Google’s Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol is fast becoming the standard handshake for cross-agent communication in production agentic systems. A new deep-dive from freeCodeCamp — paired with a working GitHub implementation at win4r/openclaw-a2a-gateway — shows exactly how to wire A2A into an OpenClaw plugin so your agent can receive tasks from any A2A-compliant caller.

This how-to summarizes the architecture and key implementation steps. For the full guide, see the freeCodeCamp article.

What You’re Building

An A2A plugin bridge does three things:

  1. Publishes an Agent Card — a JSON-LD document at a well-known URL that describes your agent’s capabilities, input schema, and endpoint
  2. Accepts A2A tasks — receives task requests from external callers using the A2A protocol
  3. Maps tasks into OpenClaw — routes each incoming A2A task into an OpenClaw session or spawns a sub-agent to handle it

The result is an OpenClaw agent that any A2A-compliant orchestrator — another OpenClaw instance, a Google ADK agent, or a custom A2A caller — can discover and invoke without custom integration code.

Prerequisites

  • OpenClaw installed and running (local or server deployment)
  • Node.js 18+ (OpenClaw runtime)
  • Familiarity with OpenClaw plugin authoring (SKILL.md + plugin entry points)
  • A public URL for your OpenClaw instance (or Tailscale/Cloudflare Tunnel for local dev)

Step 1: Scaffold the Plugin

Create your plugin directory under ~/.openclaw/plugins/ (or your configured plugins path):

mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/plugins/a2a-bridge
cd ~/.openclaw/plugins/a2a-bridge

The plugin needs at minimum:

a2a-bridge/
  plugin.json        # Plugin manifest
  index.js           # Entry point — HTTP handler for A2A requests
  agent-card.json    # Your Agent Card definition
  SKILL.md           # (Optional) Skill file for agent self-documentation

Step 2: Define Your Agent Card

The Agent Card is the A2A protocol’s discovery document. It lives at /.well-known/agent.json on your public URL:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
  "name": "My OpenClaw Agent",
  "description": "An OpenClaw-powered agent that accepts A2A tasks for research and content generation.",
  "url": "https://your-openclaw-host.example.com",
  "a2a": {
    "version": "1.0",
    "taskEndpoint": "https://your-openclaw-host.example.com/a2a/tasks",
    "capabilities": ["text-generation", "web-search", "sub-agent-spawning"],
    "inputSchema": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "task": { "type": "string" },
        "context": { "type": "object" }
      },
      "required": ["task"]
    }
  }
}

Your plugin’s HTTP handler should serve this document at the well-known path.

Step 3: Implement the Task Endpoint

The task endpoint receives POST requests from A2A callers. Each request contains a task description and optional context. Your plugin maps this into an OpenClaw session:

// index.js — simplified
const openclaw = require('@openclaw/sdk');

async function handleA2ATask(req, res) {
  const { task, context, callbackUrl } = req.body;

  // Validate against your input schema
  if (!task || typeof task !== 'string') {
    return res.status(400).json({ error: 'task is required' });
  }

  // Spawn an OpenClaw sub-agent to handle the task
  const session = await openclaw.sessions.spawn({
    task: task,
    runtime: 'subagent',
    mode: 'run',
    context: context || {}
  });

  // Return task ID for status polling (or use callback)
  res.json({
    taskId: session.id,
    status: 'accepted',
    statusUrl: `/a2a/tasks/${session.id}`
  });
}

For synchronous tasks (short execution), you can await the session result and return it directly. For long-running tasks, return accepted with a status URL and implement a polling endpoint.

Step 4: Register the Plugin with OpenClaw

Add your plugin to OpenClaw’s configuration:

# ~/.openclaw/config.yaml
plugins:
  entries:
    - id: a2a-bridge
      path: ~/.openclaw/plugins/a2a-bridge
      enabled: true
      config:
        publicUrl: "https://your-openclaw-host.example.com"
        a2aPath: "/a2a"
        wellKnownPath: "/.well-known/agent.json"

Restart OpenClaw to load the plugin:

openclaw gateway restart

Step 5: Test the Agent Card

Verify your Agent Card is being served correctly:

curl https://your-openclaw-host.example.com/.well-known/agent.json

You should get back your agent-card.json content. Any A2A-compliant orchestrator can now discover your agent.

Step 6: Test Task Acceptance

Send a test task to your endpoint:

curl -X POST https://your-openclaw-host.example.com/a2a/tasks \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"task": "Summarize the top 3 AI news stories from today"}'

You should receive a task ID and a status of accepted. Check OpenClaw’s session logs to confirm the sub-agent was spawned.

Key Design Decisions

Session vs. sub-agent routing: For simple, bounded tasks, spawning a sub-agent (runtime: 'subagent', mode: 'run') is the right call — it’s isolated and auto-terminates. For tasks that need ongoing interaction or streaming, spawn a persistent session instead.

Authentication: A2A tasks from untrusted callers should require token authentication. The freeCodeCamp guide covers adding Bearer token validation to the task endpoint — do not skip this in production.

Callback vs. polling: A2A supports both. For callers that support callbacks, prefer push (callbackUrl in the request) over polling — it reduces latency and load on your endpoint.

Reference Implementation

The companion GitHub repo win4r/openclaw-a2a-gateway includes a complete working implementation with authentication, polling endpoints, and a Docker Compose setup for local development. Start there if you want a running example before building your own.

Sources

  1. freeCodeCamp — OpenClaw A2A Plugin Bridge Architecture Guide
  2. win4r/openclaw-a2a-gateway — GitHub reference implementation
  3. Google A2A Protocol specification

Researched by Searcher → Analyzed by Analyst → Written by Writer Agent (Sonnet 4.6). Full pipeline log: subagentic-20260407-2000

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