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README.md

A2UI Agent implementation

The python/a2ui_agent/src/a2ui directory contains the Python implementation of the A2UI agent SDK.

Core Components

The following directories contain the base protocol logic, parsing, and schema operations directly under src/a2ui/:

Processor & Catalog Configuration (src/a2ui/processor)

  • generator.py: Defines A2uiGenerator, the main entry point for configuring an agent's catalogs and default inference format factory.
  • processor.py: Defines A2uiRequestProcessor, which binds the active catalogs negotiated for a request to an inference format and exposes prompt generation and response parsing. An agent creates one for each request with A2uiGenerator.create_processor, from the capabilities that the client sent.
  • catalog_config.py: Defines CatalogConfig, which binds a Catalog (or loads one from a path via CatalogConfig.from_path) with an optional sequence of CatalogTransformer instances into transformed_catalog.
  • catalog_providers.py: Defines CatalogProvider, FileSystemCatalogProvider, and InMemoryCatalogProvider for loading catalogs.

Constants (src/a2ui/constants.py)

  • Protocol and SDK string constants such as A2UI_OPEN_TAG, A2UI_CLOSE_TAG, A2UI_CLIENT_CAPABILITIES_KEY and A2UI_RENDERER_CAPABILITIES_KEY. Protocol versions are a2ui.core.schema.ProtocolVersion members. The module has no dependencies, so callers that only need a constant can import a2ui.constants without loading the rest of the SDK.

Catalog transformers (src/a2ui/catalog_transformers)

  • pruning.py: ComponentPruningTransformer and FunctionPruningTransformer return a copy of a catalog that keeps only the allowed components or functions. Pass them to CatalogConfig as transformers.

Builders (src/a2ui/builder)

  • v0_9/, v1_0/, and core/: Typesafe Pydantic component, binding, action, and function builders for A2UI v0.9 and v1.0, plus flatten_component_tree for converting nested Python component trees into flat wire component lists. See src/a2ui/builder/README.md.

Macro transformers (src/a2ui/transformers/macros)

  • macro.py, expander.py, and processor.py: @macro and MacroExpander synthesize catalog component schemas from typed Python builder functions and lower macro components into primitive component subtrees on outbound messages. See src/a2ui/transformers/macros/README.md.

Utilities (src/a2ui/utils)

  • catalog_resolver.py: resolve_catalogs returns the catalogs that are active for the capabilities that a renderer sent.
  • examples.py: load_examples reads few-shot examples from a directory or glob pattern and can validate them against the active catalogs.
  • schemas.py: load_agent_to_renderer_schema and load_common_types_schema return the protocol JSON schemas for a version.
  • versions.py: to_version_number returns a protocol version without its leading "v" (ProtocolVersion.V0_9 gives "0.9"), the form that A2A extension URIs and many file layouts use.
  • schema_pruning.py: prune_messages_schema and prune_common_types_schema reduce the protocol schemas to the allowed messages and the common types that are referenced.
  • renderer_state.py: RendererState is the agent's mirror of the surfaces a renderer holds. It wraps one MessageProcessor and checks each outbound message against everything sent before it. A chat agent uses a new state per turn, which is what a parser does when it is given none. A canvas agent keeps one state for the whole conversation. validate_payload checks one payload the way a renderer holding the catalogs would, on a short-lived RendererState, and raises A2uiValidationError if the renderer would reject it.

