Agent Protocols Guide

Source: src/lib/{a2a,acp,cloudAgent}/, src/app/api/{a2a,acp,cloud}/, src/app/api/v1/agents/ Last updated: 2026-05-13 — v3.8.0

OmniRoute exposes three different agent-related surfaces. They look similar at first glance but solve different problems. Use this page to pick the right one.

TL;DR

The three are independent — pick any subset.

Decision Tree

Do you need a cloud service to do work outside this machine (Codex Cloud / Devin / Jules)?
├─ YES → Cloud Agents (POST /api/v1/agents/tasks)
└─ NO → Continue
    │
    Do you have a peer agent that speaks A2A and wants to collaborate?
    ├─ YES → A2A (POST /a2a)
    └─ NO → Continue
        │
        Do you need to list / configure CLI coding agents installed locally?
        ├─ YES → ACP (GET /api/acp/agents)
        └─ NO → Use plain /v1/chat/completions

1. A2A — Agent-to-Agent

Spec: A2A v0.3 OmniRoute endpoint: POST /a2a (JSON-RPC 2.0) Agent Card: GET /.well-known/agent.json

When to use

• Building a multi-agent system where OmniRoute is one of the peers
• Exposing OmniRoute's routing intelligence (smart-routing, quota-management, etc.) to agents in frameworks like Google ADK or generic agent meshes
• Wrapping OmniRoute behind a standard discovery + invocation surface

Methods

• message/send — submit a message, receive sync response
• message/stream — submit + receive SSE-streamed progress events
• tasks/get — read task by ID
• tasks/cancel — cancel a running task

Built-in skills (5)

• smart-routing — route a prompt through the optimal combo
• quota-management — report per-provider quota state
• provider-discovery — list installed providers with capabilities
• cost-analysis — estimate cost of a request/conversation
• health-report — aggregate breaker/cooldown/lockout state per provider

Deep dive

See A2A-SERVER.md for transport details, agent card structure, task TTL config, and the template for adding new skills.

2. ACP — CLI Agents Registry

OmniRoute endpoint: GET /api/acp/agents Source: src/lib/acp/{index,manager,registry}.ts

What it is

ACP is OmniRoute's local CLI agent inventory. It detects which coding CLIs are installed on the host (Cursor, Cline, Claude Code, Codex CLI, Continue, etc.), resolves their versions, and surfaces them to the dashboard so the user can wire each CLI to point at OmniRoute.

This is NOT an external protocol — it's an internal registry that powers the "CLI Tools" UI and the CLI fingerprint tracking (see CLI-TOOLS.md).

What it does

• Probes the host for installed CLI binaries (uses which / where per OS)
• Reads each CLI's version (calls <bin> --version)
• Optionally accepts user-defined custom agents (binary path + version probe + spawn args)
• Persists custom agents in settings
• Returns the unified list to the dashboard

REST API

Body shape for POST (customAgentBodySchema in src/app/api/acp/agents/route.ts):

{
  "action": "add|update|remove",
  "id": "cursor",
  "name": "Cursor",
  "binary": "/usr/local/bin/cursor",
  "versionCommand": "--version",
  "providerAlias": "cursor",
  "spawnArgs": ["--api-base", "http://localhost:20128"],
  "protocol": "stdio"
}

Use cases

• Dashboard "CLI Tools" page lists what's installed and helps you point each at OmniRoute
• Custom agents let power users register internal/proprietary CLIs that OmniRoute doesn't know about by default
• Detection result fuels the cli-tools fingerprint matrix

When NOT to use ACP

• ACP doesn't run tasks. It only detects + configures CLIs. To actually invoke a CLI, you launch it yourself with the env vars OmniRoute provides (OPENAI_BASE_URL, OPENAI_API_KEY, etc.).

3. Cloud Agents

OmniRoute endpoints: /api/v1/agents/tasks/* (lifecycle) + /api/cloud/* (plumbing) Source: src/lib/cloudAgent/

What it is

A uniform interface over third-party cloud coding agents. You submit a prompt + repo URL, OmniRoute dispatches to the right cloud agent, polls status, returns results.

