Hi there - I work on a2a. Thanks for the reaction - lots of good points here. We really do see a2a as different and complementary to MCP. I personally am working on both and see them in very different contexts.
I see MCP as vital when building an agent. An agent is an LLM with data, resources, tools, and services. However, our customers are building or purchasing agents from other providers - e.g. purchasing "HR Agent", "Bank Account Agent", "Photo Editor Agent", etc. All of these agents are closed systems and have access to private data, APIs, etc. There needs to be a way for my agent to work with these other agents when a tool is not enough.
Other comments you have are spot on - the current specification and samples are early. We are working on many more advanced examples and official SDKs and client/servers. We're working with partners, other Google teams, and framework providers to turn this into a stable standard. We're doing it in the open - so there are things that are missing because (a) its early and (b) we want partners and the community to bring features to the table.
tldr - this is NOT done. We want your feedback and sincerely appreciate it!
I see MCP as vital when building an agent. An agent is an LLM with data, resources, tools, and services. However, our customers are building or purchasing agents from other providers - e.g. purchasing "HR Agent", "Bank Account Agent", "Photo Editor Agent", etc. All of these agents are closed systems and have access to private data, APIs, etc. There needs to be a way for my agent to work with these other agents when a tool is not enough.
Other comments you have are spot on - the current specification and samples are early. We are working on many more advanced examples and official SDKs and client/servers. We're working with partners, other Google teams, and framework providers to turn this into a stable standard. We're doing it in the open - so there are things that are missing because (a) its early and (b) we want partners and the community to bring features to the table.
tldr - this is NOT done. We want your feedback and sincerely appreciate it!