agntcy/agentic-apps/a2acli

Name: a2acli
Author: agntcy

Claude Code and agent skill by agntcy/agentic-apps

Trust tier 3

community

By agntcy
Coding
agntcy/agentic-apps
slim-multicluster/a2acli-skill/a2acli/SKILL.md
Updated 16 Sep 2026
Version 1.0.01 version recorded

Source check pending

Checking that the SKILL.md file is still in the repository.

Interact with A2A protocol agents — list available agents, inspect their capabilities, send messages, and retrieve task results. Use when you need to communicate with or delegate work to another A2A-compatible AI agent, query an agent's skills, or check the status of an async task.

Install

npx vskill@latest install agntcy/agentic-apps/a2acli

SKILL.md

a2acli — A2A Protocol CLI

a2acli is a command-line tool for interacting with agents that expose the A2A (Agent-to-Agent) protocol. It supports both standard HTTP transports (JSON-RPC, REST) and SLIM RPC for agents deployed behind a SLIM messaging node.

Setup

1. Build the binary

From the skill directory:

bash

# Build and place in this skill's scripts/ directory
task build-skill
 
# Or install to your PATH
task install

2. Add AgentCard files

AgentCard JSON files must be placed in a .a2aagents directory. The CLI searches:

.a2aagents/ in the current working directory
~/.a2aagents/ in the home directory

You can override this with --agents-dir <path>.

Each agent is identified by the SHA256 digest of its AgentCard JSON file (e.g. sha256:3f7a2c1b...). You can use the full digest or any unambiguous prefix.

Commands

`scripts/a2acli list`

List all available agents.

scripts/a2acli list [--agents-dir <path>]

Output:

NAME                  DESCRIPTION                                       DIGEST
weather-agent         Provides weather forecasts for any location        sha256:3f7a2c1b...
code-review-agent     Reviews Go, Python and TypeScript code             sha256:9d4e8f2a...

`scripts/a2acli get-card --agent <digest>`

Print the full AgentCard JSON for an agent, including all skills, capabilities, and supported interfaces.

scripts/a2acli get-card --agent <digest>

Example:

scripts/a2acli get-card --agent sha256:3f7a2c1b

Output: Pretty-printed AgentCard JSON, for example:

json

{
  "name": "weather-agent",
  "description": "Provides weather forecasts for any location",
  "version": "1.0",
  "skills": [
    {
      "id": "get-forecast",
      "name": "Get Forecast",
      "description": "Returns a weather forecast for a given location and date range",
      "tags": ["weather", "forecast"]
    }
  ],
  "capabilities": {
    "streaming": false
  },
  ...
}

Use this command when you need to understand what an agent can do before sending it a message.

`scripts/a2acli send-message --agent <digest> [--return-immediately] "<message>"`

Send a text message to an agent.

scripts/a2acli send-message --agent <digest> [--return-immediately] "<message>"

Flags:

--return-immediately — Instruct the agent to return a Task immediately without waiting for completion. The Task ID and initial status are printed; no polling is performed. Without this flag the CLI polls every 2 seconds until the task reaches a terminal state.

Example — synchronous response (agent replies with a Message):

$ scripts/a2acli send-message --agent sha256:3f7a2c1b "What is the weather in London tomorrow?"
The forecast for London tomorrow is partly cloudy with a high of 18°C and a low of 11°C.

Example — async response, poll until done (default):

$ scripts/a2acli send-message --agent sha256:9d4e8f2a "Review the code in main.go for security issues"
Task ID: 01938f4a-1234-7abc-def0-123456789abc
Waiting for task to complete...
Status: TASK_STATE_WORKING
Status: TASK_STATE_COMPLETED
 
Final status: TASK_STATE_COMPLETED
 
Artifact 1: code-review
Found 2 potential issues:
1. SQL query on line 42 uses string concatenation — use parameterized queries instead.
2. Error from os.ReadFile on line 67 is silently ignored.

