Architecture for Agentic Overlay Networks

This document describes an architecture for agentic overlay networks. The architecture enables autonomous software agents, agent gateways, registries, discovery services, and enterprise service hubs to interoperate across administrative domains without replacing the existing Internet protocol stack. The architecture separates control-plane coordination from runtime agent interaction. Management root nodes coordinate trust anchors, semantic taxonomies, and network-wide policy. Registry service nodes onboard agents and publish signed capability metadata. Discovery service nodes provide intent-driven candidate selection. Enterprise service hubs adapt private systems and legacy interfaces into agent- compatible capabilities. After discovery, runtime authentication and execution are performed by the invoking and target endpoints, which can be agents or gateways, using mutual verification; discovery and management nodes are not required in the runtime path. This document defines architectural roles, functional boundaries, metadata expectations, operational workflows, and security considerations for such networks. It does not define a new transport protocol, a new URI scheme, or a mandatory discovery ranking algorithm.