A2A works at a different level than MCP. We are working with partners on very specific customer problems. Customers are building individual agents in different frameworks OR are purchasing agents from multiple vendors. Those agents are isolated and do not share tools, or memory, or context.
For example, most companies have an internal directory and internal private APIs and tools. They can build an agent to help complete internal tasks. However, they also may purchase an "HR Agent" or "Travel Assistant Agent" or "Tax Preparation Agent" or "Facilities Control Agent". These agents aren't sharing their private APIs and data with each other.
It's also difficult to model these agents as structured tools. For example, a "Tax Preparation Agent" may need to evaluate many different options and ask for specific different documents and information based on an individual users needs. Modeling this as 100s of tools isn't practical. That's where we see A2A helping. Talk to an agent as an agent.
This lets a user talk to only their company agent and then have that agent work with the HR Agent or Travel Booking Agent to complete complex tasks.
Thank you for the feedback? Would you consider writing up an issue on our github with some more specifics? https://github.com/google/a2a
A2A is being developed in the open with the community. You are finding some early details that we are looking into and will be addressing. We have many partners who will be contributing and want this to be a truly open, collaborative endeavor. We acknowledge this is a little different than dropping a polished '1.0' version in github on day 1. But that is intentional :)
Hi there - I work on a2a. Thanks for the reaction - lots of good points here. We really do see a2a as different and complementary to MCP. I personally am working on both and see them in very different contexts.
I see MCP as vital when building an agent. An agent is an LLM with data, resources, tools, and services. However, our customers are building or purchasing agents from other providers - e.g. purchasing "HR Agent", "Bank Account Agent", "Photo Editor Agent", etc. All of these agents are closed systems and have access to private data, APIs, etc. There needs to be a way for my agent to work with these other agents when a tool is not enough.
Other comments you have are spot on - the current specification and samples are early. We are working on many more advanced examples and official SDKs and client/servers. We're working with partners, other Google teams, and framework providers to turn this into a stable standard. We're doing it in the open - so there are things that are missing because (a) its early and (b) we want partners and the community to bring features to the table.
tldr - this is NOT done. We want your feedback and sincerely appreciate it!
Yes, that is our assumption. reposting from above:
We are working with partners on very specific customer problems. Customers are building individual agents in different frameworks OR are purchasing agents from multiple vendors. Those agents are isolated and do not share tools, or memory, or context.
For example, most companies have an internal directory and internal private APIs and tools. They can build an agent to help complete internal tasks. However, they also may purchase an "HR Agent" or "Travel Assistant Agent" or "Tax Preparation Agent" or "Facilities Control Agent". These agents aren't sharing their private APIs and data with each other.
It's also difficult to model these agents as structured tools. For example, a "Tax Preparation Agent" may need to evaluate many different options and ask for specific different documents and information based on an individual users needs. Modeling this as 100s of tools isn't practical. That's where we see A2A helping. Talk to an agent as an agent.
This lets a user talk to only their company agent and then have that agent work with the HR Agent or Travel Booking Agent to complete complex tasks when they cannot be modeled as tools.
We are working with partners on very specific customer problems. Customers are building individual agents in different frameworks OR are purchasing agents from multiple vendors. Those agents are isolated and do not share tools, or memory, or context.
For example, most companies have an internal directory and internal private APIs and tools. They can build an agent to help complete internal tasks. However, they also may purchase an "HR Agent" or "Travel Assistant Agent" or "Tax Preparation Agent" or "Facilities Control Agent". These agents aren't sharing their private APIs and data with each other.
It's also difficult to model these agents as structured tools. For example, a "Tax Preparation Agent" may need to evaluate many different options and ask for specific different documents and information based on an individual users needs. Modeling this as 100s of tools isn't practical. That's where we see A2A helping. Talk to an agent as an agent.
This lets a user talk to only their company agent and then have that agent work with the HR Agent or Travel Booking Agent to complete complex tasks when they cannot be modeled as tools.
We are working with partners on very specific customer problems. Customers are building individual agents in different frameworks OR are purchasing agents from multiple vendors. Those agents are isolated and do not share tools, or memory, or context.
For example, most companies have an internal directory and internal private APIs and tools. They can build an agent to help complete internal tasks. However, they also may purchase an "HR Agent" or "Travel Assistant Agent" or "Tax Preparation Agent" or "Facilities Control Agent". These agents aren't sharing their private APIs and data with each other.
It's also difficult to model these agents as structured tools. For example, a "Tax Preparation Agent" may need to evaluate many different options and ask for specific different documents and information based on an individual users needs. Modeling this as 100s of tools isn't practical. That's where we see A2A helping. Talk to an agent as an agent.
This lets a user talk to only their company agent and then have that agent work with the HR Agent or Travel Booking Agent to complete complex tasks when they cannot be modeled as tools.
Hi there (I work on a2a) - A2A works at a different level than MCP. We are working with partners on very specific customer problems. Customers are building individual agents in different frameworks OR are purchasing agents from multiple vendors. Those agents are isolated and do not share tools, or memory, or context.
For example, most companies have an internal directory and internal private APIs and tools. They can build an agent to help complete internal tasks. However, they also may purchase an "HR Agent" or "Travel Assistant Agent" or "Tax Preparation Agent" or "Facilities Control Agent". These agents aren't sharing their private APIs and data with each other.
It's also difficult to model these agents as structured tools. For example, a "Tax Preparation Agent" may need to evaluate many different options and ask for specific different documents and information based on an individual users needs. Modeling this as 100s of tools isn't practical. That's where we see A2A helping. Talk to an agent as an agent.
This lets a user talk to only their company agent and then have that agent work with the HR Agent or Travel Booking Agent to complete complex tasks.
Hi there (I work on a2a) - can you explain the concern a bit more? We'd be happy to look.
A2A is a conduit for agents to speak in their native modalities. From the receiving agent implementation point of view, there shouldn't be a difference in "speaking" to a user/human-in-the-loop and another agent. I'm not aware of anything in the protocol that is sensitive to the content. A2A has 'Messages' and 'Artifacts' to distinguish between generated content and everything else (context, thoughts, user instructions, etc) and should be robust to formatting challenges (since it relies on the underlying agent).
A2A works at a different level than MCP. We are working with partners on very specific customer problems. Customers are building individual agents in different frameworks OR are purchasing agents from multiple vendors. Those agents are isolated and do not share tools, or memory, or context.
For example, most companies have an internal directory and internal private APIs and tools. They can build an agent to help complete internal tasks. However, they also may purchase an "HR Agent" or "Travel Assistant Agent" or "Tax Preparation Agent" or "Facilities Control Agent". These agents aren't sharing their private APIs and data with each other.
It's also difficult to model these agents as structured tools. For example, a "Tax Preparation Agent" may need to evaluate many different options and ask for specific different documents and information based on an individual users needs. Modeling this as 100s of tools isn't practical. That's where we see A2A helping. Talk to an agent as an agent.
This lets a user talk to only their company agent and then have that agent work with the HR Agent or Travel Booking Agent to complete complex tasks.