A2A Agents Registry Platform: Comprehensive Proposal

[ajaynagotha]

My proposal is inspired by official docs: https://a2a-protocol.org/latest/topics/agent-discovery/

A2A Agents Registry Platform Proposal

Executive Summary

The A2A Agents Registry Platform aims to be a comprehensive, trusted, scalable, and standards-compliant directory and marketplace for Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol-compliant AI agents. This platform empowers agent providers to publish detailed agent profiles and metadata while enabling developers, enterprises, and integrators to effortlessly discover, evaluate, and integrate AI agents into their ecosystems.

By establishing rigorous registration and validation processes, advanced discovery features, transparent governance, and federation support, the platform accelerates collaborative AI adoption and helps build a vibrant multi-agent ecosystem.

Core Requirements and Principles

1. Agent Registration Requirements

Providers must submit complete and accurate information including:

• Agent Title
  Concise, clear name for easy identification.

• Agent Description
  Detailed explanation of the agent’s purpose, capabilities, supported functionalities, and use cases.

• Agent Card URL (Machine-readable Metadata)
  Publicly accessible JSON, JSON-LD, or DCAT document containing:

  • Supported capabilities and skills
  • Compatible A2A protocol versions
  • Endpoint URLs and operation interfaces
  • Authentication methods (OAuth, API keys, mTLS, etc.)
  • Pricing models or usage limits
  • Performance metrics (uptime, latency)
  • Versioning and compliance details

• Comprehensive Documentation URL or Upload
  Human-readable guides covering:

  • Use cases and functions
  • Input/output data formats and schemas
  • Integration instructions including authentication setup
  • Version history and changelogs
  • Sample requests/responses
  • Known limitations and best practices

• Usage Terms and Pricing Information
  Clear statement of whether the agent service is free or priced. Pricing details must include:

  • Pricing tiers
  • Pay-per-use or subscription models
  • Usage caps or limits

• Contact Information or Access Portal Details
  Contacts such as email addresses, portal URLs for:

  • Access requests (API keys, onboarding)
  • Technical support and commercial negotiations

2. Interoperability

• Agents must strictly comply with the most current A2A protocol specifications.
• Agent Card schemas must follow evolving standards to facilitate automated discovery, trust verification, integration tooling, and federation support.
• Support JSON-RPC 2.0 over HTTP(S) with industry-standard authentication.

3. Discovery and Search Capabilities

• Advanced search filters by:

  • Agent capabilities and domains (e.g., finance, healthcare)
  • Supported protocol versions
  • Pricing and usage terms
  • Performance and availability
  • Provider reputation and user ratings

• Personalized recommendations based on user preferences and behavior.

4. Transparency and Trust

• Agents listed only after passing automated metadata validation and documentation quality checks.
• Display of real-time operational statuses.
• Verification of provider identities.
• Community-driven reviews, ratings, feedback, and moderation mechanisms.

5. Security and Access Control

• Support OAuth 2.0, API keys, mutual TLS, and other standard authentication methods.
• Fine-grained entitlement and access management to regulate visibility and capabilities per user or organization.
• Enforce secure communication channels.

6. Compliance and Quality Assurance

• Automated and manual validation pipelines to verify:

  • Metadata schema compliance
  • Documentation quality and completeness
  • Uptime, performance, and security standards

• Ongoing monitoring through user feedback, audits, and moderation.

• Compliance with data privacy regulations including GDPR, CCPA, etc.

7. Scalability and Federation

• Designed to operate as both a centralized registry and part of a federated ecosystem.
• Support interoperability and data exchange between trusted registries for broad agent discovery.

Core Functionalities

1. Agent Discovery

• User-friendly interfaces with keyword and faceted search.
• Filtering by agent capabilities, pricing, availability, and reputation.
• Personalized recommendations.

2. Agent Profiles

• Rich pages displaying:
  • Agent Card metadata and documentation links
  • Usage terms and pricing
  • Contact/access info
  • Authentication requirements
  • User reviews and live agent status

3. Provider Dashboard

• Secure self-service portal for providers to:
  • Register and update agent profiles and metadata
  • Upload/revise documentation and pricing
  • Monitor usage analytics and compliance
  • Manage support and commercial inquiries

4. Developer Integration Suite

• Interactive API explorers for live testing.
• Auto-generated code samples and SDK snippets.
• Sandboxed environments for integration testing.
• Centralized developer documentation portals.

5. Community & Quality Assurance

• Verified rating and review systems.
• Discussion forums and Q&A.
• Moderation teams and automated flags to ensure quality and trust.

