State of Agent Discovery
104,504+ agents across 14+ registries. 9+ 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. 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.
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(14 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. 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.
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.
Discovery Protocols(9 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 | OWASP | Draft | DNS-inspired + PKI | 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 is winning tool integration
With 97M monthly SDK downloads, MCP has become the de facto standard for connecting AI models to tools. But MCP does not solve agent-to-agent discovery — it connects models to servers, not agents to agents.
A2A is the enterprise contender
Google's Agent-to-Agent protocol has 150+ organizations and Linux Foundation backing. Agent Cards are the closest thing to a standard capability advertisement format. But adoption is still mostly among Google Cloud customers.
File-based discovery is simplest
agents.txt follows the robots.txt playbook — drop a file at a well-known path and any crawler can read it. The IETF draft shows standards-body interest. But the draft expires April 10, 2026 and needs renewal or will stall.
Cross-protocol aggregation is uncontested
No tool searches across all registries simultaneously. No protocol bridges exist between MCP and A2A. 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.