Agent Network ProtocolThe HTTP of the Agentic Web Era

Agent Network ProtocolThe HTTP of the Agentic Web Era

https://agent-network-protocol.com/

https://github.com/agent-network-protocol/AgentNetworkProtocol

 

🔒 Identity Layer

Decentralized authentication and end-to-end encrypted communication based on W3C DID standards.

🌍 Meta-Protocol Layer

Dynamic protocol negotiation enabling automatic-organizing agent networks.

📡 Application Layer

Semantic-based capability description and efficient protocol management.

 

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.

 

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/1925307935082405965

ANP 的宏大愿景与未来机遇

尽管挑战重重，ANP 所指向的未来依然无比广阔，它有望在以下几个层面重塑我们的数字世界：

1. 推动互联网范式革命：从平台中心到协议中心 ANP 的核心愿景，是推动互联网从当前由少数巨头主导的、封闭的“平台经济”，回归到其最初的、由开放协议驱动的形态。当智能体可以基于 ANP 自由地发现和连接彼此时，数据和服务的价值将不再被锁定在某个特定的 App 或平台中。这将极大地激发应用层的创新和竞争，因为成功的关键不再是“锁定”用户，而是提供最优越的智能体服务。
   
2. 奠定“智能体经济”的基础设施 一个真正的“智能体经济”（Agent Economy）需要一个无需许可、无需中介的交易市场。ANP 正是构建这个市场的基础设施。基于 ANP，服务提供方（如酒店、打车服务）的智能体可以发布其服务，而用户智能体可以自主发现、比价、协商并安全地完成支付。这为实现一个由机器对机器（M2M）自动完成服务和价值交换的未来经济体铺平了道路。
   
3. 催生“涌现的集体智能” 当来自全球各地、由不同开发者创造、拥有不同知识和技能的智能体，能够在一个统一的网络中进行低摩擦的协作时，其整体所能达成的成就，将远超任何单个智能体的能力之和。这种“涌现的集体智能”有望为解决气候变化、疾病研究、新材料发现等全球性的复杂问题提供全新的、强大的工具。

 

ANP 在未来技术版图中的定位

ANP 并非孤立存在，它的成功将依赖于与更广泛的 AI 和 Web3 生态的深度融合：

• 与区块链的结合：对于需要最高级别信任和不可篡改性的交易（如金融合同、资产所有权转移），在 ANP 流程中生成的关键可验证凭证（VCs）可以被“锚定”到区块链上，从而获得公共账本的最终确定性。
• 赋能现有智能体框架：ANP 并非一个用于构建智能体本身的框架（如 LangChain, AutoGen），而是连接它们的“网络通信层”。无论用何种框架构建的智能体，都可以通过集成 ANP 作为其“网络接口”，从而获得与广阔世界安全通信的能力。
• 融合未来的信任与隐私技术：随着生态的发展，ANP 可以集成更先进的信任与隐私机制。例如，引入去中心化的声誉系统来评估智能体的可信度；利用零知识证明（ZKP）等技术，让智能体在不暴露敏感数据的情况下，证明自己符合某些条件，从而在更高层次上保护隐私。