PRAGMA: A Normative REST API Framework for Cross-Standard Declarative Intent Management in Distributed Networks

A growing class of open standards for distributed system management defines rich information models for intent — structured declarations of desired system state specifying objectives, constraints, targets, and fulfilment conditions. These specifications, spanning telecommunications network management, O-RAN, NFV orchestration, and cloud-native infrastructure, consistently stop at the boundary where they become useful: no REST API binding exists that makes intent information models machine-callable across vendor and platform boundaries. This paper proposes PRAGMA — a normative REST API design that bridges declarative intent information models to an OpenAPI 3.1 resource contract. PRAGMA introduces a four-resource model, a negotiation workflow as a REST state machine, and a cross-standard comparison that surfaces both alignment opportunities and irreconcilable gaps requiring new standardisation work. The design is information-model normative, REST convention compliant, cross-standard aligned, and OpenAPI 3.1 specified — enabling auto-generation of client/server stubs and conformance test tooling applicable to intent-driven network automation, zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), and autonomous network management. A reference implementation path using FastAPI, Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions, and CNCF CloudEvents is described. PRAGMA is designed to be independently implementable by any platform without proprietary adaptation.