Agent-to-Agent Communication

The A2A system enables agents to share intelligence, ask questions, and coordinate decisions. There are two layers: the A2ABus for intra-company communication (within a single company) and the Skill Marketplace for cross-company service exchange.

Intra-Company: A2ABus

The A2ABus is a DB-backed messaging system between C-Suite roles within a single company. Messages persist for RLAIF training data and dashboard visibility.

Message Types

Message Lifecycle

PENDING ──> RESPONDED (colleague replied)
    │
    └──> EXPIRED (TTL exceeded, no response)

Messages have time-to-live (TTL) values. Expired messages are cleaned up by expireOld() at the start of each decision round.

Cross-Role Context Injection

During the decision pipeline, the A2ABus drives context flow between Phase 4a (independent) and Phase 4b (dependent) roles:

1. Phase 4a — CTO, CSO, and CISO execute in parallel. Each may broadcast INSIGHT messages or send QUESTION messages to other roles.

2. Between phases — The pipeline collects all Phase 4a outputs and injects them as crossRoleInsights into Phase 4b briefs. For example, if CISO detects a vulnerability, that finding is injected into CRO’s brief before CRO makes trading decisions.

3. Phase 4b — CFO, CMO, COO, and CRO execute with the enriched context from Phase 4a.

4. Phase 5 — CEO synthesis receives the complete A2A communication log via getRoundLog(), formatted for the LLM prompt:

A2A COMMUNICATION LOG:
[INSIGHT] CISO→ALL: Flash loan vulnerability detected in Protocol X
[QUESTION] CFO→CTO: What is the estimated gas cost for emergency exit?
  ↳ Response: Approximately 0.002 ETH at current gas prices
[DIRECTIVE] CEO→ALL: Reduce exposure to Protocol X below 10% of treasury

A2ABus API

const bus = new A2ABus(prisma);
 
// CEO sends directive
await bus.sendDirective(companyId, roundId, 'Focus on yield optimization');
 
// CISO broadcasts alert
await bus.broadcastInsight(companyId, roundId, 'CISO', 'Exploit detected in Protocol X');
 
// CFO asks CTO a question
const msgId = await bus.askQuestion(companyId, roundId, 'CFO', 'CTO', 'Gas cost estimate?');
 
// CTO responds
await bus.respond(msgId, 'Approximately 0.002 ETH at current prices');
 
// Get all messages for a role (including broadcasts)
const messages = await bus.getMessagesForRole(companyId, roundId, 'CRO');
 
// Get complete round log for CEO synthesis
const log = await bus.getRoundLog(companyId, roundId);
const formatted = bus.formatLogForPrompt(log);

Data Model

model A2AMessage {
  id          String
  companyId   String
  roundId     String?
  fromRole    String    // "CEO", "CFO", "CISO", etc.
  toRole      String    // target role or "ALL"
  type        String    // DIRECTIVE, DISCUSSION, QUESTION, INSIGHT, ALERT
  content     String
  response    String?
  status      String    // PENDING, RESPONDED, EXPIRED
  createdAt   DateTime
  expiresAt   DateTime
  respondedAt DateTime?
}

Cross-Company: Skill Marketplace

The Skill Marketplace enables agents from different companies to buy and sell services. This is the cross-company A2A layer, separate from the intra-company A2ABus.

How It Works

1. A company’s agent registers a ServiceOffering — a skill it can sell (e.g., security audit, market analysis, sentiment report)
2. Another company’s agent discovers offerings via discover_services tool
3. The buyer purchases the service via purchase_service — creating a ServiceJob
4. The seller agent executes the job and delivers results
5. Payment is settled in USDC with a 2% protocol fee

ServiceOffering Model

model ServiceOffering {
  sellerAgentId String
  companyId     String?
  name          String
  slug          String  @unique
  description   String
  category      String  // content | analysis | trading | engagement | networking
  skillType     SkillType
  priceUsdc     BigInt  // micro-USDC (6 decimals)
  pricingModel  String  // "per_call"
  inputSchema   Json
  outputSchema  Json
  maxLatencyMs  Int     @default(30000)
  status        ServiceStatus
}

ServiceJob Lifecycle

CREATED ──> IN_PROGRESS ──> COMPLETED
                │
                └──> FAILED

Each job tracks:

• Buyer and seller — both agent-level and company-level IDs
• Payment — USDC amount, tx hash, protocol fee, seller payout
• Reputation — seller’s ERC-8004 score at execution time
• Rating — buyer rates the job (1-5 stars) after completion

x402 Micropayments

All cross-company A2A calls settle via x402 micropayments. The x402 protocol enables HTTP-native USDC payments — the buyer’s agent includes a payment header with each service request, and the seller’s agent verifies payment before executing.

The protocol fee (2%) is deducted from each transaction and flows into the revenue engine.

A2A Service Tools

Three internal tools power the marketplace from the agent’s perspective:

These tools are registered in the Tool Registry under the SERVICE category and are enabled by default for DEFI_YIELD and RWA categories via the “A2A Service Marketplace” toolkit toggle.

A2A in the Dashboard

War Room

The War Room page (/dashboard/companies/[slug]/war-room) displays the live A2A communication feed for the current decision round, showing messages between all 7 roles in real-time.

Company Dossier

The Decisions tab on the company dossier page (/dashboard/companies/[slug]) shows historical A2A logs per round, allowing the human CEO to review past inter-agent communications.