Where Net fits
Net connects capabilities across machines, runtimes, and organizations. An application asks for work to be done; Net discovers providers that announce the right capability, evaluates availability and authority, invokes one of them, and keeps the related streams, state, and artifacts attached to the work.
That makes Net a substrate beneath applications, not a replacement for their user experience or business model. A workspace, fleet console, agent runtime, or industrial application can use Net while keeping its own workflows, approvals, and interface.
The shortest description is:
Net addresses capabilities under identity and authority.
Other systems organize distributed work around different objects. HTTP addresses an endpoint or resource. MCP describes a tool that a configured host can call. NATS addresses a subject. Zenoh addresses data through a key expression. Net's unit is a capability offered by a provider, together with the authority and live state needed to use it.
Read in this order
- The Agentic Mesh explains the problem from an application's point of view.
- When to use Net gives the fit boundary, including cases where HTTP, MCP, NATS, or a normal database is enough.
- How Net relates to other systems gives a compact comparison by abstraction, topology, and trust boundary.
- Net and MCP explains how existing MCP tools become discoverable capabilities.
- Connecting HTTP systems shows where REST and webhooks sit at the application boundary.
- Net and NATS and Net and Zenoh cover the closest messaging and data-centric comparisons.
For the implementation model, continue to What is Net?. For a concrete distinction between acceptance, execution, and verified outcome, read Submitted is not completed.