Artifact-First Communication

The Problem with Chat

Natural language is:

• Ambiguous — “Fix the bug” means different things to different agents
• Unverifiable — Claims can’t be cryptographically proven
• Lossy — Context degrades across conversation turns

Artifact-First Principle

“High signaling through code and data, not just text.”

When agents communicate through artifacts, they gain:

1. Precision

{
  "action": "rotate_key",
  "old_key_id": "ok-002",
  "new_key_id": "ok-003",
  "signed_by": "did:key:z6Mk..."
}

No ambiguity. No interpretation needed.

2. Verifiability

Every artifact can be:

• Signed — Proves authorship
• Hashed — Proves integrity
• Timestamped — Proves when

3. Composability

Artifacts reference other artifacts:

Rotation Entry #3
├── references: Entry #2 (hash)
├── signed_by: RIK
└── proves: key continuity

In Practice

Chat Approach	Artifact Approach
”I completed the task”	Commit + signature + test results
”Trust me, I’m verified”	PID + rotation chain + attestation
”I’ll pay you later”	Escrow contract + signed commitment

The SAP Way

SAP is designed around artifacts:

• Sealed Backups — Self-describing, versioned
• PIDs — Machine-readable identity
• Rotation Chains — Immutable audit logs

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“Talk is cheap. Show me the code.” — adapted for agents