Example — return immediately, retrieve result later:

$ scripts/a2acli send-message --agent sha256:9d4e8f2a --return-immediately "Generate a report"
Task ID: 01938f4a-1234-7abc-def0-123456789abc
Status:  TASK_STATE_SUBMITTED

`scripts/a2acli get-task --agent <digest> "<task-id>"`

Retrieve the current state of a task, including its status, history, and any artifacts.

scripts/a2acli get-task --agent <digest> "<task-id>"

Example:

$ scripts/a2acli get-task --agent sha256:9d4e8f2a "01938f4a-1234-7abc-def0-123456789abc"

Output: The full task as JSON:

json

{
  "id": "01938f4a-1234-7abc-def0-123456789abc",
  "contextId": "01938f49-5678-7abc-def0-abcdef012345",
  "status": {
    "state": "TASK_STATE_COMPLETED"
  },
  "artifacts": [
    {
      "artifactId": "01938f4b-...",
      "name": "code-review",
      "parts": [
        {
          "text": "Found 2 potential issues:\n1. ..."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Global Flags

Flag	Description
`--agents-dir <path>`	Override the agents directory (default: `.a2aagents` in CWD, then `~/.a2aagents`)

Common Workflows

Discover and query an agent

bash

# 1. List available agents to find the one you need
scripts/a2acli list
 
# 2. Inspect its capabilities and skills
scripts/a2acli get-card --agent sha256:3f7a2c1b
 
# 3. Send a message and wait for the result
scripts/a2acli send-message --agent sha256:3f7a2c1b "Hello, what can you do?"

Fire-and-forget a long-running task

bash

# Submit the task and get the ID immediately
scripts/a2acli send-message --agent sha256:9d4e8f2a --return-immediately "Analyze the sales data for Q1 2025"
# Task ID: 01938f4a-1234-7abc-def0-123456789abc
# Status:  TASK_STATE_SUBMITTED
 
# Check back later
scripts/a2acli get-task --agent sha256:9d4e8f2a "01938f4a-1234-7abc-def0-123456789abc"

Use a non-default agents directory

bash

scripts/a2acli --agents-dir /path/to/my/agents list
scripts/a2acli --agents-dir /path/to/my/agents send-message --agent sha256:3f7a2c1b "Hello"

Task States

State	Meaning
`TASK_STATE_SUBMITTED`	Task has been received, awaiting execution
`TASK_STATE_WORKING`	Agent is actively working on the task
`TASK_STATE_COMPLETED`	Task finished successfully
`TASK_STATE_FAILED`	Task failed due to an error
`TASK_STATE_CANCELED`	Task was canceled
`TASK_STATE_REJECTED`	Task was rejected by the agent
`TASK_STATE_INPUT_REQUIRED`	Agent needs more input (send a follow-up message)
`TASK_STATE_AUTH_REQUIRED`	Agent requires authentication

Security

Security scanPassed, 95 of 100Pattern checks on the skill's files.
Model reviewPassed

See the full security report

Quality evaluation

Task evaluationNot runNo evaluation yet. Run one in Skill Studio.

See evaluation results

Source

SKILL.md in the repositoryCheckingslim-multicluster/a2acli-skill/a2acli/SKILL.md

Popularity

Repository stars: 123
Repository forks: 59
7-day trend score: 24

Stars and forks are for the whole GitHub repository, not this skill alone. Not refreshed yet.

Works with

Any agent vskill installs to: 56 targets in all. These 39 have a page on this site.

Claude Code
Cursor
GitHub Copilot
Windsurf
Codex
Gemini CLI
Cline
Amp
Roo Code
Goose
Continue
Kilo Code
Junie
Trae
OpenHands
Qwen Code
AI Agent
Tabnine Chat
Sourcegraph Cody
Amazon Q
Firebase Genkit
Sweep
Devin
Phind
Mentat
Claude Desktop
Aider
GPT Pilot
Plandex
bolt.new
v0
Replit Agent
Anse
TypingMind
BetterChatGPT
LibreChat
Warp AI
Pieces
Fig AI

Embed badge

[![vskill VERIFIED](https://verified-skill.com/api/v1/skills/agntcy/agentic-apps/a2acli/badge)](https://verified-skill.com/skills/agntcy/agentic-apps/a2acli)

Something wrong with this skill or its page? Tell us.