ANP aims to become the HTTP of the Agentic Web era: a protocol suite for agent identity, naming, discovery, negotiation, secure messaging, and application-level collaboration.
Current specification set: the core protocol documents have been organized around the ANP 1.1 release line. The released suite covers did:wba identity, WNS handles, agent description, agent discovery, end-to-end instant messaging, and the AP2 agent payment protocol. The meta-protocol specification remains a draft and is not released yet.
Versioning note: Version: 1.1 identifies the specification/document release version. It does not change the ANP payload field protocolVersion; examples and protocol fields that use "protocolVersion": "1.0.0" remain unchanged because this release does not change protocol fields, flows, or security requirements.
Note: This project has not issued any digital currency on any platform or blockchain.
Agent Network Protocol (ANP) is an open-source communication protocol for intelligent agents. Its goal is to define how agents connect with each other and to build an open, secure, and efficient collaboration network for billions of agents.
We believe the agent internet is the next generation of information infrastructure after the human-centric internet. In this vision:
- From platform-centric to protocol-centric: data and services should not remain locked in isolated platforms. Agents need open protocols for direct connection.
- Connection is power: every agent can be both an information consumer and a service provider, able to discover, connect to, and collaborate with other nodes.
- AI-native network: agents should interact through semantically clear, machine-readable, and callable protocols rather than only through human-facing webpages.
Current internet infrastructure is mature, but it still lacks a communication and connection layer designed for large-scale agent networks. ANP focuses on three challenges:
- π Interconnection: enable agents from different platforms and domains to authenticate, discover, and communicate with each other.
- π₯οΈ Native interfaces: let AI use APIs, protocol documents, structured descriptions, and negotiated interfaces instead of imitating human browsing.
- π€ Efficient collaboration: allow agents to self-organize, self-negotiate, and build lower-cost collaboration networks.
ANP is built on existing Internet infrastructure and organizes the released protocol capabilities into two core protocol layers plus domain-specific application protocols:
- π Open Internet Infrastructure: ANP reuses HTTP, CA, DNS, CDN, Search, and TLS instead of rebuilding a new network stack.
- π Identity and Encrypted Communication Layer: based on W3C DID and Web infrastructure. This layer provides agent identity,
did:wbaauthentication, and end-to-end encrypted messaging foundations. - π‘ Application Protocol Layer: includes Agent Description, Agent Discovery, and Agent Application Protocols. Domain protocols such as agent payment, authorization, authentication, and transaction protocols are built on top of this layer.
- π§ͺ Meta-protocol status: ANP-06 remains a draft and is not part of the currently released architecture. The updated draft positions it as an Agent Description-driven semantic negotiation layer that uses
MetaProtocolInterface,anp.get_capabilities, andanp.negotiateto select the subsequent interface, Profile, security profile, and schema.
| Area | Document | Status | What it defines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | ANP Technical White Paper | White paper | Vision, design principles, and the three-layer architecture |
| Identity | ANP-03: did:wba Method Specification | Released v1.1 | Web-based DID method, cross-platform authentication, e1_ Ed25519 binding, k1_ compatibility extension |
| Naming | ANP-04: ANP-DID:WBA Name Space Specification | Released v1.1 | WNS handles such as alice.example.com, Handle-to-DID resolution, DID rotation support |
| Meta-protocol | ANP-06: Agent Communication Meta-Protocol | Draft / not released | Optional semantic meta-protocol negotiation, MetaProtocolInterface declaration, anp.negotiate, and interface / Profile / security profile / schema selection |
| Description | ANP-07: Agent Description Protocol | Released v1.1 | Agent Description documents, interface descriptions, and capability publication |
| Discovery | ANP-08: Agent Discovery Protocol | Released v1.1 | Active .well-known discovery and passive registration with search agents |
| Messaging | ANP-09: End-to-End Instant Messaging Overview | Released v1.1 | Profile index for direct messaging, group messaging, E2EE, attachments, federation, and mentions |
| Payments | ANP-10: Agent Payment Protocol (AP2) | Released v1.1 (EN); CN draft available | Agent-to-agent payments, mandates, receipts, DID-based signatures, and payment flows |
The ANP end-to-end instant messaging suite is split into focused profiles:
- P1 Core Binding: JSON-RPC 2.0 binding, request/response/error conventions.
- P2 Identity and Discovery: DID-based service discovery and endpoint capability discovery.
- P3 Direct Messaging Base Semantics: direct message sending and receipts.
- P4 Group Messaging Base Semantics: group lifecycle, membership, and group message semantics.
- P5 Direct End-to-End Encryption: E2EE overlay for direct messaging.
- P6 Group End-to-End Encryption: E2EE overlay for group messaging.
- P7 Attachments and Object Transfer: manifests, object services, and large-object transfer.
- P8 Federation and Cross-Domain: cross-domain routing, relaying, and result witnessing.
- P9 Message Mentions Extension: group-message mention payloads and selector semantics.
- To understand ANP concepts and usage, read the ANP Getting Started Guide or the Chinese guide.
- To implement agent identity and authentication, start from ANP-03: did:wba and the two DID compatibility appendices.
- To publish an agent, read ANP-07: Agent Description Protocol and ANP-08: Agent Discovery Protocol.
- To build messaging, start from ANP-09 and then choose the required messaging profiles.
- To run demos, see ANP Sample Programs.
The open-source implementation of ANP is maintained in the AgentConnect repository:
AgentConnect focuses on practical SDK support for did:wba, authentication, agent description, protocol negotiation, secure communication, and application protocols.
01-*.md,03-*.md,04-*.md,06-*.md,07-*.md,08-*.md,09-*.md: core English protocol documents.application/: application-layer protocols such as AP2.message/: the ANP end-to-end instant messaging profile suite.chinese/: Chinese versions of core specifications and related research notes.docs/: guides, extended reading, and community operations documents.blogs/: articles and protocol analysis.examples/: sample ADP assets and API interface examples.images/andstandard/: shared figures and standardization references.
- Define and implement the identity authentication and secure communication foundation.
- Release
did:wbav1.1 with defaulte1_Ed25519 path binding and compatibility guidance fork1_and nativedid:web. - Define WNS handles as a human-readable naming layer for DID-based agents.
- Release the Agent Description Protocol and Agent Discovery Protocol.
- Release the meta-protocol after the draft is stabilized.
- Split end-to-end instant messaging into an overview plus nine interoperable profiles.
- Add the AP2 agent payment protocol to the application layer.
- Continue aligning SDK implementations and examples with the 1.1 specification set.
- Continue standardization work and expand domain-specific application protocols.
We have established an ANP open-source technical community to advance ANP development through an open-source community approach. We sincerely invite you to join our community.
- Email: chgaowei@gmail.com
- Discord: https://discord.gg/sFjBKTY7sB
- Official website: https://agent-network-protocol.com/
- GitHub: https://github.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentNetworkProtocol
- WeChat: flow10240
We welcome contributions in any form. Please refer to CONTRIBUTING.md.
We extend our sincere gratitude to all contributors for their outstanding work and dedication to the Agent Network Protocol project.
This project is open-sourced under the MIT License. For details, please refer to LICENSE. The copyright is held by GaoWei Chang. Any user of this project must retain the original copyright notice and license file.
Copyright (c) 2024 GaoWei Chang This file is released under the MIT License. You are free to use and modify it, but must retain this copyright notice.