An agent is provided to include state table storage to hold a set of state tables to represent a plurality of coherence protocol actions, where the set of state tables is to include at least one nested state table. The agent further includes protocol logic associated with the state table storage, the protocol logic to receive a coherence protocol message, and determine a coherence protocol action of the plurality of coherence protocol actions from the set of state tables based at least in part on the coherence protocol message.