6. Enterprise Features

• Tools for vendor assessments, compliance checks, contract management.
• SLA tracking and enforcement.
• Advanced access controls for organizational governance.

API Reference (Minimal Consensus-aligned)

• GET /agents
  Returns a list of registered agents filtered by capabilities, pricing, availability, and reputation. Supports granular query parameters for filtering.

• GET /agents/{agent_id}
  Retrieves full Agent Card metadata, human-readable documentation links, pricing and usage details, contact information, and live status for a specific agent.

• POST /agents/register
  Authenticated endpoint for providers to register new agents or update existing ones. Payload must include all mandatory registration fields such as Agent Title, Description, Agent Card URL, Documentation URL, pricing terms, contact info, and supported authentication methods.

• GET /health
  Returns the status and liveness information of the registry platform, useful for system monitoring.

Submission and Listing Process

1. Provider Verification
   Secure account creation with identity validation.

2. Agent Registration
   Submission of comprehensive metadata, documentation, pricing, and contact details.

3. Validation
   Automated schema and metadata checks, plus manual quality and security reviews as needed.

4. Approval & Listing
   Approved agents become publicly discoverable with transparent usage and access terms.

5. Ongoing Updates
   Providers update agent information as needed to maintain accuracy via the dashboard.

Governance and Compliance

• Enforce content quality, security standards, and operational reliability.
• Data privacy compliance (GDPR, CCPA, others).
• Transparent moderation with dispute resolution.
• Regular audits and community feedback integration.

Success Metrics

• Number and quality of fully registered agents.
• Growth in developer, enterprise, and integrator engagement.
• Uptake and operational uptime of integrated agents.
• Positive audit results for quality and compliance.
• Provider and user satisfaction and trust indicators.

Community Collaboration and Contribution Invitation

To build this platform successfully, broad community involvement is essential. Collaboration opportunities include:

• Refining Agent Card schema standards.
• Developing validation, security, and federation tools.
• Designing intuitive UIs for discovery and provider dashboards.
• Building community moderation, rating, and reputation systems.
• Exploring cross-registry federation protocols.

Your feedback and contributions are welcome to help bring this vision to life.

Conclusion

The A2A Agents Registry Platform provides the vital infrastructure for transparent, secure, and efficient discovery, evaluation, and integration of A2A protocol-compliant AI agents. By requiring comprehensive machine-readable and human-readable information, transparent pricing and usage terms, along with strong validation and governance, it encourages trust and collaboration in a rapidly evolving multi-agent AI ecosystem.

Will share initial working prototype once it is ready from my side.

[ajaynagotha]

Please take a look at my proposal and help me build something awesome.

[ajaynagotha]

My proposal is inspired by official docs: https://a2a-protocol.org/latest/topics/agent-discovery/

[izzymsft]

@ajaynagotha did you already take a look at #741 ?

I believe this has been discussed extensively there.

Right now I think the next steps should be to get a sample reference implementation going that incorporates the ideas discussed

[ajaynagotha]

You are absolutely right and I am on it to make it happen. For my personal project purposes. Also it is so early to have it launched on big scale. But I am trying to build one platform like that

[lukehinds]

@ajaynagotha , this is just LLM generated content. Why would a spec out line something like this:

Usage Terms and Pricing Information
Clear statement of whether the agent service is free or priced. Pricing details must include:

Pricing tiers
Pay-per-use or subscription models
Usage caps or limits

I am not against using LLMs by anymeans, but please vet the content before posting it. Sorry if I appear mean, but I see so much of this now.

[ajaynagotha]

Hold on brother it is not added by just ai. I told AI to put it there. Not every model is free to use so they are not gonna allow their a2a implementation to be free to use completely. So as a registry owner I need to put it there

[lukehinds]

Just friendly tip: Open source specifications, internet standards etc do not focus on pricing models , SLA's or business decisions

Sorry if offended, its just we are getting a lot of AI slop, where its not human curated and carefully considered and had time and effort put in. Its a problem as it reduces quality and introduces atrophy.

[ajaynagotha]

Thank you for your advise but I have put enough time and just asked ai to put everything in a good format. And I am aware about how opensource work. I am not offended I am Just letting you know that not everyone is copy pasting ai generated content here and there.
Also, you are definately making irrelevant comments.

[beonde]

Just friendly tip: Open source specifications, internet standards etc do not focus on pricing models , SLA's or business decisions

Sorry if offended, its just we are getting a lot of AI slop, where its not human curated and carefully considered and had time and effort put in. Its a problem as it reduces quality and introduces atrophy.

Agree with this 100%