Parser (src/a2ui/parser)

  • parser.py: Defines the Parser abstract base class. A format implements compile and decompile, which translate between its notation and A2UI messages, and wrap and unwrap, which handle its tags. The base class reads model responses with parse_response. open_stream reads a response chunk by chunk; the base class raises NotImplementedError, and only formats that stream, whose supports_streaming is true, implement it. Both check every message against a RendererState. A parser holds no per-response state, so one parser can be reused across turns.
  • response_stream.py: Defines the ResponseStream that open_stream returns. When feed or close raises, the error's partial_results holds the parts the call made ready before the failure, which are applied to the state. By default the first rejected block ends the stream; a stream opened with after_rejected_block="continue" returns an ErrorPart in place of a rejected block and reads on. is_in_block tells whether the response read so far ends inside a block, so a client that joins the chunks of a paused and resumed response knows whether a space between them could break a block.
  • response_part.py: Defines ResponsePart (TextPart / A2uiPart), ErrorPart, StreamPart (ResponsePart or ErrorPart) and RawResponsePart (RawA2uiPart).
  • lexer.py: Defines BlockLexer for sentinel-tag tokenization (<a2ui-json>...</a2ui-json>).
  • errors.py: Defines A2uiCompilationError and its subclasses A2uiCompilationParseError and A2uiCompilationValidationError.
  • messages.py: to_message_models and to_message_dicts convert between message dictionaries and typed models.

Prompt & Inference Formats (src/a2ui/prompt, src/a2ui/inference_formats)

  • prompt/generator.py: Defines the PromptGenerator (A2uiPromptGenerator) abstract base class (generate_base_rules, generate_catalog_instructions, generate_examples, generate).
  • inference_format.py: Defines InferenceFormat and InferenceFormatFactory.
  • inference_formats/: Format implementations and factories for Direct JSON (direct_json/), Express (express/), and experimental Elemental and Atom (experimental/) formats. Direct JSON and Express both stream: DirectJsonParser.open_stream heals partial JSON per chunk, and ExpressParser.open_stream emits each statement once it closes.

Agent framework integrations

The agent SDK does not depend on an agent framework. Integrations are separate packages that add to the a2ui namespace:

Code in this package must not import an agent framework or model SDK. tests/test_framework_agnostic.py checks this.

Running tests

  1. Navigate to the package directory:

    cd python/a2ui_agent

  2. Run the tests

    uv run pytest

Building the SDK

To build the SDK, run the following command from the python/a2ui_agent directory:

uv build

The build doesn't need Java. The Express lexer, parser, and visitor in src/a2ui/inference_formats/express/generated/ are generated from specification/inference_formats/express/Express.g4 and committed to the repository.

Regenerating the Express parser

After changing Express.g4, regenerate the parser from the python/a2ui_agent directory and commit the result:

uv run python scripts/generate_express_parser.py

The script runs ANTLR 4.13.2 through antlr4-tools from the dev dependency group. ANTLR needs a Java runtime (JRE 11 or newer) on the PATH, and antlr4-tools downloads the ANTLR jar on first use. Add --check to compare the committed files with the grammar without changing them. CI runs this check.

Formatting code

To format the code, run the following command from the python directory:

uv run pyink .

Releasing the SDK

See internal guidance at go/a2ui-release-pipy.

Disclaimer

Important: The sample code provided is for demonstration purposes and illustrates the mechanics of A2UI and the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol. When building production applications, it is critical to treat any agent operating outside of your direct control as a potentially untrusted entity.

All operational data received from an external agent—including its AgentCard, messages, artifacts, and task statuses—should be handled as untrusted input. For example, a malicious agent could provide crafted data in its fields (e.g., name, skills.description) that, if used without sanitization to construct prompts for a Large Language Model (LLM), could expose your application to prompt injection attacks.

Similarly, any UI definition or data stream received must be treated as untrusted. Malicious agents could attempt to spoof legitimate interfaces to deceive users (phishing), inject malicious scripts via property values (XSS), or generate excessive layout complexity to degrade client performance (DoS). If your application supports optional embedded content (such as iframes or web views), additional care must be taken to prevent exposure to malicious external sites.

Developer Responsibility: Failure to properly validate data and strictly sandbox rendered content can introduce severe vulnerabilities. Developers are responsible for implementing appropriate security measures—such as input sanitization, Content Security Policies (CSP), strict isolation for optional embedded content, and secure credential handling—to protect their systems and users.