Agent Client Protocol vs Agent Connect Protocol (AGNTCY)
Both belong to the Protocols called ACP group on this map. The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both. They share the acronym ACP but are unrelated protocols.
| Agent Client Protocol ACP | Agent Connect Protocol (AGNTCY) ACP | |
|---|---|---|
| Lifecycle step | 5 Act: Do something for me | 5 Act: Do something for me |
| Answers | How does a code editor invoke and converse with an interchangeable coding agent it did not build? | How does one agent (or an orchestrator) invoke and configure a remote agent it did not build, over a plain HTTP API? |
| Governed by | Zed Industries acts as BDFL/design-team lead over a public Request for Dialog (RFD) process; Sergey Ignatov (JetBrains) joined as a second Lead Maintainer on 2026-02-18, reflecting growing Zed/JetBrains collaboration | AGNTCY project (Cisco donated AGNTCY to the Linux Foundation); the acp-spec GitHub repository was archived by its owner (the agntcy GitHub organization) on 2026-04-11 and is now read-only, while the broader AGNTCY project (49 repositories, most recently updated within hours of this check) remains active under Linux Foundation governance, with its discovery/identity work now centered on the 'dir' (Distributed Announce and Discovery) and OASF (Open Agentic Schema Framework) projects rather than acp-spec |
| Status (issuer's words) | v1 stable and shipping; v2 published in Draft form as of 2026-07-20 | Archived repository (2026-04-11) |
| Phase | stable | deprecated |
| Version | v1.11.0 (schema v1.25.0); v2 unstable (2026-10-09) | v0.2.3 (OpenAPI 3.1.1) (2025-05-23) |
| Form / transport | endpoint | endpoint |
| Found at | none fixed; local agents are launched as sub-processes, remote agents connect over HTTP or WebSocket (remote support still a work in progress) | /agents/search |
| Adoption | unmeasured | unmeasured |
| Evidence | 4 verified, 1 reported | 4 verified, 1 reported |
| Primary use case | Describe an agent's capabilities | Let agents talk to other agents |
| Last verified | 2026-10-19 (current) | 2026-10-19 (current) |
| Specification | https://agentclientprotocol.com/get-started/introduction | https://github.com/agntcy/acp-spec |
When to use which
- Choose Agent Client Protocol when your question is “How does a code editor invoke and converse with an interchangeable coding agent it did not build?” and you accept its maturity: phase stable, adoption unmeasured.
- Choose Agent Connect Protocol (AGNTCY) when your question is “How does one agent (or an orchestrator) invoke and configure a remote agent it did not build, over a plain HTTP API?” and you accept its maturity: phase deprecated, adoption unmeasured. It is no longer maintained; prefer its successor.
Read the full articles
- Agent Client Protocol: How does a code editor invoke and converse with an interchangeable coding agent it did not build?
- Agent Connect Protocol (AGNTCY): How does one agent (or an orchestrator) invoke and configure a remote agent it did not build, over a plain HTTP API?
agent-client-protocol.json · agent-connect-protocol.json · Markdown