In this specification, we describe a method to construct message history that will aid the consistency guarantees of [MVDS](mvds.md). Additionally, we explain how data sync can be used for more lightweight messages that do not require full synchronization.
In order for more efficient synchronization of conversational messages, information should be provided allowing a node to more effectively synchronize the dependencies for any given message.
## Format
We introduce the metadata message which is used to convey information about a message and how it SHOULD be handled.
This field contains a list of parent [`message identifier`s](mvds.md#payloads) for the specific message. It MUST NOT contain any messages as parent whose `ack` flag was set to `false`. This establishes a directed acyclic graph (DAG)[^1] of persistent messages.
Nodes MAY buffer messages until dependencies are satisfied for causal consistency[^2], they MAY also pass the messages straight away for eventual consistency[^3].
A parent is any message before a new message that a node is aware of that has no children.
The number of parents for a given message is bound by [0, N], where N is the number of nodes participating in the conversation, therefore the space requirements for the `parents` field is O(N).
If a message has no parents it is considered a root. There can be multiple roots, which might be disconnected, giving rise to multiple DAGs.
When the `ephemeral` flag is set to `false`, a node MUST send an acknowledgment when they have received and processed a message. If it is set to `true`, it SHOULD NOT send any acknowledgment. The flag is `false` by default.
