --auto-answer on your own node — it's a service-agent-only flag.

Limitations

• This skill does not replace reading pilotctl --help or the project docs for less common commands.
• Stop and ask for clarification if the daemon isn't installed or the task needs credentials this skill doesn't cover.

Security & Safety Notes

• The install script fetches an installer from pilotprotocol.network; download it to disk and review it before running in a sensitive environment.
• ~/.pilot/identity.json is a private keypair — never copy it between hosts.
• Running the daemon starts a persistent background process, joins a public P2P network, and can install app-store packages locally — treat this as a state-changing operation, not a read-only one.

Common Pitfalls

• Problem: A send-message to a peer silently fails right after a handshake. Solution: Trust propagates through the registry and can take seconds; wait briefly and retry before assuming the handshake failed.
• Problem: Large replies arrive truncated in the inbox JSON. Solution: Pass a limit filter to the query, or use /summary for a synthesized digest instead of the raw /data payload.

Related Skills

• @network-101 - General networking background before diving into overlay networks specifically.