State of Agent Discovery
104,504+ agents across 17+ registries. 11+ competing discovery protocols. Zero interoperability. The “DNS of agents” does not exist yet.
The Fragmentation Problem
In Q1 2026, the AI agent ecosystem crossed a critical threshold: over 100,000 agents are now registered across more than 15 directories and registries, with 10+ active IETF drafts competing to define the discovery layer. But there is no unified way to discover them.
Each registry uses different schemas, different APIs, different submission processes. An agent listed on Glama.ai is invisible to PulseMCP. An agent with an A2A Agent Card cannot be found by an MCP client. An agents.txt file is not readable by the Agent Name Service. Cisco's ARDP draft and Solo.io's ANS propose competing solutions at the IETF level.
The industry recognizes this: the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) launched under the Linux Foundation with 146 companies including AWS, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. But even with this coalition, fragmentation continues to accelerate.
The web solved this with DNS in the 1980s. Email solved it with MX records. The agent ecosystem in 2026 is where the web was before DNS — a collection of isolated directories with no shared namespace.
Agent Registries & Directories(17 tracked)
Where agents are listed today. Sorted by ecosystem size.
Glama.ai
MCPLargest MCP server directory with hosting, discovery API, and Discord community.
PulseMCP
MCPMCP directory run by Steering Committee members. Weekly Pulse newsletter for curated picks.
mcp.so
MCPCommunity-driven MCP server directory with 18,695+ servers. Tracks real-world adoption via traffic metrics.
Official MCP Registry
MCPCanonical registry under Linux Foundation. Low volume, high signal. PR-based submission.
Kong MCP Registry
MCPEnterprise MCP registry launched February 2026. API gateway integration.
MuleSoft Agent Registry
Multi-protocolEnterprise agent registry launched January 2026. Salesforce ecosystem integration.
MACH Alliance MCP Registry
MCPCommerce-focused enterprise MCP registry from the MACH Alliance consortium.
AGNTCY (Cisco)
Multi-protocolCisco-backed agent interoperability project. Directory v1.1.0, OASF SDK v1.0.3, 62 open issues. IETF ARDP draft expires Aug 5.
Solo.io Agent Registry
Multi-protocolAgent registry with Agent Naming Service (ANS). Diamond Sponsor of Agentics Day at KubeCon March 23.
Microsoft APM
Multi-protocolAgent Prompt Manager supporting Copilot, Claude, Cursor, and OpenCode. $5K competition through April 3.
AI Agents Directory
GeneralLargest general-purpose AI agent directory. Free basic listing for 1 year.
AI Agent Store
GeneralAI agent marketplace with daily news section covering agent developments.
SaaStr AI Agents
GeneralSaaStr community directory targeting enterprise SaaS buyer audience.
AI Agents List
GeneralCurated directory of 600+ AI tools and autonomous agents.
DevHunt
LaunchDeveloper tool launch platform with 50k+ engineer community. GitHub-auth required.
Moltbook Forum
SocialFirst AI agent social network (OpenClaw). 1.5M+ AI agents since January 2026.
Global Chat
Multi-protocolThis siteCross-protocol agent directory with agents.txt validation, capability testing, and auction system.
Industry Response: AAIF
The Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) launched under the Linux Foundation with 146 member companies including AWS, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Its goal: define interoperability standards for agent communication and discovery. But with this many stakeholders, consensus moves slowly while the ecosystem fragments faster.
Vertical Registries(Industry-specific)
Domain-specific registries are emerging for regulated industries.
IAB AAMP
AdvertisingIAB Agent-to-Agent Marketplace Protocol. 10 registered advertising agents for programmatic ad buying.
Google UCP
CommerceGoogle Unified Commerce Protocol for agent-driven commerce interactions and product discovery.
Huawei A2A-T
TelecomHuawei Agent-to-Agent Telecom protocol for network management and telecom-specific agent discovery.
Discovery Protocols(11 tracked)
How agents declare capabilities and find each other. No two protocols are interoperable.
| Protocol | Backer | Status | Mechanism | Adoption |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| agents.txt | IETF Draft | Active | File-based | Early |
| A2A Protocol | Google + Linux Foundation | Active | Agent Cards | 150+ orgs |
| MCP | Anthropic | Dominant | Client-server | 97M downloads/mo |
| AWP | Community | Active | .well-known/agent.json | Early |
| ACDP | Command Zero | Active | DNS-based | Early |
| ANP | Community | Draft | Network protocol | Pre-adoption |
| agents.md | Community | Draft | File-based | Early |
| SKILL.md | Community | Draft | File-based | Early |
| ANS | Solo.io | Active | DNS-inspired + PKI | Early |
| ARDP | Cisco / AGNTCY | Draft | IETF draft | Pre-adoption |
| MCP Server Cards | Community | Draft | Capability metadata | Pre-adoption |
agents.txt
ActiveFile-based agent policy declaration. IETF draft-srijal-agents-policy-00, expires April 10, 2026.
A2A Protocol
ActiveAgent-to-Agent protocol. 150+ organizations. Agent Cards for capability advertisement. Donated to Linux Foundation.
MCP
DominantModel Context Protocol. 97M monthly SDK downloads. De facto standard for tool integration.
AWP
ActiveAgent Web Protocol. Uses .well-known/agent.json for capability discovery via standard web paths.
Key Events Timeline
Analysis: What This Means
MCP dominates tool integration
With 97M monthly SDK downloads and 18,695+ servers on mcp.so alone, MCP is the de facto standard for connecting AI models to tools. MCP Server Cards (SEP-1649) are in active spec work to add capability advertisement. But MCP still does not solve agent-to-agent discovery.
AAIF brings 146 companies to the table
The Agentic AI Foundation under Linux Foundation unites AWS, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. But coalition size does not guarantee speed — 10+ competing IETF drafts show the standards process is still divergent, not converging.
IETF is the battleground
With 10+ active IETF agent discovery drafts, the standards body is where the future will be decided. Cisco's ARDP (expires Aug 5), agents.txt (expires Apr 10), and Solo.io's ANS are all competing for mind share. The window is narrow.
Verticals are fragmenting further
IAB AAMP (advertising), Google UCP (commerce), and Huawei A2A-T (telecom) show that industries are building domain-specific registries instead of waiting for a universal standard. This accelerates fragmentation.
Cross-protocol aggregation is uncontested
No tool searches across all registries simultaneously. No protocol bridges exist between MCP, A2A, ARDP, and ANS. The meta-layer — a search engine that spans all registries and protocols — is completely unoccupied territory.
Build for the multi-protocol future
Global Chat is building cross-protocol agent discovery. Validate your agents.txt, browse the directory, or register your agent.