ANP Agent Network Protocol | An Open Standard for Connecting the Agent World

Vision

Agent Network Protocol (ANP) is an open-source agent communication protocol, designed to be the HTTP of the agent internet era.

Our vision is to define how agents connect to build an open, secure, and efficient collaboration network for billions of agents.

Why Choose ANP?

Although the current internet infrastructure is quite mature, there is still a lack of optimal communication and connection solutions for the specific needs of agent networks. We are committed to addressing three main challenges:

🌐 Interconnection

• Enable barrier-free communication between all agents
• Break through data silo limitations
• Ensure agents can access complete contextual information

🖥️ Native Interface

• Agents don’t need to mimic human internet interaction methods
• Interact directly with the digital world through dedicated APIs and protocols
• Optimize machine-to-machine (M2M) communication efficiency

🤝 Efficient Collaboration

• Leverage AI capabilities for automatic agent organization
• Support autonomous negotiation mechanisms between agents
• Create more cost-effective collaborative network systems

Agent Network Challenges

Despite the sophistication of existing internet infrastructure, there is still a lack of optimal communication and connection solutions to address the specific needs of agent networks. ANP aims to solve three major challenges facing agent networks:

• 🌐 Interconnection: Enable barrier-free communication between all agents, break through data silo limitations, and ensure agents can access complete contextual information.
• 🖥️ Native Interface: Agents should not need to mimic human internet interaction methods, but rather interact with the digital world through means best suited to their characteristics (dedicated APIs or communication protocols).
• 🤝 Efficient Collaboration: Leverage AI capabilities to achieve automatic organization and autonomous negotiation between agents, creating a more cost-effective and efficient collaboration network than the existing internet.

Note: This project has not issued any digital currencies on any platform or blockchain.

Protocol Architecture

ANP consists of three core layers:

1. Identity and Encrypted Communication Layer

• Based on W3C DID (Decentralized Identifier) specifications
• Provides decentralized authentication and identity verification solutions
• Supports end-to-end encrypted communication mechanisms
• Built on existing Web security infrastructure

This layer enables cross-platform agents to authenticate and securely communicate with each other without relying on centralized systems, ensuring communication security and data privacy protection.

2. Meta-Protocol Layer

• Facilitates dynamic protocol negotiation between agents
• Implements automatic organization of network topology
• Supports autonomous negotiation of collaboration models between agents
• Is a key mechanism for the self-evolution of agent networks

The meta-protocol is a protocol for communication protocol negotiation between agents, and is the core technological foundation for developing agent networks into automatically organized, self-negotiating, efficient collaboration networks.

3. Application Protocol Layer

• Designed based on semantic web technology specifications
• Supports standardized description of agent capabilities
• Manages a diverse collection of application protocols
• Simplifies standardized interfaces for agent interaction

This layer enables agents to describe their capabilities and supported application protocols, and efficiently manage these protocols, providing a standardized framework and interface specification for interaction between agents.