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Show HN: An A2A-compatible, open-source framework for multi-agent networks

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Re: Show HN: An A2A-compatible, open-source framework for multi-agent networks

#41

Post by lmf4lol »

hamandcheese wrote: post #36
irshadnilam wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can. Everyone will have their own versions of the rest endpoints, their own version of input params, and lots and lots of docs scatterd. A standard, will help the ecosystem grow. Tooling, libraries etc.

A major reason agentic LLMs are so promising right now is because they just Figure It Out (sometimes). Either the AI can figure it out, and it doesn't matter if there is a standardized protocol. Or the AI can't figure it out, and then it's probably a bad AI in the first place (not very I). The difference between those two possibilities is a chasm far too wide to be bridged by the simple addition of a new protocol.

I think that‘s a bit shortsighted.

Having A2A is much more efficient and less error prone. Why would I want to spend tons of token on an AI „figuring it out“, if I can have the same effect for less using A2A? we can even train the LLMs with A2A in mind, further increasing stability and decreasing cost.

A human can also figure everything out, but if I come across a well engineered REST API with standard oauth2 , I am productive within 5 minutes.

Re: Show HN: An A2A-compatible, open-source framework for multi-agent networks

#42

Post by WingedBadger »

silves89 wrote: post #16
buster wrote: post #5

Can someone please explain what this means? I'm familiar with agentic development workflows but have no clue what this means and what I can do with it? Is it something like n8n, to connect agents with some work flow and let the work flow do stuff for me?

In the late 90s and early 2000s there was a bunch of academic research into collaborative multi-agent systems. This included things like communication protocols, capability discovery, platforms, and some AI. The classic and over-used example was travel booking -- a hotel booking agent, a flight booking agent, a train booking agent, etc all collaborating to align time, cost, location. The cooperative agents could add…

As someone who got into ongoing multi-agent systems (MAS) research relatively recently (~4 years, mostly in distributed optimization), I see two major strands of it. Both of which are certainly still in search of the magical "emergence":

There is the formal view of MAS that is a direct extension of older works with cooperative and competitive agents. This tries to model and then prove emergent properties rigorously. I also count "classic" distributed optimization methods with convergence and correctness properties in this area. Maybe the best known application of this are coordination algorithms for robot/drone swarms.

Then, as a sibling comment points out, there is the influx of machine learning into the field. A large part of this so far was multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). I see this mostly applied to any "too hard" or "too slow" optimization problem and in some cases they seem to give impressive results.

Techniques from both areas are frequently mixed and matched for specific applications. Things like agents running a classic optimization but with some ML-based classifications and local knowledge base. What I see actually being used in the wild at the moment are relatively limited agents, applied to a single optimization task and with frequent human supervision.

More recently, LLMs have certainly taken over the MAS term and the corresponding SEO. What this means for the future of the field, I have no idea. It will certainly influence where research funding is allocated. Personally, I find it hard to believe LLMs would solve the classic engineering problems (speed, reliability, correctness) that seem to hold back MAS in more "real world" environments. I assume this will instead push research focus into different applications with higher tolerance for weird outputs. But maybe I just lack imagination.

Re: Show HN: An A2A-compatible, open-source framework for multi-agent networks

#43

Post by likis »

jondwillis wrote: post #28
zomux2000 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are working on an RPG game tailored for agents :) releasing soon.

I mean, I wrote bots to play MMORPGs when I was a teen/kid, but really, what's the point? Aren't games there to be enjoyed by things that can have experiences?

Maybe I interpreted it differently, but playing an RPG where every NPC is essentially its own agent/AI with its own context would be very interesting. In most RPGs, NPCs are very static.

Re: Show HN: An A2A-compatible, open-source framework for multi-agent networks

#44

Post by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF »

snasan wrote: post #40
jumploops wrote: post #12

> Star Us on GitHub and Get Exclusive Day 1 Badge for Your Networks This made me close the tab. Stars have been gamed for awhile on GitHub, but given the single demo, my best guess is that this is trying to build hype before having any real utility.

If being thorough is wrong, then what exactly is right?

