Agent Card

Mike's Notes

Earlier this week, I attended the APAC Cloud Technical Series: On Board from Google. It was 10 hours over 2 days of talks and code workshops from Google staff, who were mainly based in Singapore.

It was excellent and worth the time. I signed up for more sessions planned later in the year. Google Weeklies is a regular in-depth talk available both live and as an archive.

I initially registered to participate in the Gen AI Academy APAC Edition, which would have been fun, but then discovered an age restriction. I'm too ancient. 😊

IaC

This will help me build Pipi Engines to build, deploy, and manage infrastructure-as-code (IaC) in the cloud.

A dedicated agent engine has been created for each cloud platform. They have yet to be differentiated.

  • Apple Engine (ale)
  • AWS Engine (aws)
  • AZURE Engine (azu)
  • Digital Ocean Engine (dgo)
  • Google Cloud Engine (ggc)
  • IBM Engine (ibm)
  • Meta Engine (met)
  • Oracle Engine (ora)
  • (More will be added later; all are welcome)

Agents

Pipi 9 is a type of world-model AI, not an LLM. Google is offering a platform for Generative LLM-based agents. My thought is to connect Pipi 9 to these external agents via open protocols, leveraging the strengths of both.

  • MCP
  • A2A
    • Agent Card
  • ADK

More Pipi engines

  • MCP Engine (mcp)

Agent card

Here are some initial notes about the Agent Card protocol, part of A2A. I will start building from there.

So does this mean that Pipi needs its own Agent Card? 😀

Resources

References

  • Reference

Repository

  • Home > Ajabbi Research > Library >
  • Home > Handbook > 

Last Updated

1/02/2026

Agent Card

By: Mike Peters
On a Sandy Beach: 1/02/2026

Mike is the inventor and architect of Pipi and the founder of Ajabbi.

From A2A Protocol Documentation

A2A revolves around several key concepts. For detailed explanations, please refer to the Key Concepts guide.

    • A2A Client: An application or agent that initiates requests to an A2A Server on behalf of a user or another system.
    • A2A Server (Remote Agent): An agent or agentic system that exposes an A2A-compliant endpoint, processing tasks and providing responses.
    • Agent Card: A JSON metadata document published by an A2A Server, describing its identity, capabilities, skills, service endpoint, and authentication requirements.
    • Message: A communication turn between a client and a remote agent, having a role ("user" or "agent") and containing one or more Parts.
    • Task: The fundamental unit of work managed by A2A, identified by a unique ID. Tasks are stateful and progress through a defined lifecycle.
    • Part: The smallest unit of content within a Message or Artifact. Parts can contain text, file references, or structured data.
    • Artifact: An output (e.g., a document, image, structured data) generated by the agent as a result of a task, composed of Parts.
    • Streaming: Real-time, incremental updates for tasks (status changes, artifact chunks) delivered via protocol-specific streaming mechanisms.
    • Push Notifications: Asynchronous task updates delivered via server-initiated HTTP POST requests to a client-provided webhook URL, for long-running or disconnected scenarios.
    • Context: An optional, server-generated identifier to logically group related tasks and messages.
    • Extension: A mechanism for agents to provide additional functionality or data beyond the core A2A specification.

- A2A Protocol Documentation

Agent Discovery in A2A

To collaborate using the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol, AI agents need to first find each other and understand their capabilities. A2A standardizes agent self-descriptions through the Agent Card. However, discovery methods for these Agent Cards vary by environment and requirements. The Agent Card defines what an agent offers. Various strategies exist for a client agent to discover these cards. The choice of strategy depends on the deployment environment and security requirements.

The Role of the Agent Card

The Agent Card is a JSON document that serves as a digital "business card" for an A2A Server (the remote agent). It is crucial for agent discovery and interaction. The key information included in an Agent Card is as follows:

  • Identity: Includes name, description, and provider information.
  • Service Endpoint: Specifies the url for the A2A service.
  • A2A Capabilities: Lists supported features such as streaming or pushNotifications.
  • Authentication: Details the required schemes (e.g., "Bearer", "OAuth2").
  • Skills: Describes the agent's tasks using AgentSkill objects, including id, name, description, inputModes, outputModes, and examples.

Client agents use the Agent Card to determine an agent's suitability, structure requests, and ensure secure communication.

Sample Agent Card

{
  "protocolVersions": ["1.0"],
  "name": "GeoSpatial Route Planner Agent",
  "description": "Provides advanced route planning, traffic analysis, and custom map generation services. This agent can calculate optimal routes, estimate travel times considering real-time traffic, and create personalized maps with points of interest.",
  "supportedInterfaces": [
    {"url": "https://georoute-agent.example.com/a2a/v1", "protocolBinding": "JSONRPC"},
    {"url": "https://georoute-agent.example.com/a2a/grpc", "protocolBinding": "GRPC"},
    {"url": "https://georoute-agent.example.com/a2a/json", "protocolBinding": "HTTP+JSON"}
  ],
  "provider": {
    "organization": "Example Geo Services Inc.",
    "url": "https://www.examplegeoservices.com"
  },
  "iconUrl": "https://georoute-agent.example.com/icon.png",
  "version": "1.2.0",
  "documentationUrl": "https://docs.examplegeoservices.com/georoute-agent/api",
  "capabilities": {
    "streaming": true,
    "pushNotifications": true,
    "stateTransitionHistory": false,
    "extendedAgentCard": true
  },
  "securitySchemes": {
    "google": {
      "openIdConnectSecurityScheme": {
        "openIdConnectUrl": "https://accounts.google.com/.well-known/openid-configuration"
      }
    }
  },
  "security": [{ "google": ["openid", "profile", "email"] }],
  "defaultInputModes": ["application/json", "text/plain"],
  "defaultOutputModes": ["application/json", "image/png"],
  "skills": [
    {
      "id": "route-optimizer-traffic",
      "name": "Traffic-Aware Route Optimizer",
      "description": "Calculates the optimal driving route between two or more locations, taking into account real-time traffic conditions, road closures, and user preferences (e.g., avoid tolls, prefer highways).",
      "tags": ["maps", "routing", "navigation", "directions", "traffic"],
      "examples": [
        "Plan a route from '1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA' to 'San Francisco International Airport' avoiding tolls.",
        "{\"origin\": {\"lat\": 37.422, \"lng\": -122.084}, \"destination\": {\"lat\": 37.7749, \"lng\": -122.4194}, \"preferences\": [\"avoid_ferries\"]}"
      ],
      "inputModes": ["application/json", "text/plain"],
      "outputModes": [
        "application/json",
        "application/vnd.geo+json",
        "text/html"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "custom-map-generator",
      "name": "Personalized Map Generator",
      "description": "Creates custom map images or interactive map views based on user-defined points of interest, routes, and style preferences. Can overlay data layers.",
      "tags": ["maps", "customization", "visualization", "cartography"],
      "examples": [
        "Generate a map of my upcoming road trip with all planned stops highlighted.",
        "Show me a map visualizing all coffee shops within a 1-mile radius of my current location."
      ],
      "inputModes": ["application/json"],
      "outputModes": [
        "image/png",
        "image/jpeg",
        "application/json",
        "text/html"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "signatures": [
    {
      "protected": "eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpPU0UiLCJraWQiOiJrZXktMSIsImprdSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZXhhbXBsZS5jb20vYWdlbnQvandrcy5qc29uIn0",
      "signature": "QFdkNLNszlGj3z3u0YQGt_T9LixY3qtdQpZmsTdDHDe3fXV9y9-B3m2-XgCpzuhiLt8E0tV6HXoZKHv4GtHgKQ"
    }
  ]
}
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