An indication of an application-related objective is received at a first agent associated with a first device. One or more meta-language based descriptions comprising device data stored in a data store are used to identify a second device from a plurality of devices to help the first device to achieve the application-related objective. At least in part by exchanging with a second agent associated with the second device one or more programmatically determined bids and responses to bids, a mutually compatible set of configurations for the first device and the second device to cooperate with each other are determined to help achieve the application-related objective. The mutually compatible set of configurations comprising parameters are agreed upon by the first device and the second device. The first device and the second device are configured based at least in part on the mutually compatible set of configurations.