Agent Capability Negotiation and Binding Protocol (ACNBP)

TL;DR

The paper introduces ACNBP, a comprehensive protocol for secure, efficient, and verifiable interaction among heterogeneous agents in multi-agent systems, addressing capability discovery, negotiation, and binding with security and extensibility.

Contribution

It proposes a novel, extensible framework integrating capability negotiation with security features and backward compatibility for heterogeneous multi-agent systems.

Findings

Effective capability discovery and secure negotiation demonstrated.

Enhanced security through digital signatures and threat mitigation.

Protocol supports diverse architectures with backward compatibility.

Abstract

As multi-agent systems evolve to encompass increasingly diverse and specialized agents, the challenge of enabling effective collaboration between heterogeneous agents has become paramount, with traditional agent communication protocols often assuming homogeneous environments or predefined interaction patterns that limit their applicability in dynamic, open-world scenarios. This paper presents the Agent Capability Negotiation and Binding Protocol (ACNBP), a novel framework designed to facilitate secure, efficient, and verifiable interactions between agents in heterogeneous multi-agent systems through integration with an Agent Name Service (ANS) infrastructure that provides comprehensive discovery, negotiation, and binding mechanisms. The protocol introduces a structured 10-step process encompassing capability discovery, candidate pre-screening and selection, secure negotiation phases, and binding commitment with built-in security measures including digital signatures, capability attestation, and comprehensive threat mitigation strategies, while a key innovation of ACNBP is its protocolExtension mechanism that enables backward-compatible protocol evolution and supports diverse agent architectures while maintaining security and interoperability. We demonstrate ACNBP's effectiveness through a comprehensive security analysis using the MAESTRO threat modeling framework, practical implementation considerations, and a detailed example showcasing the protocol's application in a document translation scenario, with the protocol addressing critical challenges in agent autonomy, capability verification, secure communication, and scalable agent ecosystem management.