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Liquid Interfaces: A Dynamic Ontology for the Interoperability of Autonomous Systems

Dhiogo de Sá, Carlos Schmiedel, Carlos Pereira Lopes

TL;DR

The paper addresses the mismatch between rigid static interfaces and adaptive autonomous agents operating under semantic uncertainty. It introduces Liquid Interfaces and the Liquid Interface Protocol (LIP) to enable runtime, intention-driven negotiation and ephemeral coordination, supported by a formal set of invariants and a negotiation function that aims to minimize semantic entropy. Key contributions include the solid-vs-liquid formalism, a lifecycle-oriented protocol with semantic adjudication and failure renegotiation, and a governance framework built around intention-based authorization and semantic auditability. This approach reduces integration debt, supports adaptive coordination in heterogeneous ecosystems, and opens avenues for decentralized realizations and hybrid architectures that blend liquid coordination with traditional static interfaces.

Abstract

Contemporary software architectures struggle to support autonomous agents whose reasoning is adaptive, probabilistic, and context-dependent, while system integration remains dominated by static interfaces and deterministic contracts. This paper introduces Liquid Interfaces, a coordination paradigm in which interfaces are not persistent technical artifacts, but ephemeral relational events that emerge through intention articulation and semantic negotiation at runtime.We formalize this model and present the Liquid Interface Protocol (LIP),which governs intention-driven interaction, negotiated execution, and enforce ephemerality under semantic uncertainty. We further discuss the governance implications of this approach and describe a reference architecture that demonstrates practical feasibility. Liquid Interfaces provide a principled foundation for adaptive coordination in agent-based systems

Liquid Interfaces: A Dynamic Ontology for the Interoperability of Autonomous Systems

TL;DR

The paper addresses the mismatch between rigid static interfaces and adaptive autonomous agents operating under semantic uncertainty. It introduces Liquid Interfaces and the Liquid Interface Protocol (LIP) to enable runtime, intention-driven negotiation and ephemeral coordination, supported by a formal set of invariants and a negotiation function that aims to minimize semantic entropy. Key contributions include the solid-vs-liquid formalism, a lifecycle-oriented protocol with semantic adjudication and failure renegotiation, and a governance framework built around intention-based authorization and semantic auditability. This approach reduces integration debt, supports adaptive coordination in heterogeneous ecosystems, and opens avenues for decentralized realizations and hybrid architectures that blend liquid coordination with traditional static interfaces.

Abstract

Contemporary software architectures struggle to support autonomous agents whose reasoning is adaptive, probabilistic, and context-dependent, while system integration remains dominated by static interfaces and deterministic contracts. This paper introduces Liquid Interfaces, a coordination paradigm in which interfaces are not persistent technical artifacts, but ephemeral relational events that emerge through intention articulation and semantic negotiation at runtime.We formalize this model and present the Liquid Interface Protocol (LIP),which governs intention-driven interaction, negotiated execution, and enforce ephemerality under semantic uncertainty. We further discuss the governance implications of this approach and describe a reference architecture that demonstrates practical feasibility. Liquid Interfaces provide a principled foundation for adaptive coordination in agent-based systems
Paper Structure (39 sections, 16 equations, 2 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 39 sections, 16 equations, 2 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Theoretical Foundation and Related Work
  3. Architectural Motivation
  4. Limits of LLM-Based Agentic Systems
  5. Proposal: Liquid Interfaces
  6. Related Work and Differentiation
  7. Interpretive Lens
  8. Formal Definition: From Object to Event
  9. The Solid Paradigm: Static Contractual Isomorphism
  10. The Liquid Paradigm: Intentional Probabilistic Negotiation
  11. Temporal Ephemerality and Debt Cancellation
  12. Protocol and System Architecture
  13. Liquid Interface Protocol (LIP)
  14. Message Semantics, Interaction Lifecycle, and Ephemerality
  15. Semantic Capability Matching via LLM Adjudication
  16. ...and 24 more sections

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: Reference stack underlying the Liquid Interface Protocol (LIP), illustrating the separation between semantic coordination, transport delivery, cryptographic identity, and infrastructure substrate.
  • Figure 2: Macro-architecture of the Liquid Interface Protocol (LIP).