The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for allocating and reclaiming resources within a rendezvous federation. Embodiments of the invention include formulating and routing messages in accordance with cached two-way agreements between adjacent nodes on a ring of nodes. Cached two-way agreements divide responsibility for at least unoccupied identifiers between the adjacent nodes on a ring. When a message is received at a node, the node can refer to a cached two-way agreement to determine if it or an adjacent node is responsible for the message. The node then sends the message to the next appropriate component in accordance with the cached two-way agreement.