In the exchange of information over a communications channel, an out-of-band agreement is an agreement or understanding between the communicating parties that is not included in any message sent over the channel but which is relevant for the interpretation of such messages.
By extension, in a client–server or provider-requester setting, an out-of-band agreement is an agreement or understanding that governs the semantics of the request/response interface but which is not part of the formal or contractual description of the interface specification itself.
Famous quotes containing the word agreement:
“No one can doubt, that the convention for the distinction of property, and for the stability of possession, is of all circumstances the most necessary to the establishment of human society, and that after the agreement for the fixing and observing of this rule, there remains little or nothing to be done towards settling a perfect harmony and concord.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)