Agent Protocol

An agent protocol is a standardized way for AI agents, tools, and systems to talk to one another, covering things like tool invocation, memory exchange, identity, and agent-to-agent messaging. Protocols are the wiring that lets agents from different vendors interoperate.

As the agent economy grows, the politics of who controls these standards matters as much as the technology: shared protocols lower switching costs and enable multi-vendor agent ecosystems, while proprietary ones reinforce platform lock-in. Expect protocols and interoperability to be one of the most contested layers of the GaaS stack.

Related terms: Agent Orchestration · Multi-Agent System See also: What is GaaS?