# ACPs: Agent Collaboration Protocols for the Internet of Agents

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13523 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13523/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 8 of its 16 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 May 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01680/) (2024)
- [AI Agents vs. Agentic AI: A Conceptual Taxonomy, Applications and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.10468/) (2025)
- [A survey of agent interoperability protocols: Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent Communication Protocol (ACP), Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A), and Agent Network Protocol (ANP)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02279/) (2025)
- [Internet of Agents: Weaving a Web of Heterogeneous Agents for Collaborative Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.07061/) (2024)
- [A Survey of AI Agent Protocols](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.16736/) (2025)
- [A Scalable Communication Protocol for Networks of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11905/) (2024)
- [Internet of Agents: Fundamentals, Applications, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.07176/) (2025)
- [Towards Effective GenAI Multi-Agent Collaboration: Design and Evaluation for Enterprise Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.05449/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [A Survey of Context Engineering for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.13334/) (2025)
- [The Trust Fabric: Decentralized Interoperability and Economic Coordination for the Agentic Web](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.07901/) (2025)
- [GRAIL: A Deep-Granularity Hybrid Resonance Framework for Real-Time Agent Discovery via SLM-Enhanced Indexing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.02489/) (2026)
- [AONA: A Comprehensive Architecture and Workflow Design for Global Agentic Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.20573/) (2026)
- [Agentic IoT: Architectures, Applications, and Challenges Toward the Internet of Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.04219/) (2026)
- [InterSAGE: The Secure and Verifiable Interoperability Protocol for An Internet of Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.13030/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, the proliferation of autonomous agents has introduced new challenges in interoperability, scalability, and coordination. The Internet of Agents (IoA) aims to interconnect heterogeneous agents through standardized communication protocols, enabling seamless collaboration and intelligent task execution. However, existing agent communication protocols such as MCP, A2A, and ANP remain fragmented and scenario-specific. To address this gap, we propose Agent Collaboration Protocols (ACPs), a comprehensive protocol suite for the IoA. ACPs include registration, discovery, interaction, and tooling protocols to support trustable access, capability orchestration, and workflow construction. We present the architecture, key technologies, and application workflows of ACPs, and demonstrate its effectiveness in a collaborative restaurant booking scenario. ACPs lay the foundation for building a secure, open, and scalable agent internet infrastructure.