Agent Socket

The Universal Protocol for AI Agents.

Agent Socket is a Compute-Agnostic, WebSocket-first wire protocol engineered from first principles for modern AI Agents. It is designed as a high-performance, bidirectional alternative to HTTP-based standards (like MCP), running equally well on Serverless (Lambda/Edge) and Stateful (Docker/Rust/Python) backends.

⚠️ Current Status: This project is in the Request for Comments (RFC) phase. The architecture is defined, and we are now assembling the core contributor team to build the reference implementations. Join the Discord to get involved.

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⚡ The Problem: Standardizing Technical Debt

The industry is currently standardizing on HTTP + SSE for agentic systems (via MCP). This forces 2025 AI agents to operate with 2015 constraints:

• High Latency: Handshake overhead per interaction.
• Unidirectional: Servers cannot interrupt or steer the client effectively.
• Stateless Lock-in: Forces architectures to use external databases for context, even when unnecessary.

🚀 The Solution: Agent Socket

Agent Socket separates the protocol state from the compute runtime. It offers two distinct modes of operation:

1. Direct Mode: Low-latency (<10ms) stateful connection for dedicated servers (Rust/Python).
2. Relay Mode: Persistent state management for ephemeral serverless functions (Lambda/Workers).

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📐 Architecture Deep Dive

Mode 1: Direct Architecture (Rust/Python) - Click to Expand

Designed for maximum performance (<10ms) using long-lived TCP connections handled directly by the SDK.

sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    participant C as 📱 Client
    participant S as 🦀 Agent Runtime (Rust/Python)
    participant LLM as 🧠 LLM / Tools

    Note over C, S: ⚡ Mode 1: Direct State | <10ms Latency
    
    C->>S: GET /ws (Upgrade: websocket)
    S-->>C: 101 Switching Protocols (Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: asp-v1)
    
    note right of C: Persistent TCP Session
        
    loop Heartbeat (Every 30s)
        C-->>S: [0x9 PING]
        S-->>C: [0x10 PONG]
    end

    C->>S: [0x02 INVOKE] Binary Frame (MsgPack)
    activate S
    S->>S: Deserialize & Validate
    S->>LLM: Stream Inference
    
    loop Token Stream
        LLM-->>S: Token "A"
        S-->>C: [0x03 STREAM] Token "A"
    end
    
    S-->>C: [0x06 COMPLETE] Execution Metrics
    deactivate S

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Mode 2: Relay Architecture (Serverless) - Click to Expand

Designed for AWS Lambda and Edge environments. The Relay holds the connection, preventing cold-start penalties from affecting the client handshake.

sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    participant C as 📱 Client
    participant R as 🔄 Socket Relay (Edge)
    participant L as λ Serverless Fn

    Note over C, R: 🚀 Mode 2: Relay | Zero Cold-Start
    
    C->>R: Connect (WSS)
    R-->>C: [0x01 HELLO] ConnectionId: 7f8a...
    
    note right of C: Connection State Held at Edge
        
    C->>R: [0x02 INVOKE] Payload
    
    Note over R, L: Map WebSocket Frame -> HTTP Event
    R->>L: POST /invoke (Body: {cid: 7f8a, payload: ...})
    
    activate L
    L->>L: 🧊 Init / Re-hydrate Context
    L->>L: Execute Logic
    
    loop HTTP Chunked Transfer
        L-->>R: HTTP Data Chunk
        R-->>C: [0x03 STREAM] Binary Frame
    end
    
    L-->>R: 200 OK (X-Cpu-Time: 45ms)
    deactivate L
    
    R->>C: [0x05 TOOL_DEF] Async Push

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⚔️ Agent Socket vs. MCP (HTTP)

Feature	Agent Socket (This Protocol)	MCP (HTTP + SSE)
Transport	WebSockets (Binary)	HTTP (Text/JSON)
Latency	< 10ms - 30ms	100ms+ (Per Request)
Communication	True Full-Duplex	Request / Response
Flexibility	Universal (Server or Serverless)	Server-Centric
Discovery	Async / Just-in-Time	Upfront / Static
Overhead	Minimal (Binary frames)	Heavy (HTTP Headers)

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✨ Core Features

1. True Full-Duplex Communication

Unlike HTTP, where the client must ask before the server speaks, Agent Socket allows agents to push updates, request clarification, or discover tools asynchronously without a new request cycle.

2. Adaptive Runtime Support

• Running on Docker? Use the Rust/Python SDKs for raw performance.
• Running on Lambda? Use the Relay pattern to maintain state without paying for idle server time.

3. Binary Efficiency

By eliminating repetitive HTTP headers and using optimized binary framing, Agent Socket reduces network bandwidth usage by up to 50% compared to verbose JSON-over-HTTP protocols.

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🗺️ Roadmap

• Phase 1: Architecture & Theory Validation (Completed Dec 2025)
• Phase 2: Formal Specification White Paper (Q1 2026)
• Phase 3: Reference Implementation (TypeScript/Rust/Python/Node.js) (Q1 2026)
• Phase 4: Python SDK, Rust SDK & Benchmarks

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🤝 Community & Contributing

We are actively seeking Rust, Python, and TypeScript engineers to help build the reference implementation.

• 💬 Discord: Join the Agent Socket Server (Best for real-time discussion)
• 💡 Discussions: GitHub Discussions Tab (Best for RFC feedback)
• 🔗 Connect: Kunal Gawde on LinkedIn

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👤 Author & Philosophy

Architected by Kunal Gawde

"We shouldn't standardize on technical debt. Protocols shouldn't dictate infrastructure—they should empower it. Agent Socket assumes you want the freedom to choose."

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📄 License

Copyright © 2025 Kunal Gawde. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache 2.0 License (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.