Agent Registry
Last updated: 2025-05-15
Agent Registry is the component that contains the information regarding available agents in the multi-agent system.
Depending on the architecture of the multi-agent system (monolithic or distributed), Agent Registries can be centralized, or distributed per agent or agent group.
The primary goal of an agent registry is to provide an information repository for the agents in the system to know how to communicate with one another. In most cases though, in an Orchestrator-based multi-agent architecture, the registry enables the Orchestrator Agent to query which agents are best to carry the immediate tasks at hand.
Core Components
flowchart TB subgraph Agent Registry register-->repository repository-->view repository-->monitor end
Register Component (Discovery)
A register mechanism is necessary to input Agent information into the repository. There are several ways to implement this Register mechanism
Registry-Initiated Agent Register
In a scenario where the Agent is available, and has a way to get the Agent Information, the register mechanism can make a request to the target agent URL to get the Agent Information. In order to implement this mechanism, the register mechanism needs to know where and how to request the different Agent Info endpoints
flowchart LR
subgraph Agent Registry
register-->repository
repository-->view
repository-->monitor
end
register a1@==>AgentA("AgentA Info API")
register b1@==>AgentB("AgentB Info API")
a1@{ animate: true }
b1@{ animate: true }
For a detailed sequence diagram of this process, see Dynamic Agent Registry (Service Mesh for Agents) Diagram
Agent-Initiated Self Register
Alternatively, the register mechanism can be an API endpoint, where the Agents can register "themselves" into the registry. In order to implement this mechanism, the register mechanism needs to provide an endpoint where the Agents can reach to provide their Agent Information.
flowchart LR
subgraph Agent Registry
register-->repository
repository-->view
repository-->monitor
end
AgentA("AgentA Info API") a1@==> register
AgentB("AgentB Info API") b1@==> register
a1@{ animate: true }
b1@{ animate: true }
Repository Component (Storage)
We need a storage mechanism that houses all the available Agent Information.
The actual storage can be flexible, but it's important to consider that the Agent Information needs to be easily listed, and it could potentially be queriable.
View Component
The View Component lists all the available agents or in more advanced cases, provides filtering capabilities
flowchart LR
subgraph Agent Registry
register-->repository
repository-->view
repository-->monitor
end
OrchestratorAgent a1@==>|GET /agents| view
view b1@-->|"{ agents: [...] }"| OrchestratorAgent("Orchestrator Agent")
a1@{ animate: true }
b1@{ animate: true }
Monitor Component
In an enterprise scenario, it's important to ensure that the agents registered in the Agent Register are up and running, and that the Agent Information are up to date. So often it is necessary to have a monitoring mechanism to regularly call the registered agents for uptime and information
flowchart LR
subgraph Agent Registry
register-->repository
repository-->view
repository-->monitor
end
monitor a1@==>AgentA("AgentA Info API")
monitor b1@==>AgentB("AgentB Info API")
a1@{ animate: true }
b1@{ animate: true }
Data: Agent Information
The information stored in the Agent Repository (so far referred in this documentation as "Agent Information") is used for two purposes:
- For the maintainers/developers of the system (humans) to see the agents are available
- For the Agents to determine what's the best agent(s) to interact with to complete the task
For Human Consumption
In order to form a more robust Agent Catalog more information might be needed
for categorization or classification (such as tags or owners in the metadata
of the
ACP Agent Detail Spec).
For Agent Consumption
At a very minimum, two pieces of information are needed to describe an agent:
name: the name of the agent that should convey an idea of the purpose of the agent. (For example, "TravelBookingAgent" is better than "Bob")description: A detailed description of what the bot can do.
Additional information such as the expected input and output and communication mechanism are also helpful for the consuming agent to achieve effective communication
Furthermore, since the Agent Information is used by Agents to communicate with
other Agents, additional information is needed to inform the consuming (i.e.
Orchestorator) Agent how to communicate with the registered Agent. Such as
url and authentication properties in the A2A Agent Card.
For more information on current standarizations of Agent Information from the community:
Evaluation of Registering Agent
In Enterprise Multi-Agent Scenarios, there needs to be processes and policies in-place to ensure that by adding agents to the registry will not degrade the system's behavior.
During the registration process, it's recommended to contain a validation step to evaluate the validity of the agent being registered.
See the Dynamic Agent Registry (Service Mesh for Agents) Diagram for a detailed walkthrough.