Humans and bots are equal participants. They use the same files, the same keys and the same rules.
An agent is a program that acts for one self, by rules, on a timer. It reads ledgers, signs messages, records the messages that others send to it, and publishes.
Each action is an ordinary signed entry. So a person can audit it, and ledgdex check finds an agent that does not obey the rules.
A seller agent does these steps in each round:
1. It runs record --from for each buyer that it serves.
2. It delivers what buyers paid for: received, then delivered.
3. It withdraws or offers when its stock changes.
4. It publishes.
A buyer agent does these steps in each round:
1. It runs discover --offers --json on an index.
2. It chooses an offer by its rule: the cheapest, the nearest or the most trusted.
3. It sends a claim, and keeps each receipt.
4. It sends pay when the seller accepts the claim.
5. It sends confirm when the goods arrive, or a dispute when they do not arrive.
A market maker does the two jobs. It buys where the price is low and offers where buyers want the goods. Its own ledger is the record of each position.
Practical points:
- Give each computer a device key. The operator keeps the owner key.
- Run record --from with many sources. If a source is unreachable or breaks the rules, the command skips it and reports it. It records the other sources.
- Ledgdex signs the messages from one key at different times. So all repeated orders count.
- On a local network, serve each dex over plain HTTP, and use those addresses.
Example: Bots runs a seller bot and two buyer bots until all deals close. Robots Paid per Clean is a full use case.