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The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)

developers.googleblog.com

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Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)

#11

Post by skeeter2020 »

_pdp_ wrote: post #7

Link to repo: https://github.com/google/A2A Docs: https://google.github.io/A2A/#/documentation I think they are trying to ride the MCP hype as well with their own implementation that is also meh. MCP itself is also an over-engineered implementation of AI plugins by OpenAI. Obviously the end game is control over a standard which can act as a strategic tool for boosting valuations or even better product positioning. Th…

Marginally technical executives are really dangerous here. My CTO is "all in" on MCP but fails to see it's an over-engineered attempt by one player to own the thin veneer on top of the bog-standard plumbing that's actually doing all the work. It's like OpenAI made an ODBC database connector and is saying "we created relational databases!"

Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)

#12

Post by laichzeit0 »

zellyn wrote: post #3

It’s frustratingly difficult to see what these (A2A and MCP) protocols actually look like. All I want is a simple example conversation that includes the actual LLM outputs used to trigger a call and the JSON that goes over the wire… maybe I’ll take some time and make a cheat-sheet. I have to say, the endorsements at the end somehow made this seem worse…

Take a look at the samples: https://google.github.io/A2A/#/documentation

Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)

#13

Post by mindcrime »

Great, another Agent 2 Agent protocol. One more of those and we'll have a complete set!

OK, I'm being a little bit facetious. But there has been an awful lot of work in this space (or closely related space). Going back to FIPA[1], KQML[2], DAML+OIL[3], etc., up through the more recent AGNTCY[4] and Agent Communication Protocol[5] stuff, there's a lot "out there".

[1]: http://www.fipa.org/

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Query_and_Manipulati...

[3]: https://www.w3.org/TR/daml+oil-reference/

[4]: https://github.com/agntcy

[5]: https://github.com/orgs/i-am-bee/discussions/284

Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)

#14

Post by Maxious »

_pdp_ wrote: post #7

Link to repo: https://github.com/google/A2A Docs: https://google.github.io/A2A/#/documentation I think they are trying to ride the MCP hype as well with their own implementation that is also meh. MCP itself is also an over-engineered implementation of AI plugins by OpenAI. Obviously the end game is control over a standard which can act as a strategic tool for boosting valuations or even better product positioning. Th…

The google angle here isn't even so much on the LLM side but on Google Cloud

See all those shiny badges for consulting firms? If you are a truely thought leadershiping executive, you should get one of them in ASAP to build you an A2A Registry [1] for your "Enterprise Agents" [2] to communicate via an A2A NotificationService [3] (brought to you by GCP!)

Indicative that the blog post example isn't help book a holiday but help hire a software engineer

1: https://google.github.io/A2A/#/topics/agent_discovery

2: https://google.github.io/A2A/#/topics/enterprise_ready

3: https://google.github.io/A2A/#/topics/push_notifications

edit:

> Updates to Agentspace make it easier for customers to discover, create and adopt AI agents. We're also growing the AI Agent Marketplace https://console.cloud.google.com/marketplace/browse?filter=c... , a dedicated section within Google Cloud Marketplace where customers can easily browse and purchase AI agents from partners.

https://blog.google/products/google-cloud/next-2025/

Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)

#17

Post by ronameles »

zellyn wrote: post #3

It’s frustratingly difficult to see what these (A2A and MCP) protocols actually look like. All I want is a simple example conversation that includes the actual LLM outputs used to trigger a call and the JSON that goes over the wire… maybe I’ll take some time and make a cheat-sheet. I have to say, the endorsements at the end somehow made this seem worse…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_WE6cZeDG8 - I work at an industrial software company. You can kind of think of us as an API layer to factory data, that is generally a mess. This video shows you what MCP can do for us in terms of connecting factory data to LLMS. Maybe it will help. A2A is new to me, and I need to dig in.

Basically if we expose our API over MCP, agents can "figure it out". But MCP isn't secure enough today, so hoping that gets enhanced.

Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)

#19

Post by simonw »

I just published some notes on MCP security and prompt injection. MCP doesn't have security flaws in the protocol itself, but the patterns it encourage (providing LLMs with access to tools that can act on the user's behalf while they also may be exposed to text from untrusted sources) are rife for prompt injection attacks: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Apr/9/mcp-prompt-injection/

Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)

#20

Post by simonw »

devops000 wrote: post #15

Do you know real use cases of agents? Actually used and that have been using for a while. Not just for curiosity. I read about them only for hypothetical scenarios. Is it a real thing?

That depends very much on which of the dozen+ definitions of "agent" you are using.
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