Node Communication Protocol

PRX nodes communicate using an encrypted, authenticated protocol over TCP. This page describes the wire format and message types.

Transport

• Protocol: TCP with TLS 1.3 (mutual authentication via paired keys)
• Serialization: Length-prefixed MessagePack frames
• Compression: Optional LZ4 frame compression

Message Types

Type	Direction	Description
TaskRequest	Controller -> Node	Assign a task to the node
TaskResult	Node -> Controller	Return task execution result
StatusQuery	Controller -> Node	Request node status
StatusReport	Node -> Controller	Report node health and capacity
Heartbeat	Bidirectional	Keepalive and latency measurement
Cancel	Controller -> Node	Cancel a running task

Configuration

[node.protocol]
tls_version = "1.3"
compression = "lz4"  # "lz4" | "none"
max_frame_size_kb = 4096
heartbeat_interval_secs = 15
connection_timeout_secs = 10

Connection Lifecycle

1. Connect -- TCP connection established
2. TLS handshake -- mutual authentication with paired keys
3. Protocol negotiation -- agree on version and compression
4. Active -- exchange messages
5. Graceful close -- send disconnect message and close

Related Pages

• Nodes Overview
• Node Pairing