APC, MCP, and APX: How Three Layers Split AI Agent Tooling Responsibilities
A framework for AI agent tooling proposes separating responsibilities across three distinct layers to reduce complexity and drift. APC (Agent Project Contract) defines what a repository means — its agents, rules, skills, and expected MCP servers — and is designed to remain stable, portable, and shareable across machines. MCP (Model Context Protocol) handles how AI applications communicate with external tools, resources, and capabilities, functioning purely as a protocol layer. APX acts as the local runtime that reads APC definitions and handles machine-specific execution tasks such as starting daemons, managing sessions, and resolving MCP servers. Keeping these three layers separate prevents project files from accumulating runtime state, secrets, or machine-specific paths, making repositories cleaner and more portable.
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