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Scope

This document defines what MGP is responsible for in its first protocol iterations.

Scope Statement

MGP governs persistent and semi-persistent memory interactions in AI systems. It standardizes the contract between runtimes and memory backends so that memory can be written, searched, retrieved, updated, expired, revoked, and audited in a consistent way across heterogeneous implementations.

In Scope

Memory Objects

MGP defines a canonical shape for memory objects that can represent user facts, preferences, episodic events, semantic knowledge, and other governed memory units.

Memory Operations

MGP defines protocol-level operations for:

  • write
  • search
  • get
  • update
  • expire
  • revoke
  • delete
  • purge

These operations are defined as protocol contracts, not backend-specific implementation details.

Policy Context Propagation

MGP defines how a runtime communicates the context of a memory action, including who is acting, on whose behalf the action occurs, and the task or risk context attached to the request.

Lifecycle Semantics

MGP defines protocol hooks for retention, expiration, supersession, and revocation so that memory governance is not reduced to raw CRUD.

Conflict Semantics

MGP defines how runtimes and backends express conflicting memories, contradiction handling, and conflict resolution modes.

Audit and Lineage

MGP defines schemas and contracts for audit events and lineage links so that memory reads and writes can be inspected, reasoned about, and traced over time.

Capability Declaration

MGP defines how a backend or adapter declares supported protocol features, enabling runtimes to reason about partial support without assuming uniform backend behavior.

Protocol Bindings

MGP owns its own wire format and transport bindings. The initial intended binding is JSON over HTTP, with future support for additional bindings such as gRPC.

Out of Scope

Prompt Window Management

MGP does not define how prompt context windows are assembled, compressed, or truncated at inference time.

General Logging

MGP does not replace application logging, observability, or tracing systems.

Full Workflow State

MGP does not attempt to model the full semantics of workflow engines, orchestration frameworks, or general-purpose application state machines.

Memory Generation Algorithms

MGP does not decide what should become memory, when memory extraction should happen, or what summarization pipeline should be used.

Embeddings and Ranking

MGP does not define embedding algorithms, similarity math, ranking models, or retrieval scoring logic.

Tool and Resource Connectivity

MGP does not standardize tool invocation or generic resource access. That is a separate concern addressed by protocols such as MCP.

Design Principles

  • Governed memory is a first-class protocol concern.
  • The protocol must work across multiple backend styles.
  • Core semantics must remain stable even when backend capabilities differ.
  • MGP should standardize contracts, not force a single implementation.