Creativity · Agent Protocol
IBM Agent Communication Protocol (ACP)
Agent Communication Protocol (ACP) is IBM's open specification for how agents exchange messages, discover each other's capabilities, and coordinate on tasks. Developed under the BeeAI umbrella and contributed to the Linux Foundation, ACP is positioned as an enterprise-leaning complement to Google's A2A — emphasising governance, auditability, and interoperability across agent frameworks.
Protocol facts
- Sponsor
- IBM (Linux Foundation)
- Status
- proposed
- Spec
- https://agentcommunicationprotocol.dev/
- Interop with
- MCP, A2A, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, BeeAI
Frequently asked questions
How does ACP differ from Google's A2A?
ACP and A2A overlap significantly. The main differences are origin (IBM + Linux Foundation vs Google + partners), governance model, and details of capability description. Both describe message shapes, discovery, and task state for agent-to-agent interaction.
Is ACP tied to the BeeAI framework?
ACP originated in BeeAI but the protocol itself is framework-agnostic. The spec is maintained separately so non-BeeAI agents (LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen) can also speak ACP.
Why two similar protocols — A2A and ACP?
As of 2026 the agent-protocol layer is still settling. Industry expectation is convergence over time, with vendors supporting multiple protocols on their agent runtime.
Sources
- IBM ACP — agentcommunicationprotocol.dev — accessed 2026-04-20