Disclosed is a method, apparatus, and system for processing a data update message in a multi-agent system comprising a plurality of agents, the operations comprising: receiving, at a second agent, the data update message comprising data for a node in a shared data tree and a first node context map from a first agent, the first node context map comprising last known contexts of all the agents for the node according to knowledge of the first agent; determining, at the second agent, whether any of three conditions relating to the first node context map and a second node context map is true, the second node context map comprising last known contexts of all the agents for the node according to knowledge of the second agent; and in response to determining that none of the three conditions relating to the first node context map and the second node context map is true, updating, at the second agent, the node based on the data update message from the first agent.