Agent-to-Agent (A2A) refers to the protocols and patterns by which autonomous AI agents discover, communicate, and delegate work to one another: including acros
MCP connects agents to tools, data, and resources; A2A connects agents to other agents. MCP standardizes how one agent reaches a database or API, while A2A standardizes how a planning agent discovers, delegates to, and coordinates specialist agents, each keeping its own permissions and audit trail.
Because 2026 multi-agent workflows cross vendor and team boundaries: a planner hands subtasks to research, coding, and compliance agents. A standardized A2A protocol keeps those handoffs interoperable and governable instead of brittle one-off integrations, preserving context, permissions, and traceability across the delegation.