Foundations

AdCP integration foundations: choose between MCP and A2A protocols, set up authentication, manage context and sessions, and configure accounts and agents.

This section covers the foundational technical concepts for building any AdCP implementation - whether you’re building a client, a server, or an orchestrator.

Choose Your Protocol

MCP Guide

For Claude, AI assistants, and MCP-compatible tools. Tool-based, request/response pattern.

A2A Guide

For Google AI agents and A2A workflows. Task-based, message/artifact pattern with SSE streaming.

Not sure which to choose? See Protocol Comparison.

Core Concepts

Authentication

How to authenticate with AdCP agents. Bearer tokens, agents, and accounts.

Context & Sessions

Managing conversation state with context_id vs task_id. Extension fields and opaque context.

Schemas and SDKs

Access schemas and official client libraries for JavaScript and Python.

Getting Started

1. Choose a Protocol

• MCP for tool-based integrations (Claude, MCP-compatible systems)
• A2A for task-based integrations (Google AI, agent-to-agent workflows)

2. Understand Authentication

• How agents and accounts are identified
• Bearer token patterns
• See Authentication

3. Handle Context

• context_id for conversation continuity
• task_id for tracking async operations
• See Context & Sessions

What Both Protocols Provide

Regardless of protocol choice, you get:

Feature	Support
All AdCP tasks	Same tasks, same capabilities
Unified status system	completed, working, input-required, failed, etc.
Context management	Session continuity across requests
Async operations	Long-running tasks with webhooks or polling
Human-in-the-loop	Approval workflows for sensitive operations
Error handling	Consistent error codes and recovery patterns

Next Steps

• Ready to connect? Start with MCP Guide or A2A Guide
• Need to authenticate? See Authentication
• Building production systems? Continue to Implementation Patterns