zeph-a2a

A2A protocol client and server with agent discovery for Zeph.

Overview

Implements the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol over JSON-RPC 2.0, enabling Zeph to discover, communicate with, and delegate tasks to remote agents. Feature-gated behind a2a; the server component requires the server sub-feature.

Key Modules

• client — A2aClient for sending tasks and messages to remote agents
• server — A2aServer exposing an A2A-compliant endpoint with ProcessorEvent streaming via mpsc::Sender (requires server feature)
• card — AgentCardBuilder for constructing agent capability cards; includes protocolVersion field set to A2A_PROTOCOL_VERSION constant ("0.2.1") in the default card served at /.well-known/agent.json
• discovery — AgentRegistry for agent lookup and registration
• jsonrpc — JSON-RPC 2.0 request/response types
• types — shared protocol types (Task, Message, Artifact, etc.)
• error — A2aError error types

IBCT (Invocation-Bound Capability Tokens)

When the ibct feature is enabled, Zeph signs outbound A2A requests with HMAC-SHA256 capability tokens. Each token is bound to a single invocation and expires after a configurable TTL, preventing replay attacks.

The token is sent in the X-Zeph-IBCT request header. Remote agents that support IBCT can validate the token using the shared key.

Key rotation is supported via key_id: multiple keys can be configured simultaneously; Zeph signs with the current signing key and includes key_id in the token so the receiver knows which key to verify against.

[a2a]
ibct_ttl_secs = 60
ibct_signing_key_vault_ref = "ZEPH_A2A_IBCT_KEY"

[[a2a.ibct_keys]]
key_id = "k1"
secret = ""   # resolved from vault via ibct_signing_key_vault_ref

[!NOTE] IBCT is gated behind the ibct feature flag. When the feature is disabled, the X-Zeph-IBCT header is never sent.

Authentication

A2aServer supports bearer token authentication via the with_auth() builder method. When auth_token is None, the server emits a tracing::warn! at startup indicating that the endpoint is unauthenticated.

A2aServer::new(addr, sender)
    .with_auth(Some("secret-token".to_string()))
    .serve()
    .await?;

Token comparison uses subtle::ConstantTimeEq to prevent timing attacks.

Features

Installation

cargo add zeph-a2a

# With server component
cargo add zeph-a2a --features server

Enabled via the a2a feature flag on the root zeph crate.

Documentation

Full documentation: https://bug-ops.github.io/zeph/

License

MIT