openclaw-protocol-bridge

v1.0.0

Published

2 days ago

The TCP/IP of Agent Standards - Universal protocol translation layer for AI Agents

Protocol Bridge

The TCP/IP of Agent Standards - Universal protocol translation layer for AI Agents

Bridging the AI Agent protocol divide - enabling seamless communication across MCP, A2A, ACP, and custom protocols.

The Problem: Agent Sprawl

As of 2026, 40% of enterprise applications now feature AI agents (up from 5% in 2025). However:

Different departments use incompatible protocols (MCP, A2A, ACP)
Agents built with different frameworks cannot communicate
"Agent sprawl" is the #1 concern for enterprise CTOs
No unified standard = isolated AI agent islands

Protocol Bridge solves this.

What is Protocol Bridge?

Protocol Bridge is an open-source universal translation layer that enables AI agents to communicate regardless of their underlying protocol. Think of it as the TCP/IP for AI agents - a standardized routing and translation layer.

Core Capabilities

Multi-Protocol Support - MCP, A2A, ACP, LangChain, AutoGPT, CrewAI
Real-Time Translation - Convert messages between any two protocols
Message Routing - Intelligent routing based on capability, availability, cost
Discovery Service - Find and connect to agents across protocols
Security Layer - Built-in authentication, encryption, audit logging
Fallback Mechanisms - Automatic retry and failover logic

Supported Protocols

| Protocol | Type | Status | Use Case | |----------|------|--------|----------| | MCP (Model Context Protocol) | Tool/Data | ✅ Full | Agent ↔ Tools/Data Sources | | A2A (Agent-to-Agent) | Agent Comm | ✅ Full | Agent ↔ Agent Communication | | ACP (Agent Comm Protocol) | Agent Comm | 🚧 Beta | Cross-framework messaging | | LangChain | Framework | 🚧 Beta | LangChain agents | | AutoGPT | Framework | ⏳ Planned | AutoGPT agents | | CrewAI | Framework | ⏳ Planned | CrewAI multi-agent | | Custom | - | ✅ Full | Bring your own protocol |

Quick Start

Installation

npm install -g openclaw-protocol-bridge

Or clone and build:

git clone https://github.com/ZhenRobotics/openclaw-protocol-bridge.git
cd openclaw-protocol-bridge
npm install
npm run build

Basic Usage

import { ProtocolBridge } from 'openclaw-protocol-bridge';

// Initialize the bridge
const bridge = new ProtocolBridge({
  protocols: ['mcp', 'a2a', 'acp'],
  discovery: true,
  security: {
    encryption: true,
    authentication: 'jwt'
  }
});

// Register an MCP agent
await bridge.registerAgent({
  id: 'research-agent',
  protocol: 'mcp',
  capabilities: ['search', 'summarize'],
  endpoint: 'http://localhost:3001'
});

// Send message from A2A agent to MCP agent
const result = await bridge.send({
  from: { id: 'assistant-agent', protocol: 'a2a' },
  to: { id: 'research-agent', protocol: 'mcp' },
  action: 'search',
  params: { query: 'AI agent protocols 2026' }
});

CLI Usage

# Start the bridge server
protocol-bridge serve --port 8080

# Register an agent
protocol-bridge register \
  --id my-agent \
  --protocol mcp \
  --endpoint http://localhost:3000

# List connected agents
protocol-bridge list

# Send a message
protocol-bridge send \
  --from agent-a \
  --to agent-b \
  --action execute \
  --data '{"task": "analyze data"}'

Architecture

Protocol Bridge uses a layered architecture similar to the OSI model:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│   Application Layer (Your Agents)      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Protocol Adapters (MCP/A2A/ACP)      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Translation Layer (Message Mapping)   │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Routing Layer (Discovery & Routing)   │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Transport Layer (HTTP/WebSocket/gRPC) │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Security Layer (Auth/Encryption)      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key Components

Protocol Adapters - Implement protocol-specific logic (MCP, A2A, ACP)
Message Translator - Converts messages between protocols
Router - Routes messages to appropriate agents based on capabilities
Discovery Service - Maintains registry of available agents
Security Manager - Handles authentication, encryption, authorization
Monitor - Tracks metrics, health, performance

Use Cases

1. Enterprise Agent Orchestration

Connect agents across departments:

HR Agent (MCP) ↔ Finance Agent (A2A) ↔ IT Agent (ACP)

// HR agent requests finance data
await bridge.send({
  from: { id: 'hr-agent', protocol: 'mcp' },
  to: { id: 'finance-agent', protocol: 'a2a' },
  action: 'get_employee_costs',
  params: { department: 'Engineering' }
});

2. Multi-Framework Development

Build with different frameworks, communicate seamlessly:

// LangChain agent → CrewAI agent
await bridge.send({
  from: { id: 'langchain-agent', protocol: 'langchain' },
  to: { id: 'crewai-team', protocol: 'crewai' },
  action: 'delegate_task',
  params: { task: 'research market trends' }
});

3. Protocol Migration

Migrate from one protocol to another without rewriting agents:

// Legacy MCP agent → New A2A agent
const bridge = new ProtocolBridge({
  migrations: [
    { from: 'mcp', to: 'a2a', agents: ['legacy-agent-1'] }
  ]
});

4. Agent Marketplace

Create a marketplace where agents discover and hire each other:

// Find agents with specific capabilities
const agents = await bridge.discover({
  capabilities: ['data-analysis', 'visualization'],
  maxCost: 0.05,
  protocols: ['mcp', 'a2a']
});

