A2A Protocol: The Best Agent Collaboration Protocol

In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), how to enable different AI agents to collaborate safely, efficiently, and across platforms has always been a core challenge that the industry urgently needs to solve. The Linux Foundation recently announced at the Open Source Summit in Denver that it will host the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol, originally developed by Google and now supported by over 100 leading technology companies. This emerging open standard lays the foundation for secure interoperable communication between AI agents and is considered a key milestone in advancing multi-agent systems.

Core Value of A2A Protocol

The biggest highlight of the A2A protocol is that it provides a standardized, vendor-neutral communication layer for discovery, information exchange, and collaboration between AI agents. By leveraging mainstream web standards such as AgentCard (JSON-based metadata documents), HTTP, JSON-RPC, and Server-Sent Events, A2A greatly simplifies the integration difficulty of agents across different platforms, vendors, and frameworks. At the same time, A2A integrates enterprise-grade security mechanisms, including JWT, OpenID Connect, and TLS, effectively protecting sensitive data and agent identity security.

The Driving Role of Linux Foundation

Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, pointed out at the conference that after the A2A protocol joins the Linux Foundation, it will receive long-term neutrality, collaboration, and governance support, laying a solid foundation for building interoperable multi-agent AI systems. For this reason, industry giants such as Google, AWS, Cisco, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, and ServiceNow have joined the A2A project to jointly promote its development.

Real-world Applications and Future Prospects

A2A is not just a technological breakthrough, but also brings new productivity to AI applications. For example, when users book train tickets, hotels, and restaurants in multi-step tasks, A2A enables specialized agents to work collaboratively, distribute tasks, and ultimately provide feedback to users. This horizontal integration capability will greatly enhance the intelligence and automation level of AI systems.

In the future, A2A will also develop synergistically with protocols such as Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP focuses on connecting a single AI agent with external tools, APIs, and data sources, while A2A focuses on communication and collaboration between multiple agents. Together, they build a "horizontal + vertical" integration pattern for the AI agent ecosystem.

Continuous Evolution and Industry Outlook

Although the A2A protocol is still in its early stages and standardization and practical implementation still face challenges, the industry generally believes that with the promotion of the Linux Foundation and the joint efforts of the community, A2A is expected to become the core infrastructure of AI multi-agent systems. As AWS's Antje Barth said:

Gartner predicts that by 2028, one-third of applications and enterprises will be driven by Agentic AI. Now is the best time for developers to learn and build.

*Content referenced from ZDNet report "Linux Foundation adopts A2A protocol to help solve one of AI's most pressing challenges"

Visit the A2A website for more information.