# Federation and shared work

Treat cross-instance exchange as an explicit integration.

Source: https://docs.minds.sh/docs/concepts/federation



Federation concerns coordination or exchange across more than one engine or network. It is distinct from putting Free users into a shared instance: the Free and Pro product requirement remains dedicated Firecracker VM–based Akasha instances.

## Define what crosses the boundary [#define-what-crosses-the-boundary]

Before connecting systems, identify the data or model state being exchanged, the authority of each participant, and how an outcome will be verified. A relationship between instances must not imply unrestricted access to all of their namespaces.

The current daemon registers SNN federation-related operations, but the Minds browser proxy's action-grant map does not cover all of those paths. A registered daemon endpoint can therefore remain inaccessible through the dashboard proxy.

Use [SNN operation contracts](/docs/api/instance/spiking-networks) and [namespace and replication contracts](/docs/api/instance/namespaces-replication) for the actual implemented interfaces. Read the capability and deployment requirements for each operation before promising a cross-instance workflow.