Always lagging, always late. Google is so lame these days. (I know, they still get billions in revenue, but maybe that's their curse, too comfy to take it seriously)
If A2A doesn't bring in ad revenue, it will be in the graveyard in a year or two.
The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)
41–50 of 293 posts
Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)
#42> A2A is an open protocol that complements Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP), which provides helpful tools and context to agents. A "server" sample: https://github.com/google/A2A/tree/main/samples/js/src/serve... So it looks like the point is that it keeps the connection/context open for multiple interactions vs. MCP, which is more like pure request-response?
MCP is stateful. They are currently developing stateless support. https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/modelcontextprotocol...
Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)
#43> Hiring a software engineer can be significantly simplified with A2A collaboration.
Holy shit.. NO!
Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)
#44i dont understand how it is different from mcp. The blog just says "A2A is an open protocol that complements Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP), which provides helpful tools and context to agents." There is no example or anything on how does it complement it
Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)
#45on it's face this kind of seems dumb. aren't agents supposed to be adaptable enough to handle any protocol?
shhhh - that's the big announcement for next year - the "Agnostic" General Interface (AGI) ... works with any endpoint no more lengthy MCP or A2A setup!
you are too late already... there are now mcp servers that wrap other mcp servers in a single mcp interface... mmcp
Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)
#46I 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/
It seems the industry as a whole just forgot about prompt injection attacks because RLHF made models really good at rejecting malicious requests. Still, I wonder if there have been any documented cases of prompt attacks.
Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)
#47This doesn't say anything about the protocol other than what would be obvious (a JSON card describing the agent's schema) and that it will use http (such a safe, but low-effort bet). I was hoping for more, but with so many cooks in the kitchen, I guess I'm not surprised.
The way they're framing this attempts to stave off disintermediation, which is the real threat.
Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)
#48Link 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!"
I think the only reason people think MCP is over-engineered is that people have been waiting for a way to expose remote tool calls in a client application, MCP came along and had that (among other things), and people assumed that that was all it was good for. But it's not! It's like saying a microwave is over-engineered because you only use the timer functionality.
Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)
#49It’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…
It seems companies figured introducing "protocols" or standards helps their business because if it catches on, it creates a "moat" for them: imagine if A2A became the de facto standard for agent communication. Since Google invented it and already incorporated in their business logic, it would suddenly open up the entire LLM landscape to Google services (so LLMs aren't the end goal here). Microsoft et al. would then either have to introduce their own "standard" or adopt Google's.
Re: The Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A)
#50It’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…