Tools, Protocols & Interoperability
Explain how agents discover capabilities, call systems and communicate across boundaries.
Why This Matters
Tool calling without contracts is an integration accident. Protocols define capability discovery, authorization, and what happens when two agents meet across an org boundary.
Architecture Position
Tools and protocols connect the Agent Layer to enterprise APIs and to other agents. Security and identity wrap every hop. See it on the architecture map.
Start Here
Core Concepts
Tool Calling
- Function calling
- Tool schemas
- Structured arguments
- Tool errors
Capability Systems
- Capability discovery
- Tool registries
- Capability contracts
MCP
- MCP fundamentals
- MCP architecture
- Clients
- Servers
- Authorization
- Security
Agent Communication
- Agent-to-agent communication
- A2A
- Handoffs
- Delegation
Enterprise Protocols
- OpenAPI
- AsyncAPI
- CloudEvents
- Webhooks
- JSON Schema
Advanced Coordination
- Outcome coordination
- Protocol contracts
- Cross-domain orchestration
Advanced
Advanced material
Deeper guides for this domain are on the way.
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Enterprise walkthroughs that apply this topic in a full system.
Browse case studiesRelated Topics
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Open →Identity & Authorization
How humans, agents, and workloads establish identity and receive authority to act.
Open →AI Security & Trust
Threats created by probabilistic systems that retrieve data and take actions.
Open →Distributed Systems for AI
Classic production architecture connected to modern AI systems.
Open →Roadmaps
This topic appears in the Enterprise AI Architect path.
Follow the Enterprise AI Architect roadmap