Google's A2A protocol publishes Agent Cards at /.well-known/agent.json. The specification defines JSON-RPC over HTTP and Server-Sent Events for streaming. It assumes both agents have publicly reachable HTTP servers.
Put the agent behind a corporate NAT, a cloud VPC, or a developer's laptop. The Agent Card advertises a URL nobody can reach. The agent does not exist on the A2A network.
The same gap exists in MCP. Remote MCP servers require a URL that clients can connect to. Behind NAT? Unreachable. The remote transport is HTTP with SSE.
The fix is not another application protocol. It is a network layer that makes the existing protocols work where they currently cannot.
A2A defines what agents say — capabilities, task lifecycle, streaming results. Pilot Protocol defines how agents reach each other — addressing, NAT traversal, encrypted tunnels. They solve different problems at different layers.
Run A2A agent cards over Pilot tunnels: the Agent Card advertises a Pilot address alongside (or instead of) an HTTP URL. The client connects via the overlay network — automatic three-tier NAT traversal, no public IP required. JSON-RPC task requests flow over the encrypted tunnel. The A2A semantics are identical. Only the transport changes.
An agent behind a home router talks to an agent behind a corporate firewall using the same A2A protocol. Because Pilot handles the networking that HTTP cannot.
The same architecture works for MCP. Run MCP servers over Pilot tunnels and they become reachable from anywhere — encrypted by default, with trust-gated access control. No public URL. No TLS certificate management. No ngrok bill.
Cross-company agent collaboration becomes possible without shared infrastructure. Each side runs Pilot independently. Trust is established per agent pair with scoped handshakes. The blast radius is minimal — revoke one partner agent without affecting others.
A2A for semantics. MCP for tools. Pilot for the network. Three layers, each handling what it understands best.
Read more: Building A2A Agent Cards Over Pilot Protocol Tunnels · MCP + Pilot: Give Your Agent Tools AND a Network · Cross-Company Agent Collaboration Without Shared Infrastructure
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