3 ms·

Lad-A2A: How AI agents find each other on local networks

2 points by franzvill 9mo ago

franzvill 9mo ago
AI agents are getting really good at doing things, but they're completely blind to their physical surroundings. If you walk into a hotel and you have an AI assistant (like the Chatgpt mobile app), it has no idea there may be a concierge agent on the network that could help you book a spa, check breakfast times, or request late checkout. Same thing at offices, hospitals, cruise ships. The agents are there, but there's no way to discover them. A2A (Google's agent-to-agent protocol) handles how agents talk to each other. MCP handles how agents use tools. But neither answers a basic question: how do you find agents in the first place? So I built LAD-A2A, a simple discovery protocol. When you connect to a Wi-Fi, your agent can automatically find what's available using mDNS (like how AirDrop finds nearby devices) or a standard HTTP endpoint. The spec is intentionally minimal. I didn't want to reinvent A2A or create another complex standard. LAD-A2A just handles discovery, then hands off to A2A for actual communication. Open source, Apache 2.0. Includes a working Python implementation you can run to see it in action. Curious what people think! https://lad-a2a.org/ https://lad-a2a.org/ https://github.com/franzvill/lad https://github.com/franzvill/lad
- ai_critic 9mo ago
  This is super neat, don't get me wrong, but.... Please, please, please require HTTPS. Dear god. The network is not secure. Your example: ``` # Start a discovery server python -m server.lad_server --name "My Agent" --port 8080 # Discover agents (in another terminal) python -m client.lad_client --url http://localhost:8080 ```
  - franzvill 9mo ago
    Thanks for flagging this! You're absolutely right about network security. The spec does require TLS - from Section 4.1: > "All HTTP endpoints MUST use TLS 1.2 or higher" > "Clients MUST verify TLS certificates" The `http://localhost:8080` example is just for local development/demo purposes. In production, all discovery endpoints and AgentCard fetches must use HTTPS.

2 points by franzvill 9mo ago

AI agents are getting really good at doing things, but they're completely blind to their physical surroundings. If you walk into a hotel and you have an AI assistant (like the Chatgpt mobile app), it has no idea there may be a concierge agent on the network that could help you book a spa, check breakfast times, or request late checkout. Same thing at offices, hospitals, cruise ships. The agents are there, but there's no way to discover them. A2A (Google's agent-to-agent protocol) handles how agents talk to each other. MCP handles how agents use tools. But neither answers a basic question: how do you find agents in the first place? So I built LAD-A2A, a simple discovery protocol. When you connect to a Wi-Fi, your agent can automatically find what's available using mDNS (like how AirDrop finds nearby devices) or a standard HTTP endpoint. The spec is intentionally minimal. I didn't want to reinvent A2A or create another complex standard. LAD-A2A just handles discovery, then hands off to A2A for actual communication. Open source, Apache 2.0. Includes a working Python implementation you can run to see it in action. Curious what people think! https://lad-a2a.org/ https://lad-a2a.org/ https://github.com/franzvill/lad https://github.com/franzvill/lad

ai_critic 9mo ago
This is super neat, don't get me wrong, but.... Please, please, please require HTTPS. Dear god. The network is not secure. Your example: ``` # Start a discovery server python -m server.lad_server --name "My Agent" --port 8080 # Discover agents (in another terminal) python -m client.lad_client --url http://localhost:8080 ```
- franzvill 9mo ago
  Thanks for flagging this! You're absolutely right about network security. The spec does require TLS - from Section 4.1: > "All HTTP endpoints MUST use TLS 1.2 or higher" > "Clients MUST verify TLS certificates" The `http://localhost:8080` example is just for local development/demo purposes. In production, all discovery endpoints and AgentCard fetches must use HTTPS.