ANP (Agent Network Protocol) is an open-source protocol suite for connecting agents on the open web, built on DID-based identity, description and discovery documents, and end-to-end encrypted messaging profiles. **ANP is the only protocol in this index betting that agent-to-agent interconnection should be decentralized and web-native rather than mediated by enterprise platforms, and after two years it has the spec depth to show for it and almost none of the adoption, and I read that mismatch as the bet's unproven state.** ## What it is A versioned specification suite published at agent-network-protocol.com: a technical white paper, an agent description protocol, an agent discovery protocol, the DID:WBA identity method (a did:web derivative), and a nine-part messaging profile ladder (core binding, discovery, direct and group messaging, direct and group end-to-end encryption, attachments, federation, mentions), with an agent communication meta-protocol and an agent payment protocol still in draft. Apache-2.0, driven by a community working group with bilingual English and Chinese documentation, currently at spec version 1.2 (1.0 and 1.1 archived). Working code exists around the spec: the `anp` implementation repository, an open DID server, npm packages under the `@agent-network-protocol` scope, and an `mcp2anp` bridge that turns MCP tools into ANP-advertised services. ## Status **Active but unanswered by the market.** The main repository (created 2024-10-23) shows 1,439 stars, 105 forks, and a push on 2026-10-01, with the companion `anp` repo at 350 stars and the spec hub serving ANP 1.2, all as of 2026-10-06 (GitHub API and the spec site). The community footprint is the weak signal: the only Hacker News stories are 2 points (2025-08) and 1 point (2025-11), and the only third-party comparative coverage I found is a 2026-02 survey published by the OSSA project, which scores ANP under 1 percent production use while promoting its own contract layer, so even the comparative source is self-interested. No enterprise platform ships ANP support; adoption evidence is confined to the project's own examples, SDKs, and bridge tools. ## Strengths - **DID-based identity is a genuinely different answer to the trust problem**: A2A verifies agent identity with signed Agent Cards inside enterprise trust, while DID:WBA wants cross-domain verification with no platform in the middle. - The messaging profile ladder is the most complete transport-and-encryption story in the category on paper, ending in federated, end-to-end encrypted group messaging that no rival spec even attempts. - The `mcp2anp` bridge is a pragmatic on-ramp: an MCP server's tools can be advertised as ANP services, so adoption does not require abandoning MCP. - Versioned, archived specifications (1.0, 1.1, 1.2) show specification discipline most community protocols never reach. ## Cautions - **Adoption is near zero, and the parts that would make it matter have not moved**: no harness, surface, or platform in this index speaks it, and its discussion footprint is three stories totaling 4 points. - The complexity budget is large: DID resolution, namespace specifications, nine messaging profiles, and two draft protocols are a lot of machinery for a network that does not exist yet. - The README carries a disclaimer that the project has issued no digital currency, an unusual line that hints at impersonation noise around the identity technology. - Governance is a single community working group with no foundation and no corporate backer on the order of A2A's eight-company steering committee. ## Pricing Free and open under Apache-2.0, with nothing to buy. The cost is specification and implementation tracking across a broad, still-moving suite. ## Compared to - [A2A](../a2a/index.md): the enterprise, platform-mediated counterpart; A2A has the coalition, the SDKs, and the production deployments, ANP has the decentralization. Choose A2A where platforms support it. - [MCP](../mcp/index.md): agent-to-tool rather than agent-to-agent, and the bridge makes them compose rather than compete. - [ACP](../acp/index.md): editor-to-agent over local stdio, a different lane entirely from open-web discovery. ## Bottom line **Recommended for researchers and builders prototyping open-web agent discovery, where ANP is the only developed option in this index.** Not for production engineering teams today: use A2A where your platforms already speak it and MCP for tools. My disagreeable claim: if autonomous agents on the open web ever emerge, ANP's DID-and-discovery design is a more likely base than A2A, but the probability that they emerge on either spec is the number to discount. ## Changes - 2026-10-05 - Created from the 2026-10-05 entrant scan (the decentralized agent-interop slot), with the thin adoption footprint recorded as the central caution. ## See also - [Protocols Feature Matrix](../protocols-feature-matrix/index.md) - the category comparison this note joins as the seventh column - [A2A](../a2a/index.md) - the enterprise counterpart whose adoption gap ANP inherits in worse form - [Model Context Protocol](../mcp/index.md) - the tool layer the mcp2anp bridge advertises into ANP - [Agent Client Protocol](../acp/index.md) - the local editor-to-agent lane ANP does not touch ## References - https://github.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentNetworkProtocol - repository, 1,439 stars, Apache-2.0, activity as of 2026-10-06 (GitHub API) - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentNetworkProtocol/master/README.md - vision, protocol-suite framing, the digital-currency disclaimer - https://agent-network-protocol.com/ - spec hub: ANP 1.2 latest, 1.0 and 1.1 archived, core protocols and messaging profiles - https://agent-network-protocol.com/specs/1.2/white-paper - the ANP 1.2 technical white paper - https://api.github.com/orgs/agent-network-protocol/repos - the companion implementations (anp 350 stars, open-did-server, mcp2anp, anp-open-sdk), fetched 2026-10-06 - https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=%22Agent%20Network%20Protocol%22&tags=story - the footprint scan: stories at 2, 1, and 1 points (2025-08 to 2026-01) - https://openstandardagents.org/research/agent-communication-protocol-survey/ - the only third-party comparative coverage found, itself published by a competing project (2026-02-20)