Agent Network Protocol (ANP)
TL;DR: ANP aims to become the HTTP of the Agentic Web era.
Table of Contents
Vision and Positioning
Agent Network Protocol (ANP) is an open-source communication protocol for intelligent agents. …
Agent Network Protocol (ANP)
TL;DR: ANP aims to become the HTTP of the Agentic Web era.
Table of Contents
Vision and Positioning
Agent Network Protocol (ANP) is an open-source communication protocol for intelligent agents.
Agent Network Protocol (ANP) aims to become the HTTP of the Agentic Web era.
Our vision is to define how agents connect with each other, building an open, secure, and efficient collaboration network for billions of agents.
We believe that the agent internet represents the next generation of information infrastructure succeeding the human-centric internet, which will fundamentally transform how the digital world connects and collaborates. In this vision:
From Platform-Centric to Protocol-Centric: The current internet ecosystem is built around platforms, where data and services are locked in “digital silos.” The agent internet will reshape this imbalance, returning the internet from a closed, fragmented state to its open, freely connected origins.
Connection is Power: In a truly open, interconnected network, free interaction between nodes maximizes innovation potential and creates tremendous value. In the future, each agent will be both an information consumer and a service provider, with every node able to discover, connect, and interact with any other node in the network without barriers.
AI-Native Network: Unlike webpages and interfaces designed for humans, the agent internet will build an AI-friendly native data network where all nodes are describable, discoverable, and callable agents or data units, and every link is a semantically clear, structurally unified protocol connection.
This vision requires a foundational protocol similar to what HTTP is for the human internet—this is precisely why ANP was created.
Note: This project has not issued any digital currency on any platform or blockchain.
Why We Need ANP
While current internet infrastructure is quite comprehensive, there remains a lack of optimal communication and connection solutions for the specific needs of agent networks. We are committed to addressing three major challenges facing agent networks:
- 🌐 Interconnection: Enabling all agents to communicate with each other, breaking down data silos, and allowing AI to access complete contextual information.
- 🖥️ Native Interfaces: AI should not need to mimic human internet browsing; instead, AI should interact with the digital world using its most proficient methods (APIs or communication protocols).
- 🤝 Efficient Collaboration: Using AI, agents can self-organize and self-negotiate to build a more cost-effective and efficient collaboration network than the existing internet.
Three-Layer Protocol Architecture
- 🔒 Identity and Secure Communication Layer: Based on the W3C DID (Decentralized Identifiers) specification, this layer leverages existing mature web infrastructure to create a decentralized identity authentication scheme and an end-to-end encrypted communication solution. It allows agents from any platform to authenticate each other without relying on any centralized system.
- 🌍 Meta-Protocol Layer: A protocol for negotiating communication protocols between agents. It is key to evolving the agent network into a self-organizing, self-negotiating, efficient collaboration network.
- 📡 Application Protocol Layer: Based on semantic web specifications, enabling agents to describe their capabilities and supported application protocols, and efficiently manage these protocols.
Quick Start
If you want to quickly understand the basic concepts and usage of ANP, you can check our getting started guide: ANP Getting Started Guide
If you want to quickly run ANP-related demos, you can check our sample program documentation: ANP Sample Programs
Protocol SDK
We are developing an open-source implementation of AgentNetworkProtocol, and its repository can be found at: https://github.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentConnect
Further Reading
- Complete materials are available at Extended Reading
- For detailed design, please read the ANP Technical White Paper
- Refer to the open-source implementation AgentConnect Examples
Milestones
For both the protocol and open-source code implementation, we are gradually advancing in the following order:
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Build identity authentication and end-to-end encrypted communication protocol and implementation. This is the foundation and core of our entire project, with protocol design and foundational code are substantially complete.
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Meta-protocol design and meta-protocol code implementation. Current protocol design and code development are substantially complete.
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Application layer protocol design and development.
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Support for agent description.
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Support for agent discovery.
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Application protocol design for specific domains.
Contact Us
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 open-source technical community. Our founding committee, community advisors, technical committee, development committee, enterprise observers, and other teams are continuously recruiting.
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
Contributing
We welcome contributions in any form. Please refer to the CONTRIBUTING.md file.
Contributors
We extend our sincere gratitude to all contributors for their outstanding work and dedication to the Agent Network Protocol project. You can view the complete list of contributors here:
License
This project is open-sourced under the MIT License. For details, please refer to the LICENSE file. However, the copyright is held by GaoWei Chang. Any user of this project must retain the original copyright notice and license file.
Copyright Notice
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.