catalog/list is gated by catalog. It is advertised by an aggregator (a
gateway that fronts several downstream engines) and lets a client discover what
sits behind it — the introspection primitive behind Federation.
Result
object[]
One entry per downstream engine, each
{ id, info, capabilities } — the same
identity and capability shapes returned by
initialize. A client can therefore reason about
each backend’s abilities without connecting to it directly.Aggregators vs single engines
Single engine
Advertises retrieval capabilities (
retrieve, rerank, …) and serves them
directly. No catalog.Aggregator / gateway
Advertises
catalog, fronts many engines, and either routes to one or fuses
all of them. catalog/list enumerates the fleet.catalog makes an aggregator self-describing: a client points at one
endpoint, calls catalog/list, and learns the whole federated topology. This is
how a client-side Selector or Federation can also be
driven entirely server-side behind a single URL.