Surface and Overlay

The @ operator in an NRP expression overlays a namespace onto a surface.

Concept

Normal internet: you visit https://wikipedia.com. One channel. The page serves you.

With Beatle + NRP: you visit https://wikipedia.com as normal, and you also open a channel to me://jabellae @ wikipedia.com. Two channels coexist.

Browser HTTP:   https://wikipedia.com/Scarab  (stateless, public)
Beatle NRP:     me://jabellae @ wikipedia.com  (bidirectional, namespaced)

You read the Wikipedia article as anyone would. You also have an open .me session projected over that surface — annotations, shared context, audience, capabilities — whatever jabellae’s namespace exposes there.

Syntax

namespace @ surface

jabellae @ wikipedia.com
jabellae + alex @ wikipedia.com
(jabellae ∩ team.acme) @ "https://wikipedia.com/Scarab"

Quoted surfaces support full URIs:

jabellae @ "https://wikipedia.com/Scarab"
jabellae @ "https://docs.internal.acme.com/api/v2"

Bare surfaces are hostname tokens:

jabellae @ wikipedia.com
jabellae @ localhost
jabellae @ suis-macbook-air.local

Precedence

@ binds tighter than ∩ and +:

jabellae + alex @ wikipedia.com
  = jabellae + (alex @ wikipedia.com)

To overlay a union, use parentheses:

(jabellae + alex) @ wikipedia.com

What Surface Means to the Resolver

The surface is a hint to the NRP server about the context of the channel. The server may:

Use the surface to scope the resolved capabilities (e.g. “what does jabellae expose specifically on wikipedia.com?”)
Include surface in the audience computation
Constrain disclosure based on surface policy

The surface value is passed through the NamespaceChannel.surface field after resolution.

Surfaces in the Stack