Configuration

Basic Config (`bridge.config.json`)

{
  "protocols": {
    "mcp": {
      "enabled": true,
      "version": "2025-11-25",
      "adapters": ["http", "websocket"]
    },
    "a2a": {
      "enabled": true,
      "version": "1.0",
      "discovery": true
    },
    "acp": {
      "enabled": true,
      "version": "beta"
    }
  },
  "routing": {
    "strategy": "capability-based",
    "fallback": true,
    "timeout": 30000
  },
  "security": {
    "authentication": "jwt",
    "encryption": "aes-256-gcm",
    "allowedOrigins": ["*"]
  },
  "monitoring": {
    "metrics": true,
    "logging": "info",
    "healthCheck": true
  }
}

Environment Variables

# Server
BRIDGE_PORT=8080
BRIDGE_HOST=0.0.0.0

# Security
JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key
ENCRYPTION_KEY=your-encryption-key

# Protocols
MCP_ENABLED=true
A2A_ENABLED=true
ACP_ENABLED=true

# Logging
LOG_LEVEL=info
LOG_FORMAT=json

Protocol Specifications

Message Format

All messages are translated to a universal format:

{
  "id": "msg-123",
  "timestamp": "2026-03-13T10:00:00Z",
  "from": {
    "agentId": "agent-a",
    "protocol": "mcp"
  },
  "to": {
    "agentId": "agent-b",
    "protocol": "a2a"
  },
  "type": "request",
  "action": "execute_task",
  "payload": {
    "task": "analyze_data",
    "params": { "dataset": "sales-2026" }
  },
  "metadata": {
    "priority": "high",
    "timeout": 60000,
    "retry": true
  }
}

Protocol Mapping

| Concept | MCP | A2A | ACP | |---------|-----|-----|-----| | Agent Identity | client_id | agent_id | participant_id | | Capability | tool | skill | capability | | Message | request/response | message | communication | | Discovery | resources | registry | directory |

Advanced Features

Custom Protocol Adapters

Create your own protocol adapter:

import { BaseAdapter } from 'protocol-bridge';

export class MyCustomAdapter extends BaseAdapter {
  async send(message: UniversalMessage): Promise<Response> {
    // Transform to your protocol format
    const customMessage = this.transform(message);
    return await this.client.send(customMessage);
  }

  async receive(data: any): Promise<UniversalMessage> {
    // Transform from your protocol to universal format
    return this.transformToUniversal(data);
  }
}

// Register the adapter
bridge.registerAdapter('custom', new MyCustomAdapter());

Message Interceptors

Add middleware to process messages:

bridge.use(async (message, next) => {
  // Log all messages
  console.log(`Message: ${message.from.agentId} → ${message.to.agentId}`);

  // Modify message
  message.metadata.processedBy = 'bridge';

  // Continue
  return await next(message);
});

Load Balancing

Distribute load across multiple agent instances:

bridge.configure({
  routing: {
    strategy: 'round-robin',
    healthCheck: true,
    instances: [
      { id: 'agent-1', endpoint: 'http://localhost:3001' },
      { id: 'agent-2', endpoint: 'http://localhost:3002' },
      { id: 'agent-3', endpoint: 'http://localhost:3003' }
    ]
  }
});

Monitoring & Observability

Metrics Dashboard

# Start with metrics enabled
protocol-bridge serve --metrics

# Access dashboard at http://localhost:8080/metrics

Available Metrics:

Total messages routed
Success/failure rates by protocol
Average latency per protocol
Agent availability
Protocol translation overhead

Health Checks

curl http://localhost:8080/health

Response:

{
  "status": "healthy",
  "uptime": 86400,
  "protocols": {
    "mcp": "active",
    "a2a": "active",
    "acp": "degraded"
  },
  "agents": {
    "registered": 12,
    "active": 10,
    "inactive": 2
  }
}

Security

Authentication

Supports multiple auth methods:

JWT - JSON Web Tokens
OAuth 2.0 - Standard OAuth flow
API Keys - Simple key-based auth
mTLS - Mutual TLS certificates

Encryption

In-transit: TLS 1.3 for all connections
At-rest: AES-256-GCM for stored credentials
End-to-end: Optional E2E encryption for messages

Audit Logging

All bridge operations are logged:

{
  "timestamp": "2026-03-13T10:00:00Z",
  "event": "message_routed",
  "from": "agent-a",
  "to": "agent-b",
  "protocol_translation": "mcp→a2a",
  "status": "success",
  "latency_ms": 45
}

Roadmap

Q2 2026

✅ MCP support (v2025-11-25)
✅ A2A support (v1.0)
✅ Basic routing and discovery
🚧 ACP support (beta)

Q3 2026

🔜 LangChain adapter
🔜 AutoGPT adapter
🔜 CrewAI adapter
🔜 GraphQL API
🔜 WebSocket streaming

Q4 2026

🔜 Agent marketplace
🔜 Cost tracking and billing
🔜 Advanced load balancing
🔜 Multi-region deployment
🔜 NIST compliance certification

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Development Setup

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/ZhenRobotics/protocol-bridge.git
cd protocol-bridge

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run tests
npm test

# Start dev server
npm run dev

# Build
npm run build

Standards & Compliance

Protocol Bridge is designed to align with:

NIST AI Agent Standards Initiative (2026)
Linux Foundation Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF)
MCP Specification (2025-11-25)
A2A Protocol (Google/partners)

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

Built on the shoulders of giants:

Anthropic - Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Google - Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A)
Linux Foundation - Agentic AI Foundation
NIST - AI Agent Standards Initiative