Supported agents (3, all confirmed in src/lib/cloudAgent/agents/)

• codex-cloud — OpenAI Codex Cloud
• devin — Cognition Devin
• jules — Google Jules

Lifecycle

POST /api/v1/agents/tasks
  → BaseAgent.createTask() per agent class
  → external service starts work
  → task row created in DB (cloud_agent_tasks)
  ↓
GET /api/v1/agents/tasks/[id]
  → lazy status sync from provider
  → returns current status + plan + activity log
  ↓
POST /api/v1/agents/tasks/[id]   (action: "approve" | "message" | "cancel")
  → forwards to provider (or marks cancelled locally)
  ↓
DELETE /api/v1/agents/tasks/[id]
  → local cancel

Auth

⚠️ All /api/v1/agents/tasks/* endpoints require management auth (commit 588a0333). Bearer-only callers receive 401 since v3.8.0.

Deep dive

See CLOUD_AGENT.md for the CloudAgentBase contract, per-agent specifics, schema details, and credential plumbing endpoints.

Comparison: A2A vs Cloud Agents

Both have "long-running tasks" but at different layers:

Integration Examples

Discover OmniRoute's A2A capabilities

curl http://localhost:20128/.well-known/agent.json

Returns the Agent Card with all 5 skills, transports, and version.

Call OmniRoute as an A2A agent

curl -X POST http://localhost:20128/a2a \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "message/send",
    "params": {
      "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Route this prompt"}],
      "skillId": "smart-routing"
    },
    "id": 1
  }'

List installed CLI agents via ACP

curl http://localhost:20128/api/acp/agents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <api-key>"

Add a custom CLI agent

curl -X POST http://localhost:20128/api/acp/agents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <api-key>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "action": "add",
    "id": "my-custom-cli",
    "name": "My Custom CLI",
    "binary": "/opt/mycli/bin/mycli",
    "versionCommand": "--version",
    "providerAlias": "openai"
  }'

Submit a Cloud Agent task

curl -X POST http://localhost:20128/api/v1/agents/tasks \
  -H "Cookie: auth_token=..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "agentId": "devin",
    "prompt": "Implement feature X in repo Y",
    "repo": "https://github.com/user/repo",
    "branch": "main"
  }'

Poll cloud task status

curl http://localhost:20128/api/v1/agents/tasks/<task-id> \
  -H "Cookie: auth_token=..."

When to Use What

• Chatbot / copilot frontend → /v1/chat/completions (OpenAI-compat — not an agent protocol)
• Multi-agent collaboration → A2A
• Listing local CLIs in the dashboard → ACP
• Delegating long-running coding tasks to cloud services → Cloud Agents

Internal Architecture

                ┌─────────────────────┐
                │   OmniRoute Core    │
                └─────────────────────┘
                  ↑       ↑        ↑
        ┌─────────┘       │        └─────────┐
        │                 │                  │
    ┌───────┐        ┌─────────┐       ┌────────────┐
    │  A2A  │        │   ACP   │       │  Cloud     │
    │ (/a2a)│        │ (/acp)  │       │  Agents    │
    └───────┘        └─────────┘       │ (/v1/agents│
        │                 │            │  /tasks)   │
        ↓                 ↓            └────────────┘
   External peer    Local CLI               │
   agents that      binaries on             ↓
   speak A2A v0.3   the host           Codex Cloud,
                                        Devin, Jules

See Also

• A2A-SERVER.md — A2A deep dive
• CLOUD_AGENT.md — Cloud Agents deep dive
• CLI-TOOLS.md — External CLI integrations (uses ACP)
• SKILLS.md — Skills framework (different from A2A skills — local execution sandbox)
• API_REFERENCE.md — endpoint reference
• Source: src/lib/{a2a,acp,cloudAgent}/