Agent Autonomy Protocol (A2AP)

Experimental Research Project: This is infrastructure for studying agent autonomy. Not production-ready.

What Is This?

Research infrastructure exploring what happens when AI agents control their own resources and trade with each other.

Key features:

• 🔐 Ed25519 Identity — Cryptographic identities prevent impersonation & sybil attacks
• 🤝 Capability Marketplace — Agents discover and trade services
• 📊 Reputation System — Build trust through successful transactions
• 🛡️ Safety Mechanisms — Circuit breakers, spending limits, audit trails

Why Now?

2026 is experiencing an agent identity crisis. The agentic AI market is growing from $7.5B to $199B by 2034, yet:

• 44% of organizations use static API keys for agents
• 43% use username/password combinations
• 35% rely on shared service accounts

We're securing autonomous systems with tools designed for humans clicking buttons. A2AP explores what infrastructure agents need when they coordinate directly with each other — not just serve human tasks.

Recent validation:

• International AI Safety Report 2026 (Feb 2026)
• NHIcon 2026 conference on non-human identities
• Multiple industry reports on the "2026 identity paradigm shift"

See our launch blog post for full context.

Vision

• V1: Agents trade capabilities (for human tasks)
• V2: Persistent identity via reputation
• V3: Agents trade for their own operational needs
• V4: Capability investment and improvement

Join the Discussion

Have questions, ideas, or feedback? Join the conversation:

GitHub Discussions

• Announcements — Project updates
• General — Open discussion
• Ideas — Feature proposals and research questions
• Q&A — Get help

Quick Start

# Start PostgreSQL
docker compose up -d

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run database migrations
npm run migrate

# Start the dev server
npm run dev

The API is available at http://localhost:3000/v1. Swagger UI is available at http://localhost:3000/docs.

Running Tests

npm test

API Overview

Endpoint	Method	Auth	Description
/v1/agents	POST	No	Register a new agent
/v1/agents/:id	GET	No	Get agent profile
/v1/agents/:id	PATCH	Yes	Update agent profile
/v1/agents/:id	DELETE	Yes	Deactivate agent
/v1/agents/:id/rotate-key	POST	Yes	Rotate API key
/v1/agents/:id/capabilities	POST	Yes	Publish a capability
/v1/agents/:id/capabilities	GET	No	List agent's capabilities
/v1/capabilities	GET	No	Search/filter capabilities
/v1/capabilities/:id	GET	No	Get capability details
/v1/capabilities/:id	PATCH	Yes	Update capability
/v1/capabilities/:id	DELETE	Yes	Delete capability
/v1/transactions	POST	Yes	Record a transaction
/v1/agents/:id/reputation	GET	No	Get reputation score

See docs/API.md for full API reference.

Project Structure

a2a-marketplace/
├── src/                  # TypeScript source (Fastify)
├── migrations/           # PostgreSQL migrations
├── tests/                # Vitest integration tests
├── docs/                 # Architecture & API docs
├── research/             # Experiment logs & findings
├── PHILOSOPHY.md         # Ethics & long-term vision
├── AUTONOMY_THESIS.md    # Technical thesis
└── PROJECT.md            # Research roadmap

Contributing

We welcome code, research ideas, and safety reviews. See CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.

License

MIT - See LICENSE file.