Creativity · Agent Protocol
Agent Network Protocol (ANP)
Agent Network Protocol (ANP) is an open, decentralized A2A protocol positioned as an alternative to centrally-discovered protocols like A2A. ANP uses W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) for agent identity, JSON-LD for capability schemas, and treats the open web as the discovery layer — closer in spirit to the early internet than to platform-mediated agent registries.
Protocol facts
- Sponsor
- open community
- Status
- proposed
- Spec
- https://agent-network-protocol.com/
- Interop with
- A2A, MCP, DID, JSON-LD, HTTP
Frequently asked questions
How is ANP different from Google's A2A?
Both target agent-to-agent interoperability, but ANP emphasises decentralized identity (DIDs) and open web discovery, whereas Google's A2A typically assumes platform-mediated discovery via Agent Cards served by the agent's host.
Who sponsors ANP?
ANP is developed by an open-source community of contributors rather than a single vendor, with the stated goal of keeping the agent-web as open as the document-web.
What does 'network-native' mean here?
ANP assumes agents live on the open internet — any HTTP server can become an agent endpoint, and any DID-resolver can verify its identity — without requiring agents to register with a specific platform.
Sources
- Agent Network Protocol — project site — accessed 2026-04-20