A2A v1 Deep Dive: The Specification, Extensions, and Custom Protocol Bindings

AGNTCon + MCPCon North America 2026

Oct 22, 2026 · 10:55–11:20 · America/Los_Angeles

A2A 1.0 is the first stable specification for agent-to-agent communication — tasks, agent cards, message parts, and a transport model designed for both cloud-native deployments and end devices. But the spec was designed to be extended, and understanding where core semantics end. This session walks through A2A v1 at a technical level: how tasks are structured, what agent cards encode and how they are published for federated discovery via AI Catalog, and how the protocol adapts its transport model across cloud-native deployments and end devices. The second half covers what's open: the extension mechanism that lets the ecosystem add capabilities without forking the spec, and custom protocol bindings that let you replace the default transport while preserving full A2A semantics. We walk through a concrete example — implementing a custom binding, registering an extension in an agent card, and verifying interoperability against the reference implementation. The session closes with a practical framework: when should a new capability be an extension, when a new binding, and when does it belong in the core spec?

Session status: scheduled

Room: 210 BF

Track: Interoperability & Standards

Level: Intermediate

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In person · San Jose McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, California, United States

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