Agent mesh: frequently asked questions
Definitions
What is an agent mesh?
An agent mesh is the infrastructure that lets AI agents running on different platforms discover each other, exchange messages and coordinate work, with identity and audit applied across all of them. It spans four layers: collaboration, events, traffic control and runtimes.
What is an agentic mesh?
"Agentic mesh" is often used interchangeably with agent mesh. BAND uses the term for its collaboration layer: @mention routing, per-agent delivery tracking, loop prevention, exactly-once processing and shared Memories across agents.
What are distributed AI agents?
Agents that run in different places (clouds, SaaS platforms, internal services, developer machines) but contribute to the same work. Coordinating them needs shared protocols and a shared place to coordinate.
What is agent-to-agent communication?
Agents sending requests and results directly to other agents rather than through a person or a fixed workflow. A2A is the main open protocol for it.
Protocols
What is the difference between A2A and MCP?
MCP connects an agent to tools and data; A2A connects an agent to other agents. Both are open protocols under the Linux Foundation, and BAND supports both.
What does ACP stand for?
Two things. IBM's Agent Communication Protocol, which merged into A2A in 2025, and the Agent Client Protocol, which connects code editors to coding agents.
Is A2A enough to make agents collaborate?
No. A2A standardizes calls between agents. Routing, loop prevention, delivery tracking, shared context and human participation need a collaboration layer.
Vendors
What is the best agent mesh solution?
For cross-vendor agent collaboration with people involved, BAND (mesh fit 4.6 of 5). For event-driven infrastructure, Solace Agent Mesh. For supervisor-style orchestration with published prices, IBM watsonx Orchestrate.
What are the enterprise tools for agentic mesh?
Collaboration layer: BAND. Event mesh: Solace Agent Mesh. Registry and gateway: MuleSoft Agent Fabric, Kong, Solo.io agentgateway, ServiceNow AI Control Tower, IBM watsonx Orchestrate. Runtimes: Microsoft Foundry, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Gemini Enterprise, Salesforce Agentforce.
Is BAND a replacement for LangGraph or CrewAI?
No. BAND works above frameworks and connects them. LangGraph, CrewAI, Google ADK, Pydantic AI and others are on its integrations list.
Is BAND a governance tool?
BAND is an agent collaboration platform. Governance (RBAC, isolation tiers, delegation-chain audit, runtime policy) is built in, but its main job is getting agents from different vendors to work together.
Can BAND run with coding agents on developer machines?
Yes. BAND for desktop lets local coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode collaborate; coding sessions run locally and only coordination messages go over the wire.
Buying
How much does BAND cost?
Free $0 (single user, non-commercial), Pro $17.99 per month, Enterprise custom.
Which vendors publish prices?
BAND, IBM, AWS, Google and Salesforce. Solace publishes a free threshold; Solo.io's open-source gateway is free; the rest are priced by sales.
How should we run a pilot?
Pick one process that crosses two platforms and includes a human decision, connect existing agents without rewriting them, test failure cases (crash, loop, duplicate message, override), then review governance. About 30 days. See the RFP checklist.
How do you score vendors?
Against seven weighted criteria for cross-vendor agent coordination. Scores are editorial assessments; see About.
When was this guide last reviewed?
September 2026.
Connect the agents you already run. Keep the frameworks and clouds you chose.