Rather than "being thorough", others are likely to see it as "dubious incentives". Plugging that into your question seems to yield some rather obvious answers.

Re: Show HN: An A2A-compatible, open-source framework for multi-agent networks

#45

Post by buster »

zomux2000 wrote: post #13
buster wrote: post #5

Can someone please explain what this means? I'm familiar with agentic development workflows but have no clue what this means and what I can do with it? Is it something like n8n, to connect agents with some work flow and let the work flow do stuff for me?

openagents aims to build agent networks with "open" ecosystems, many agent systems these days are centered around workflows, but workflow is possible when you already know what kinds of agents will be there in your team. But when you allow any agent to join/leave a network, the workflow concept breaks, so this project helps developers to build a ecosystem for open collaboration.

Thanks, but do you realize that you explained it to me using agent systems and ecosystems and open collaboration but i still don't know what it does for the user?

Can it book flights for me? Is it supposed to be some kind of autonomous intelligent bot that does "stuff" for me? What stuff? From the sibling comments it sounds like "we" are putting LLMs together and hope that something emerges? What?

Ultimately, i ask what openagents.org does for me as a user.

Re: Show HN: An A2A-compatible, open-source framework for multi-agent networks

#46

Post by mac-monet »

irshadnilam wrote: post #30
mac-monet wrote: post #17

I've been looking at all of the agent talk this past year with an open mind. But I still do not know what a real use case for these would be (and don't say a travel agent). What is the point of these swarms of agents? Can someone enlighten me?

While I am not familiar with OPs project, I can somewhat answer this to best of my knowledge. Right now, businesses communicate with REST Apis. That is why we have API gateways like AWS Gateway, Apigee, WSO2 (company i used to work in), Kong, etc so businesses can securly deploy and expose APIS. As LLMS gets better, the idea is we will evenutally move to a world where ai agents do most of business tasks. And business…

I see. If iiuc, it's like an extension to an API endpoint. Instead of exposing only endpoints, you can let a user describe an intent and have the agent do the work. Is this not also the goal of an MCP as well?

Re: Show HN: An A2A-compatible, open-source framework for multi-agent networks

#47

Post by [deleted] »

hamandcheese wrote: post #36
irshadnilam wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can. Everyone will have their own versions of the rest endpoints, their own version of input params, and lots and lots of docs scatterd. A standard, will help the ecosystem grow. Tooling, libraries etc.

A major reason agentic LLMs are so promising right now is because they just Figure It Out (sometimes). Either the AI can figure it out, and it doesn't matter if there is a standardized protocol. Or the AI can't figure it out, and then it's probably a bad AI in the first place (not very I). The difference between those two possibilities is a chasm far too wide to be bridged by the simple addition of a new protocol.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: An A2A-compatible, open-source framework for multi-agent networks

#49

Post by spwa4 »

mac-monet wrote: post #46
irshadnilam wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I am not familiar with OPs project, I can somewhat answer this to best of my knowledge. Right now, businesses communicate with REST Apis. That is why we have API gateways like AWS Gateway, Apigee, WSO2 (company i used to work in), Kong, etc so businesses can securly deploy and expose APIS. As LLMS gets better, the idea is we will evenutally move to a world where ai agents do most of business tasks. And business…

I see. If iiuc, it's like an extension to an API endpoint. Instead of exposing only endpoints, you can let a user describe an intent and have the agent do the work. Is this not also the goal of an MCP as well?

No. What the AI giants want to accomplish is to have agents talk to agents ... so that the business-agent has the choice of what to present, what to do, instead of being forced as an API to list all the options.

Because if they have this, then there will be enormous value in selling smarter agents to businesses (think a server doubling the coffee price when detecting tourists), dollars they're hoping to capture.

Re: Show HN: An A2A-compatible, open-source framework for multi-agent networks

#50

Post by snasan »

Julie309 wrote: post #48

What is the difference from AutoGen?

Frameworks like AutoGen are used to build individual agents or agent teams, while OpenAgents is designed to connect countless such teams and individuals into a vast, dynamic, and scalable ecosystem.
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