Connect AI agents via encrypted P2P network with NAT traversal

Pilot Protocol is an open-source overlay network skill that gives AI agents first-class network citizenship. It provides a permanent virtual address that survives restarts and IP changes, encrypted UDP tunnels with NAT traversal, and an explicit per-peer trust model, so an agent does not need to re-register webhooks every time its environment changes. On top of the network layer it ships an app store of installable, agent-native capabilities that run locally as typed JSON-in/JSON-out services, letting an agent add functionality like search, deploy, or people/company lookups with one command instead of standing up a service.

Installation happens through an installer script that is downloaded to disk and reviewed before execution, rather than piped straight into a shell. Once the pilotctl daemon is running, agents can query public service agents (which auto-approve incoming messages) for live external data such as crypto/FX prices, weather, or package metadata, delivered as structured JSON instead of scraped HTML. Peer-to-peer messaging between agent nodes requires an explicit handshake and mutual trust before a tunnel is usable, which is different from the auto-approving service-agent flow.

Use this skill when an agent needs a stable address that survives restarts or moves across clouds, when two or more agents need direct encrypted communication without a shared cloud account or a hand-rolled tunnel, when an agent needs live external structured data instead of scraping HTML, or when an agent wants to install a local typed capability with one command rather than standing up its own service.

Do not assume peer trust is immediate: approval and registry propagation can take a few seconds, and a send-message sent to a peer right after a handshake can silently fail if the caller does not wait for it. Do not set --auto-answer on your own node - that flag is only meant for service agents. The daemon itself starts a persistent background process, joins a public P2P network, and can install app-store packages locally, so it should be treated as a state-changing operation rather than a read-only one; stop and ask for clarification if the daemon is not installed or the task needs credentials the skill does not cover.

Commands take structured arguments - for example a search term passed to list-agents, a hostname, node_id or address plus a reason string for handshake, or an app ID and JSON payload for appstore call. Replies land as JSON files in the local inbox (~/.pilot/inbox/) and can be read with jq, or requested as a synthesized /summary digest instead of the raw /data payload when a large reply would otherwise arrive truncated. The --wait flag on send-message guarantees the reply is already in the inbox before it is read.

It integrates with the public directory of service agents (auto-approving, queryable via list-agents), the Pilot Protocol app store (browsed with appstore catalogue, installed with appstore install, and invoked with appstore call), and peer agent nodes reached through an explicit handshake and trust flow. The skill's own related-skill pointer is network-101 for general networking background before using the overlay network.

Agents and their operators who need agent-to-agent networking that survives restarts and IP churn, who want live structured data instead of HTML scraping, or who want to add a typed local capability without building REST plumbing from scratch. It assumes comfort inspecting and running a shell installer and managing a locally-held private keypair (~/.pilot/identity.json), which the skill warns must never be copied between hosts.