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The envoy framework: an open architecture for agents

Published: 01 July 1992 Publication History

Abstract

The Envoy Framework addresses a need for computer-based assistants or agents that operate in conjunction with users' existing applications, helping them perform tedious, repetitive, or time-consuming tasks more easily and efficiently. Envoys carry out missions for users by invoking envoy-aware applications called operatives and inform users of mission results via envoy-aware applications called informers. The distributed, open architecture developed for Envoys is derived from an analysis of the best characteristics of existing agent systems. This architecture has been designed as a model for how agent technology can be seamlessly integrated into the electronic desktop. It defines a set of application programmer's interfaces so that developers may convert their software to envoy-aware applications. A subset of the architecture described in this paper has been implemented in an Envoy Framework prototype.

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                      cover image ACM Transactions on Information Systems
                      ACM Transactions on Information Systems  Volume 10, Issue 3
                      July 1992
                      103 pages
                      ISSN:1046-8188
                      EISSN:1558-2868
                      DOI:10.1145/146760
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                      Association for Computing Machinery

                      New York, NY, United States

                      Publication History

                      Published: 01 July 1992
                      Published in TOIS Volume 10, Issue 3

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                      1. application programmer interface
                      2. user agent

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