Creativity · Agent Protocol
OpenAI Agents Protocol and Agents SDK
OpenAI doesn't yet publish a formal cross-vendor 'Agents Protocol,' but the combination of its Responses API and open-source Agents SDK (2024-2025) has become a widely-copied blueprint. It standardizes typed tool calls, agent-to-agent handoffs, built-in tracing, guardrails, and a session abstraction — and the SDK is provider-agnostic enough that competitors have shipped compatible wrappers. As MCP unified agent↔tool and A2A targets agent↔agent, this layer covers client-side agent authoring.
Protocol facts
- Sponsor
- OpenAI
- Status
- proposed
- Spec
- https://platform.openai.com/docs/agents
- Interop with
- MCP, A2A, OpenTelemetry
Frequently asked questions
Is this an open protocol like A2A or MCP?
Not yet a ratified standard. The SDK is open source and provider-agnostic, but the underlying Responses API is OpenAI-specific. Community efforts are gradually extracting a neutral spec.
How does it relate to MCP?
MCP defines how agents discover and call tools. The Agents SDK consumes MCP servers as one source of tools among others. They're complementary layers.
What are 'handoffs'?
A first-class primitive for transferring a conversation or task to another agent (possibly with a different toolset or specialization). It's the SDK's answer to multi-agent composition.
Sources
- OpenAI — Agents platform overview — accessed 2026-04-20
- OpenAI Agents SDK GitHub — accessed 2026-04-20