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Agent Communications Language

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Agent Communication Language (ACL), are computer communication protocols that are intended for AI Agents to communication with each other.

During the 2007, protocols of this nature were proposed which include:

<ul><li>FIPA-ACL<a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a> (by the <a href="Foundation_for_Intelligent_Physical_Agents" title="Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents">Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents</a>, a standardization <a href="Consortium" title="Consortium">consortium</a>)</li>

<li><a href="KQML" class="mw-redirect" title="KQML">KQML</a><a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a> (Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language)</li></ul>

After the surge in <a href="Generative_artificial_intelligence" title="Generative artificial intelligence">Generative AI</a> with the use of <a href="Transformer_(deep_learning_architecture)" title="Transformer (deep learning architecture)">Transformers</a> and <a href="Large_language_model" title="Large language model">Large language models</a>, the definition of agent has shifted away from physical agents to signify software systems built using the principles of <a href="Agentic_AI" title="Agentic AI">Agentic AI</a>. A new protocol to emerge in this area is Natural Language Interaction Protocol (NLIP).<a href="#cite_note-3">[3]</a> NLIP is a standard being proposed by <a href="Ecma_International" title="Ecma International">Ecma International</a>, a standard body which focuses on application level standards in computer systems.

As a result, we can define agent communication protocols into two categories: Ontology based agent communication protocols and generative AI based agent communication protocols.

Ontology based agent communication protocols use a common <a href="Ontology_(computer_science)" class="mw-redirect" title="Ontology (computer science)">ontology</a> to be used between agents. An ontology is a part of the agent's knowledge base that describes what kind of things an agent can deal with and how they are related to each other. FIPA-ACL and KQML are examples of such protocols. These protocols rely on <a href="Speech_act" title="Speech act">speech act</a> theory developed by <a href="John_Searle" title="John Searle">Searle</a> in the 1960s<a href="#cite_note-4">[4]</a> and enhanced by <a href="Terry_Winograd" title="Terry Winograd">Winograd</a> and <a href="Fernando_Flores" title="Fernando Flores">Flores</a> in the 1970s. They define a set of <a href="Performative_utterance" title="Performative utterance">performatives</a>, also called Communicative Acts, and their meaning (e.g. ask-one). The content of the performative is not standardized, but varies from system to system. Implementation support of FIPA-ACL is included in FIPA-OS<a href="#cite_note-5">[5]</a><a href="#cite_note-6">[6]</a>

and <a href="Java_Agent_Development_Framework" title="Java Agent Development Framework">Jade</a>.<a href="#cite_note-7">[7]</a>

Generative AI based agent communication protocols such as NLIP<a href="#cite_note-8">[8]</a> do not require a shared ontology among communicating agents. In its stead, they use generative AI models to translate natural language text, images, videos or other modalities of data into a local ontology. This provides for hot-extensibility where the same protocol can be used for multiple communication needs, and simplifies version control since different agents can use different versions of a shared ontology. NLIP has been designed with security considerations in mind.<a href="#cite_note-9">[9]</a><a href="#cite_note-10">[10]</a> The specification and standardization of NLIP is happening in Ecma Technical Community 56.<a href="#cite_note-11">[11]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFPoslad2007" class="citation journal cs1">Poslad, Stefan (2007). "Specifying Protocols for Multi-agent System Interaction". ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems. 2 (4): 15–es. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1145%2F1293731.1293735">10.1145/1293731.1293735</a>. <a href="S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:9477595">9477595</a>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-2"><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFFininRichard_Fritzson,_Don_McKay_and_Robin_McEntire1994" class="citation conference cs1">Finin, Tim; Richard Fritzson, Don McKay and Robin McEntire (1994). KQML as an agent communication language. Proceedings of the third international conference on Information and knowledge management, CIKM '94. pp. 456–463.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-3"><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFAiyagariBertinoBieniekChiou2025" class="citation journal cs1">Aiyagari, Sanjay; Bertino, Elisa; Bieniek, Jan; Chiou, Yan-Ming; Dodhiawala, Raj; Hughes, Sean; Jamin, Sugih; Kundu, Ashish; Lenchner, Jon; Mauriello, Matthew; Ratnaparkhi, Abhay; Rahouti, Mohamed; Sheffler, Tom; Shen, Chien-Chung; Verma, Dinesh C. (2025-05-21). Wysocki, Bryant T.; Blowers, Misty (eds.). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/13480/3054059/Natural-language-interaction-protocol-NLIP/10.1117/12.3054059.full">"Natural language interaction protocol (NLIP)"</a>. Disruptive Technologies in Information Sciences IX. SPIE: 13. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1117%2F12.3054059">10.1117/12.3054059</a>. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>978-1-5106-8749-3</bdi>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-4"><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFSearle1969" class="citation book cs1">Searle, J.R. (1969). Speech Acts. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-5"><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFPosladPhilip_Buckle_and_Robert_Hadingham2000" class="citation conference cs1">Poslad, Stefan; Philip Buckle and Robert Hadingham (2000). The FIPA-OS agent platform: Open Source for Open Standards. Proceedings of 5th International Conference on the Practical Application Of Intelligent Agents And Multi-Agent Technology (PAAM). pp. 355–368.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-6"><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFPosladBuckle_P,_Hadingham_R.G2001" class="citation book cs1">Poslad, S; Buckle P, Hadingham R.G (2001). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/infrastructurefo0000inte/page/296">"Open Source, Standards and Scaleable Agencies"</a>. Infrastructure for Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Scalable Multi-Agent Systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 1887. pp. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/infrastructurefo0000inte/page/296">296–303</a>. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2F3-540-47772-1_30">10.1007/3-540-47772-1_30</a>. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>978-3-540-42315-7</bdi>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-7"><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFBellifemineeAgostino_Poggi_and_Giovanni_Rimassa2001" class="citation conference cs1">Bellifeminee, Fabio; Agostino Poggi and Giovanni Rimassa (2001). JADE: a FIPA2000 compliant agent development environment. Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Autonomous agents. pp. 216–217.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-8"><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://nlip-project.org/#/">"NLIP Project"</a>. nlip-project.org. Retrieved 2025-05-27.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-9"><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFAiyagiri" class="citation web cs1">Aiyagiri, Sanjay. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://spie.org/defense-commercial-sensing/presentation/Security-design-for-NLIP--a-universal-protocol-for-AI/13476-24">"Security design for NLIP: a universal protocol for AI-enabled systems"</a>. spie.org. Retrieved 2025-05-27.</cite><code class="cs1-code">{{cite web}}</code>: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

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<li id="cite_note-10"><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nlip-redefining-secure-communication-between-natural-ai-smulovics-amabe">"NLIP: Redefining Secure Communication Between Natural Language AI Models"</a>. www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2025-05-27.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-11"><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ecma-international.org/technical-committees/tc56/">"TC56"</a>. Ecma International. Retrieved 2025-05-27.</cite>

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