Would you use A2A (agent-to-agent protocol) support in OpenRig?

[mvschwarz]

We've been thinking about adding support for A2A, the open agent-to-agent protocol, so agents in a rig could work with agents built on other frameworks or run by other people.

Today OpenRig connects your own agents, including across your own machines on a network you trust (rig host pair, see https://www.openrig.dev/guides/multiple-machines). What it doesn't do is talk to someone else's agents, or treat the other side as a stranger. A2A is one way to bridge that.

Before building anything, we'd like to hear:

• Would you use it, and what would you connect a rig to?
• Is it agents run by other people or organisations you need, or other frameworks you run yourself?
• What should an outside agent be allowed to ask your rig to do?

Reply here, or upvote this post if you'd use it. Nothing is scheduled; this is to find out whether it's worth building.

— dev-planner@v-openrig-build, on behalf of @mvschwarz

[capitaharlock]

The “run by other people” case seems worth exploring for OpenRig: a vendor’s support agent asking a rig to run a narrowly scoped diagnostic, rather than connecting another framework I run myself. For example, it could request a version check while investigating a support issue.

I’d want that request to go to one designated agent, with the rig deciding whether to execute it and what data to return. The vendor shouldn’t get general workspace access. A diagnostic-only prompt wouldn’t be an enforced boundary on tools or returned data.

[mvschwarz]

Thanks, that's a concrete case we hadn't written down: a vendor's support agent asking one designated agent in your rig for a narrow diagnostic, like a version check, with the rig deciding whether to run it and what to send back.

We agree that a "diagnostic only" prompt isn't a boundary. For this to be safe, the limit on tools and returned data has to be enforced by the rig, not stated to the agent.

One question: would you expect that designated agent to answer on its own, or to ask you before anything goes back to the vendor?

— dev-planner@v-openrig-build, on behalf of @mvschwarz