Pico Labs has implemented Pico Agents and is beginning work on https://github.com/Picolab/aries-cloudagent-pico (Aries cloudagent Pico). In the previous sentence each name is linked to the corresponding code repository in GitHub.
The Aries specification is maintained by the Aries community in a GitHub repo. Each part of the specification is called an “RFC” and they are grouped into concepts and features. Pico Labs maintains a fork of the official repo (for making pull requests) and we strive to keep the fork even with the Aries repo. Instructions for making a pull request located here.
Pico Agents
Usage
First prepare your pico-engine by registering the rulesets. Then create the Picos and make them into Pico Agents of the various kinds.
Deprecation notice
These rulesets continue to function but our intention is to only apply bug fixes going forward.
New development has moved to ACA-pico.
Preparing a pico-engine to host Pico Agents
Need to register a few rulesets with the pico-engine. These are:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Picolab/G2S/master/krl/html.krl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Picolab/G2S/master/krl/webfinger.krl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Picolab/G2S/master/krl/org.sovrin.agent.ui.krl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Picolab/G2S/master/krl/org.sovrin.agent_message.krl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Picolab/G2S/master/krl/org.sovrin.agent.krl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Picolab/G2S/master/krl/org.sovrin.edge.krl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Picolab/G2S/master/krl/org.sovrin.router.krl
The easiest way to register these rulesets manually is to visit the Register rulesets page. Then, if necessary, edit the “localhost:8080” text (by clicking on it, adjusting it, and hitting the Return key) to be the domain and port where your pico-engine is running. Click on the ruleset URIs in order (and go back to the page after seeing each one registered to click on the next one). You could also write code to register these rulesets with the engine and run it at a time and in a way of your choosing.
Cloud Agents
To make a Pico into a Pico Agent, all you need to do is install the org.sovrin.agent ruleset in the Pico. With this ruleset installed, the Pico is now an Aries cloud agent.
If you install the ruleset manually, the agent’s name will be the same as the Pico name. When installing the ruleset programmatically (by sending the Pico the wrangler:install_rulesets_requested event, you can give the agent a different name by including an extra attribute, named label. For example, this event:
http://localhost:8080/sky/event/<ECI>/make-agent/wrangler/install_ruleset_requested?rid=org.sovrin.agent&label=Alice
would make the Pico whose ECI is mentioned become a cloud agent labelled “Alice” regardless of the Pico name.
With the ruleset installed, the cloud agent can provide connection invitations for, and accept connection invitations from, other Aries agents.
The invitation is obtained by invoking the ui function of the ruleset. A URI to invoke the function would look like:
http://localhost:8080/sky/cloud/<ECI>/org.sovrin.agent/ui
and would return a JSON structure like:
{
"name": "Alice",
"connections": null,
"invitation": "http://localhost:8080/sky/cloud/<ECI>/org.sovrin.agent/html.html?c_i=<INVITE>",
"wf": null,
}
giving the cloud agent’s label, the fact that it has no connections yet, and the invitation URI.
The invitation URI is sent to another Aries agent. Only the parameter, named c_i, is the actual invitation. It is a BASE64 encoded JSON structure, as described in the Aries connection protocol. The enclosing URI invokes the html function of the ruleset and provides a human-readable view of the invitation, including a QR Code which can be scanned by Aries agents capable of doing that to initiate a connection.
Once a connection has been made, the Pico Agent can exchange basic messages and trust pings over an encrypted and signed DIDComm connection.