ANP
An open protocol aiming to be the 'HTTP of the agent internet': decentralized DID-based identity, a meta-protocol negotiation layer, and JSON-LD agent descriptions so billions of agents can connect.
- name
- ANP
- full_name
- Agent Network Protocol
- layer
- interop
- creator
- Agent Network Protocol open-source community
- status
- emerging (open source)
- year
- 2025
- one_liner
- An open protocol aiming to be the 'HTTP of the agent internet': decentralized DID-based identity, a meta-protocol negotiation layer, and JSON-LD agent descriptions so billions of agents can connect.
- spec_url
- https://agent-network-protocol.com/
- snippet
did:wba identity + meta-protocol negotiation + JSON-LD agent description for open agent discovery.- abbreviation
- ANP
- also_known_as
Agent Network Protocol- canonical_spec_url
- https://agent-network-protocol.com/specs/agent-description.html
- entity_uri
- https://github.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentNetworkProtocol
- taxonomy_layer
- interop
- sub_layer
- decentralized-agent-network
- protocol_type
- transport
- central_problem
- Defines how agents connect across an open, decentralized network — establishing identity and trust, exchanging interpretable messages, and understanding each other's intent — to build an 'internet of agents'.
- maintainer
- Agent Network Protocol open-source community (agent-network-protocol on GitHub)
- governance_body
- open-source community (ANP)
- license
- — verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://github.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentNetworkProtocol
- maturity_tag
- emerging
- current_spec_version
- — verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://agent-network-protocol.com/specs/agent-description.html
- spec_date
- — verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://agent-network-protocol.com/specs/agent-description.html
- launch_date
- 2025 verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://github.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentNetworkProtocol
- last_verified
- 2026-06-15
- transport
- HTTPS + W3C DID (did:wba) for identity/encryption; JSON-LD agent descriptions; meta-protocol negotiation
- core_mechanism
- ANP layers three tiers: (1) an Identity & Encrypted Communication layer using W3C DIDs (the did:wba method, each DID resolving to an HTTPS-hosted DID document) for decentralized authentication and end-to-end encryption; (2) a Meta-Protocol layer where agents negotiate which protocol to speak; and (3) an Application Protocol layer using semantic-web/JSON-LD agent descriptions to advertise capabilities, endpoints, and auth schemes.
- discovery_endpoint
- JSON-LD agent description document (HTTPS) + did:wba DID document
- settlement_type
- —
- adoption_metric
- — verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://github.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentNetworkProtocol
- notable_adopters
{"value":"Agent Network Protocol community","source":"https://github.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentNetworkProtocol"}- relationships
{"predicate":"competes_with","target":"a2a","note":"ANP is an alternative agent-interop protocol to A2A, distinguished by decentralized DID-based identity and a meta-protocol negotiation layer."}{"predicate":"complements","target":"erc-8004","note":"Both bring decentralized identity to agents; ANP uses W3C DIDs off-chain, ERC-8004 uses on-chain registries."}- ideal_use_case
- Building an open, decentralized agent network where identity and trust are self-sovereign (DID-based) rather than platform-issued.
- when_to_use
- When you want decentralized DID identity and protocol negotiation for agents instead of a single vendor's interop stack.
- when_not_to_use
- When you need the broad ecosystem and production interop of A2A, or you don't want to adopt DID infrastructure.
- code_example
- // ANP agent description (JSON-LD, schematic) { "@context": "https://agent-network-protocol.com/context", "did": "did:wba:example.com:agent", "name": "researcher", "interfaces": [ ... ] }
- source
- ANP three-layer architecture (did:wba identity, meta-protocol negotiation, JSON-LD agent description): https://agent-network-protocol.com/ and https://agent-network-protocol.com/specs/agent-description.html ; repo https://github.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentNetworkProtocol . Compared with MCP/ACP/A2A in arXiv:2505.02279. Listed for addition in research §2.
- agent_readiness_link
- agent-readiness/a2a
- layer_legacy
- agent