Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language

Work on KQML is led(?) by Tim Finin <finin@umbc.edu> of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Lab for Advanced Information Technology. It is part of the ARPA Knowledge Sharing Effort[?].

The KQML message format and protocol can be used to interact with an intelligent system, either by an application program, or by another intelligent system. KQML's "performatives" are operations that agents perform on each other's knowledge and goal stores. Higher-level interactions such as contract nets[?] and negotiation are built using these. KQML's "communication facilitators" coordinate the interactions of other agents to support knowledge sharing.

Experimental prototype systems support concurrent engineering, intelligent design, intelligent planning, and scheduling.