Agent-User Interaction Protocol (AG-UI) vs Agent-to-Wallet Protocol for Digital Credentials (A2WP)
They sit at the same step and overlap in purpose; the fields above are the basis for choosing.
| Agent-User Interaction Protocol AG-UI | Agent-to-Wallet Protocol for Digital Credentials A2WP | |
|---|---|---|
| Lifecycle step | 8 Present: Show a human the result | 8 Present: Show a human the result |
| Answers | How does an agent stream state, generative UI, messages, and tool activity into a user-facing application in real time? | How can an AI agent hand a credential offer or presentation request to a wallet unchanged, so that credentials and keys never reach the agent, and still resume its task from the outcome and continuation? |
| Governed by | AG-UI open-source project (github.com/ag-ui-protocol), originated and still primarily stewarded by CopilotKit; biweekly public working group | Individual Internet-Draft submitted to the IETF Network Working Group; not adopted by a working group per the page text |
| Status (issuer's words) | 1.0 released and frozen; JSON Schema published | Internet-Draft, Intended Status: Standards Track; expires 20 April 2027; work in progress |
| Version | 1.0 (2026-09-18) | draft-senarath-a2wp-01 (2026-10-17) |
| Form / transport | endpoint | endpoint |
| Found at | No fixed well-known path; a client is coded against a known agent backend endpoint that emits an AG-UI-compatible event stream over an agreed transport (SSE, WebSockets, webhooks) | Not specified in the visible text; bindings (transport and agent authentication) are out of scope of the document |
| Implementation | multi-implementation | none found |
| Evidence | 4 verified, 2 reported | 1 reported |
| Primary use case | Render agent output as a user interface | Prove an agent's identity |
| Last verified | 2026-10-23 (current) | 2026-10-23 (current) |
| Specification | https://docs.ag-ui.com/introduction | https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-senarath-a2wp-01 |
When to use which
- Choose Agent-User Interaction Protocol when your question is “How does an agent stream state, generative UI, messages, and tool activity into a user-facing application in real time?” and you accept its maturity: status "1.0 released and frozen; JSON Schema published", implementation multi-implementation.
- Choose Agent-to-Wallet Protocol for Digital Credentials when your question is “How can an AI agent hand a credential offer or presentation request to a wallet unchanged, so that credentials and keys never reach the agent, and still resume its task from the outcome and continuation?” and you accept its maturity: status "Internet-Draft, Intended Status: Standards Track; expires 20 April 2027; work in progress", implementation none found.
Read the full articles
- Agent-User Interaction Protocol: How does an agent stream state, generative UI, messages, and tool activity into a user-facing application in real time?
- Agent-to-Wallet Protocol for Digital Credentials: How can an AI agent hand a credential offer or presentation request to a wallet unchanged, so that credentials and keys never reach the agent, and still resume its task from the outcome and continuation?