Protocols (17)

Open protocols and standards for agents and agent interoperability.

Machine-readable: /api/protocols.json.

• AG-UI (Agent-User Interaction Protocol)

  Open, lightweight, event-based protocol that standardizes how AI agents connect to user-facing frontend applications.

• Agent Client Protocol (ACP)

  Protocol for connecting any code editor to any coding agent, standardizing editor-agent communication.

• Agent Plugins

  Vendor-neutral standard (v1.0.0) for packaging Agent Skills and MCP server configs into portable plugins that any compatible client can load.

• Agent Skills Specification

  Open format for packaging agent capabilities as folders with a SKILL.md (YAML frontmatter + instructions) plus optional scripts and resources.

• Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)

  Open standard, hosted by the Linux Foundation, that lets independent AI agents discover each other, delegate work and exchange results across vendors.

• AGENTS.md

  Simple, open format for guiding coding agents: a README for agents placed in your repo.

• Arazzo Specification

  OpenAPI Initiative spec for describing deterministic sequences of API calls and their dependencies as workflows.

• ERC-8004: Trustless Agents (unknown)

  Ethereum standard proposal for discovering agents and establishing trust through reputation and validation.

• llms.txt

  Proposal to standardize a /llms.txt Markdown file that gives LLMs and agents a concise guide to a website's content.

• MCP Authorization (OAuth 2.1 for MCP)

  The MCP specification's transport-level authorization flow for HTTP-based MCP servers, based on a subset of OAuth 2.1 and related RFCs.

• Model Context Protocol (MCP)

  Open protocol that standardizes how AI applications connect to external tools, data sources and prompts via MCP servers.

• NLWeb

  Open protocols and reference implementation for natural-language interfaces to websites, using Schema.org/RSS and natively supporting MCP.

• OpenAPI Specification

  Language-agnostic standard for describing HTTP APIs, widely used to generate agent tools from API definitions.

• OpenTelemetry GenAI Semantic Conventions

  OpenTelemetry conventions for spans, metrics and events emitted by GenAI clients, MCP and model providers, for interoperable agent observability.

• Web Bot Auth (beta)

  IETF draft architecture for identifying automated traffic (bots and agents) by cryptographically signing HTTP requests with HTTP Message Signatures.

• WebMCP (beta)

  Proposed web API letting sites expose JavaScript functions or HTML forms as tools with natural-language descriptions and schemas for in-browser AI agents.

• x402

  Open standard for internet-native payments built on HTTP 402, letting APIs and agents pay per request across crypto and fiat networks.