T2P / Terminal 2.0
- Frame
- 12-byte header + CBOR (RFC 8949)
- Opcodes
- small fixed set · no THOUGHT/ACTION/RESULT
- History
- SNAP · SEAL · FREE · ACK
- Transport
- WebSocket · stdio / HTTP · NATS capability
01 / Technology
A binary wire protocol for live agent state.
SemSwitch built T2P (Terminal 2.0 Protocol) as a binary, structurally-typed frame format that streams live states of AI-agent session as typed, replayable events instead of fragile ANSI text or JSON. Our operating surface, soundOS, integrates directly with T2P to provide multi-layer cloud stream and agentic functionality with real-time TTS/STT. By bypassing the traditional terminal model, our protocol lets task executions fan-out in real-time, ensure accessibility anywhere in the world, persist states, and use only a fraction of the resources that legacy systems require.
- T2P
- State-plane protocol
- soundOS
- Operator surface
- Frame
- 12-byte header · CBOR
State streamseq →
OPEN·041
SET·042
DELTA·043
LINK·044
SNAP·045
SEAL·046
typed frames in flight · sealed on completion
02 / The portfolio
Two layers. One is a format;
the other is a system.
T2P is the engine. soundOS is the vehicle powered by it so the user can drive.
soundOS
- Control plane
- User · Gateway · Worker · Broker
- Execution
- Ephemeral containers · Global
- Keys
- session-scoped · BYOK
- Desktop
- WIP · v1.0.2
03 / A closer look · T2P
The frame knows its own shape before anything reads the payload.
Every T2P message opens with a fixed base header, then optional extension headers and a binary body. It demultiplexes and delimits without ever parsing the payload. Anything snapshotted or hashed uses deterministic CBOR so applying the same events on any client rebuilds identical state.
T2P/1 base frame · 12 bytes
12+
ext TLV → CBOR payload (RFC 8949)
Routing axes
- stream_idroutes bytes
- laneroutes geometry
- seqroutes replay / dedupe
- revroutes materialization
Field · hover or arrow-key the ruler
version — bytes 0, u8, value 0x01.
04 / The core
Structural, not semantic.
T2P standardizes state changes. What an agent means rides on top as optional metadata, so the wire format doesn’t break if models or providers invent new kinds of output.
State changes · standardized
T2P standardizes state changes. What an agent means rides on top as optional metadata, so the wire format doesn’t break if models or providers invent new kinds of output.
Not in the protocol
THOUGHTACTIONRESULT
The protocol standardizes mutation, causality, routing, and layout — never agent meaning. So there is no THOUGHT, ACTION, or RESULT verb. A frame can’t go out of date because models invent new kinds of output.
Profile metadata
agent.messageagent.tool_callagent.tool_outputagent.diffagent.artifactagent.approvalagent.summary
“This is a tool call” is a label, not an opcode. The agent-native profile carries seven roles and named relations on the existing structural kinds — accepted as v1, while the tool-execution stream and provider-provenance record remain draft profiles.
05 / Providers
Provider-neutral by design.
Our runtime is provider-neutral, with OpenAI as the canonical reference adapter. Our frontend is tiered at fixed capacity, but auto-scaling and enterprise-hosted servers are available.
OpenAI
Launch-Ready
Responses API / Websocket
Anthropic
Launch-Ready
Messages API
Google Gemini
In validation
GenerateContent API / Gemini Live API / Websocket
OpenRouter
In validation
06 / The SemSwitch Roadmap
On the edge of cutting.
T2P is not OSS. It currently drives our soundOS platform and will soon be licenseable for B2B and enterprise.
- Execution-plane capacity
- Fully scaleable · Multiple tasks
- soundOS desktop
- WIP · v1.0.4
- T2P specification
- Private · Enterprise license availability TBD
We created T2P simply because we knew there was a better way forward for the upcoming agentic future.
Terminal 2.0 Protocol and soundOS are licensed by SemSwitch. They will never be openly published. Enterprise and software teams are encouraged to reach out for access to our pre-release versions.
Get in touch →