/consensus-mechanisms

name: consensus-mechanisms
description: Multi-protocol consensus for agent swarms supporting Raft leader election, Byzantine fault tolerance, Gossip state propagation, and CRDT conflict-free merging.
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob, WebFetch, WebSearch, Agent, AskUserQuestion
graph:
  domains: [domain:software-engineering]
  skillAreas: [skill-area:agentic-loops, skill-area:orchestration-loop]
  workflows: [workflow:feature-development]
  topics: [topic:developer-experience]
  roles: [role:tech-lead, role:backend-engineer]

• Byzantine fault tolerance is required (untrusted or unreliable agents)
• State synchronization across distributed agent swarms
• Conflict-free data merging in concurrent operations

Protocols

| Protocol | Use Case | Fault Tolerance | Complexity | |----------|----------|-----------------|------------| | Raft | Leader-based consensus, ordered log | Crash faults (f < n/2) | Medium | | Byzantine | Untrusted agents, adversarial conditions | Byzantine faults (f < n/3) | High | | Gossip | Eventual consistency, state propagation | Partition tolerant | Low | | CRDT | Conflict-free replicated data types | Always convergent | Low |

Weighted Voting

• Queen agents: 3x weight multiplier
• Worker agents: 1x weight
• Configurable consensus threshold (majority, supermajority, unanimous)

Agents Used

• `agents/swarm-coordinator/` - Protocol orchestration
• `agents/strategic-queen/` - Weighted voting leadership

Tool Use

Invoke via babysitter process: `methodologies/ruflo/ruflo-swarm-coordination`