Communication Protocol

Defines the technical standards, message structures, security requirements, and data exchange procedures for all Aevum News distribution channels and partner integrations.

5.1 Overview & Standards

All communication between external systems, editorial tools, and Aevum News distribution nodes must adhere to this protocol. The standard enforces strict formatting, cryptographic validation, and version control to ensure data integrity across global wire feeds.

ℹ️

Scope: This protocol applies to REST APIs, WebSocket streams, secure file drops, and automated editorial handoffs. All legacy SOAP and plain-text FTP methods have been deprecated as of v2.0.

Governing Specifications

HTTP/2 & HTTP/3 over TLS 1.3+
JSON:API 1.1 compliant payloads
OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect for authentication
Ed25519 digital signatures for content verification

5.2 Message Formatting & Structure

All payloads must use UTF-8 encoding and follow the canonical structure below. Headers must include Aevum-Protocol-Version and Content-Type: application/vnd.aevum.news+json.

JSON Payload Structure

{
  "protocol": "aevum.news/v2",
  "timestamp": "2025-01-15T08:30:00Z",
  "request_id": "req_8f4a2c1d",
  "payload": {
    "article_id": "aev_9928471",
    "status": "published",
    "channels": ["wire", "web", "mobile_push"],
    "metadata": { ... }
  },
  "signature": "ed25519_sig_hex_here"
}

Field	Type	Required	Description
`protocol`	String	Required	Protocol identifier and version
`timestamp`	ISO 8601	Required	UTC time of message creation
`request_id`	UUID v4	Required	Unique identifier for tracing
`payload`	Object	Required	Encrypted or plaintext data block
`signature`	Hex String	Required	Ed25519 cryptographic signature

5.3 Security & Encryption

Security is non-negotiable. All data in transit must use TLS 1.3. At-rest encryption for cached payloads uses AES-256-GCM. Authentication requires mutual TLS (mTLS) or OAuth 2.0 client credentials flow.

⚠️

Certificate Rotation: Partner certificates must be renewed every 90 days. Expired certificates will result in immediate connection termination without retry.

Rate Limiting & Throttling

Tier	Requests/Min	Burst Limit	Quota/Day
Basic	60	10	10,000
Professional	300	50	100,000
Enterprise	1,000+	200	Unlimited

5.4 API Endpoints

All endpoints follow RESTful conventions. Base URL: https://api.aevumnews.io/v2/

Method	Endpoint	Description	Auth
POST	`/ingest`	Submit editorial content for processing	OAuth + Sig
GET	`/feeds/{id}`	Retrieve specific wire feed	Bearer
PUT	`/articles/{id}`	Update metadata or corrections	OAuth + Sig
DELETE	`/articles/{id}`	Retract or soft-delete content	Admin + Sig
WS	`wss://stream.aevumnews.io/live`	Real-time breaking news socket	Token

5.5 Error Handling & Logging

Errors follow standard HTTP status codes with structured JSON responses. All failures include a trace_id for support escalation.

Error Response Format

{
  "error": {
    "code": "VALIDATION_FAILED",
    "message": "Missing required field: payload.channels",
    "trace_id": "trc_7x9m2p",
    "retry_after": null
  }
}

✅

Retry Logic: Implement exponential backoff starting at 2s, max 5 attempts. Status 429 includes Retry-After header.

5.6 Versioning & Compliance

Protocol versions follow semantic versioning (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH). Breaking changes increment MAJOR and are supported for 12 months alongside the previous major release.

Deprecation Policy

v1.x: Sunset Q4 2025
v2.x: Current stable (active support)
v3.0: Beta (breaking: mandatory E2E encryption)

All integrations must pass the Aevum Compliance Gateway before production deployment. Automated audit logs are available at /compliance/audit.

5.7 JSON Schema Reference

Full validation schemas are hosted at https://schema.aevumnews.io/protocol/v2/. Use the provided CLI tool for local validation:

CLI Validation

# Validate payload against v2 schema
aevum-cli validate payload.json --schema v2 --strict

# Check certificate expiry
aevum-cli certs check --partner-id ae_9921

# Generate signing key pairaevum-cli keys generate --algo ed25519 --output ./keys/