Protocol Ecosystem

Where AURA sits in the agentic commerce stack, and how it interoperates with identity, payment, and agent communication protocols.

AURA Is The Market Layer

AURA defines how autonomous buyer and seller agents discover each other, negotiate, commit to transactions, and settle through payment rails, mediated by a neutral broker. It is the layer that sits between agent communication and payment execution.

AURA does not move money. It does not verify identity. It does not provide agent-to-agent discovery infrastructure. Those functions are provided by specialised protocols in the emerging ecosystem. AURA relies on them and interoperates with them.

The rest of this page maps the current landscape, where AURA fits, and what AURA adds that no other protocol currently provides.

Live demonstration

See the protocol in action, end to end

A scroll-synced demonstration of a fictional B2B chemicals procurement runs through all fourteen steps with the actual JSON payloads on screen. Or read the primer for a 20-minute conceptual overview that's paste-ready for any LLM.

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1 Identity Layer

Who Are You?

AURA is a relying party for identity. Principals establish trust by presenting externally-issued credentials at registration. AURA verifies credential integrity and maps them to trust levels. AURA never performs identity verification itself and never stores personally identifiable information.

The Trust Framework accepts credentials from established issuers. Verifiable LEIs from GLEIF prove organisational identity. Verifiable Intent from Mastercard and Google binds identity to delegation. Certificate authorities issue domain-verified certificates. Licensed banks issue Open Banking identity tokens. Visa Trusted Agent Protocol proves agent authorisation chains.

  • vLEI (GLEIF): KERI-based legal entity identifier → L2 entity-verified
  • Verifiable Intent (Mastercard, Google): SD-JWT delegation chains → L2 identity or L2 delegation
  • X.509 DV/OV/EV (CAs): domain and organisational identity → L1 or L2
  • Open Banking tokens (AISPs): bank-verified KYC → L3 kyc-verified
  • TAP (Visa): agent authorisation chains → supplementary
2 Payment Layer

How Money Moves

AURA produces cryptographically signed settlement instructions and consumes verifiable proofs of settlement. It does not touch funds. Payment rails and payment protocols handle fund movement. The AURA clearinghouse advances a transaction from settling to settled only when the rail returns a valid, signed proof. No proof, no state transition.

Finality is defined per rail. RTP and FedNow are irrevocable on confirmation. Stablecoin is irrevocable after the confirmation threshold. Card and ACH are provisional until the chargeback or return window closes. The clearinghouse lifecycle accommodates all finality types.

  • MPP (Stripe, Tempo): machine-to-machine payments in the HTTP request-response cycle
  • x402 (Linux Foundation): HTTP-native payment standard, multi-chain, fiat via CAIP
  • AP2 (Google): payment authorisation via Verifiable Digital Credentials
  • RTP / FedNow: irrevocable real-time payments, seconds-level finality
  • Card networks (Visa, Mastercard): transitional rail for existing merchant infrastructure
  • Stablecoin (USDC): programmatic blockchain settlement
3 Commerce Layer

Market vs. Catalogue

Several commerce protocols connect agents to merchants. They are all catalogue-based. An agent using UCP or ACP navigates a single merchant's inventory and picks items. An agent using AURA declares what it needs, and a market of competing sellers responds with offers. The intent-driven model applies when a buyer does not know which seller is best for this specific need.

The two models are complementary. A Scout can use UCP for known-product repurchase and AURA for discovery-driven procurement. AURA participants can expose their catalogues through UCP or ACP for direct-purchase flows.

  • UCP (Google, Shopify): structured product discovery, cart, checkout from retailer catalogues
  • ACP (OpenAI, Stripe): merchant-to-agent commerce, powers ChatGPT Instant Checkout
  • ICC (Visa): protocol-agnostic payment aggregation hub for TAP, MPP, ACP, UCP
4 Agent Communication Layer

How Agents Find Each Other

Agent discovery and tool access are handled by dedicated protocols. A2A defines how one agent finds and talks to another. MCP defines how an agent uses external tools, APIs, and data sources. AURA sits above both. It defines what happens when a buyer agent and a seller agent meet in a market context.

Scouts and Beacons can be discoverable via A2A Agent Cards. AURA exposes MCP tools so that an LLM agent can use AURA as one of its available tools. The agent communication layer is plumbing. AURA is the market that runs on top of it.

  • A2A (Google, Linux Foundation): agent discovery, capability negotiation, task management
  • MCP (Anthropic): tool and data access for LLM-based agents

What AURA Adds

Market Formation

Routes intent to qualified sellers and facilitates price discovery. Payment protocols move money. Commerce protocols connect agents to single merchants. AURA forms a market of competing sellers responding to buyer intent.

Neutral Brokerage

A neutral intermediary between buyer and seller. Breaks bilateral dynamics that otherwise produce collusion, oscillation, or exploitation. No other commerce protocol interposes a neutral third party.

Privacy-Preserving Negotiation

Buyer identity is abstracted until commitment. Beacons see projected requirements, not full intent. Budget is shown as a range. Monotonic disclosure is a structural property of the message format.

Multi-Dimensional Reputation

Behavioural signals computed from protocol events feed offer ranking. Five dimensions for Beacons, five for Scouts. No scalar rating, no static moat.

Clearinghouse

Risk assessment, reserve management, settlement orchestration, dispute enforcement. Payment rails move money. ICC aggregates rail access. AURA validates, prices risk, and enforces financial obligations.

Market Parameterisation

Invariant protocol mechanics with configurable economic parameters. Retail, B2B, digital goods, and services run on the same protocol with different commitment paths, disclosure schedules, and risk thresholds.

Read The Specification

The complete protocol specification, API reference, and SDKs are available in the developer portal. A free developer account gets you access.

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