Can a customer’s agent get an answer?
A customer could ask an agent to compare your price with a competitor’s, check whether your product works with their software, and find your security documentation. Can it get those answers without booking three calls?
Try it with me. Connect your assistant to my public résumé, then ask whether my experience fits the role you’re hiring for.
Poppy, the draft Personal Agent Protocol, proposes a way for personal agents to identify themselves and work with businesses through websites, APIs, and company agents, within the customer’s permissions.
How an agent works with a business
Explore five building blocks, clockwise from the top or down the list on a phone. Sign-in is needed only for tasks that use your account.
Step 1 of 5
Discovery
The business lists how agents can connect in a file at /.well-known/poppy.json.
This file names its sign-in options and the channels it offers.
Step 2 of 5
Sessions
The agent opens a session and identifies itself. A session links its work for one person at one business.
Some tasks, such as checking stock, can start without account sign-in.
Step 3 of 5
Sign-in
For account access, the person approves permissions through the business’s sign-in flow. The business can limit those permissions.
The agent uses approved credentials without needing the person’s password.
Step 4 of 5
One session, every channel
A session can link work across the channels a business supports: its website, APIs and its own agent.
Browser access needs the business’s session connection. The protocol does not make every website support it.
Step 5 of 5
Get it done
The agent uses the channels the business offers to carry out the task within the granted access.
Sierra describes a jacket return, flight rebooking and mortgage pre-approval. These are examples, not a promise that every business supports them.
Explore the details
Permissions and OAuth
The person signs in with the business and approves access. The agent does not need to know their password. Permissions limit what the agent can do.
Tokens and continuity
A token is a credential used for access. Session tokens let agents call APIs and business agents. A supported browser connection sets cookies for web access. Poppy uses OAuth for access and signed JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) to identify agents.
Web, APIs and MCP
An API lets software call a service. OpenAPI describes those calls. MCP, the Model Context Protocol, connects agents to tools. A business can offer these channels, its website or its own conversational agent.
Customer control
Customers decide which access to grant. Businesses define which actions they offer. Some tasks still need explicit confirmation.
Real-world tasks
The Sierra draft describes returning a jacket, rebooking a canceled flight and requesting mortgage pre-approval.
Poppy and UCP
UCP, the Universal Commerce Protocol, focuses on shopping journeys. Poppy addresses agent identity, permission and interaction across many kinds of tasks. The two are complementary.
Based on Sierra’s explanation and the current draft specification. Poppy is a draft proposal, not a universal standard in production.
Read the sources
Sierra · Introduction
Introducing the Poppy draft
The creators explain how Poppy could help agents work with businesses.
Personal Agent Protocol · Draft 0.1
Read the specification
The draft’s technical requirements for discovery, sessions, permissions, and interaction channels.
Personal Agent Protocol · Optional draft
Actions, approvals, and retries
A draft design for proposing, approving, tracking, and retrying actions.
ACES · Research paper
What Is Your AI Agent Buying?
University-affiliated experiments on shopping agents’ choices and biases in controlled consumer marketplaces. The findings don’t establish B2B adoption.