MCP and A2A Are the Two Integration Layers Every Agentic AI Stack Already Has
Developers building agentic AI systems in 2025 are increasingly relying on two distinct integration layers: MCP (Model Context Protocol) for connecting AI models to external resources, and A2A (Agent-to-Agent) protocols for enabling communication between agents. MCP, developed by Anthropic, standardises how large language models access databases, APIs, and tools without custom glue code for each data source. A2A handles horizontal coordination, allowing specialised agents — such as customer service, logistics, and billing bots — to discover and invoke one another. Unlike MCP, A2A lacks a unified standard, with teams using a fragmented mix of HTTP APIs, message queues, gRPC, and proprietary frameworks. Experts warn this mirrors the pitfalls of Enterprise Service Buses from the 2000s, urging developers to keep MCP tools thin and stateless while abstracting A2A implementations to avoid vendor lock-in.
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