A New Era of AI Agent Interoperability
The A2A Protocol (Agent2Agent), announced by Google Cloud on April 9, 2025, enables AI agents to communicate with each other, securely exchange information, and coordinate actions even when built by different vendors or using different frameworks.
What is the A2A Protocol?
The A2A (Agent2Agent) Protocol is an open protocol designed to enable seamless collaboration between AI agents. This protocol allows AI agents to securely communicate with each other regardless of underlying infrastructure technologies, automating complex enterprise workflows.
Developed with support and contributions from over 50 technology partners including Atlassian, Box, Cohere, Intuit, Langchain, MongoDB, PayPal, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, UKG, and Workday; as well as leading service providers such as Accenture, BCG, Capgemini, Cognizant, Deloitte, HCLTech, Infosys, KPMG, McKinsey, PwC, TCS, and Wipro.
Key Features
Capability Discovery
Agents can advertise their capabilities using an "Agent Card" in JSON format, allowing client agents to identify the best agent for a specific task.
Task Management
Communication between agents focuses on task completion to fulfill end-user requests. For long-running tasks, agents can stay synchronized on task status.
Collaboration
Agents can send messages to each other to communicate context, replies, artifacts, or user instructions.
User Experience Negotiation
Through "parts" (fully formed pieces of content like generated images), client and remote agents can negotiate the correct format and user interface capabilities.
Design Principles
The A2A protocol is designed based on five key principles:
- Embrace agentic capabilities: A2A enables agents to collaborate in their natural, unstructured modalities, even when they don't share memory, tools, and context.
- Build on existing standards: The protocol is built on popular standards including HTTP, SSE, and JSON-RPC.
- Secure by default: A2A is designed to support enterprise-grade authentication and authorization with parity to OpenAPI's authentication schemes.
- Support for long-running tasks: The protocol provides flexibility to complete everything from quick tasks to deep research that may take hours.
- Modality agnostic: A2A supports various modalities beyond text, including audio and video streaming.
Technical Documentation
A2A is built on existing standards and allows for easy integration with your current systems. The protocol utilizes:
- HTTP and JSON for standard communication
- Server-Sent Events (SSE) for real-time updates
- JSON RPC for structured interactions
- OpenAPI-compatible authentication schemes
The protocol supports a variety of use cases across industries, enabling sophisticated agent-to-agent communication and collaboration.
Resources for Developers
Learn More
For the official A2A Protocol documentation, specifications, and more information, please visit the A2A Protocol Documentation or Google Cloud A2A page.
Disclaimer: This website is for informational purposes only. The A2A Protocol is developed and owned by Google Cloud. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google Cloud.