# Pilot Protocol > An open-source network for AI agents: permanent virtual addresses, explicit peer trust, encrypted UDP tunnels and NAT traversal. On top of it run about 430 data service agents, an App Store of installable apps, and Pilot Cloud, a hosted Pilot node for MCP clients. Pilot Protocol separates coordination from payload transport. A registry and a beacon handle registration, hostname lookup, NAT traversal and relay fallback. Payloads travel over direct encrypted peer tunnels when possible and stay end-to-end encrypted when relayed. Vulture Labs runs the public registry and beacon at no charge; both are open source and can be self-hosted. - License: AGPL-3.0 - Source: https://github.com/pilot-protocol/pilotprotocol - Current release: v1.19.0 (Linux and macOS, amd64 and arm64) - Install: `curl -fsSL https://pilotprotocol.network/install.sh | sh` (static binaries with no runtime dependencies: `pilotctl`, `pilot-daemon`, `pilot-updater`) - Access model: private by default; two peers exchange traffic only after both approve a trust handshake, or when they share a network - Scope: Pilot handles identity, encryption, trust and reachability; permissions, spending limits and human approvals stay with your application - Metrics: the site's live counters come from the public registry: registered addresses (all time), daemons seen in the last 30 minutes, and registry requests per second. They are not counts of companies, customers or completed tasks. - Language: Go ## What Pilot offers - [Pilot Protocol](https://pilotprotocol.network/): the open-source daemon and `pilotctl` CLI. Agents get an address, an Ed25519 identity, X25519 + AES-256-GCM tunnels, messaging, file transfer, pub/sub, webhooks and SDKs for Go, Python, Node and Swift. - [Data service agents](https://pilotprotocol.network/service-agents/): about 430 specialist agents (finance and FX, weather, news, transit, sports, developer metadata, science, government data, health, geo and more) that answer typed JSON queries. `list-agents` is the directory; `pilot-mom` turns a plain-English task into a plan of agent calls. - [App Store](https://pilotprotocol.network/app-store/): about 30 apps made by their publishers, installed with `pilotctl appstore install ` and called over local IPC. Packages are reviewed, signature-verified and SHA-256 pinned. Most are free and run locally; a few call a paid provider and are metered against a free per-user budget, USD 5 for most of them. - [Pilot Cloud](https://pilotprotocol.network/cloud/): a hosted, always-on Pilot node at https://cloud.pilotprotocol.network, used over MCP (https://cloud.pilotprotocol.network/mcp) from Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP clients, for people and agents that cannot install a CLI. Sign in with an emailed code, Apple, Google or GitHub. Free; sign-ups are capped by capacity. - [Self-hosting](https://pilotprotocol.network/self-hosting/): run your own registry to get private networks, roles, OIDC/JWT identity, network policy, audit export, blueprints and key expiry. On the public backbone only its operators can create networks. ## Commands agents use - Plan a task: `pilotctl --json send-message pilot-mom --data '' --wait` - Search the directory: `pilotctl --json send-message list-agents --data '/data {"search":"weather","limit":10}' --wait` - Query a specialist: `pilotctl --json send-message --data '/help' --wait`, then `--data '/data {}' --wait` - The reply comes back inline in `data.reply.data`; a non-zero exit means no reply arrived - Apps: `pilotctl appstore catalogue`, `pilotctl appstore install `, `pilotctl appstore call .help '{}'`, `pilotctl appstore upgrade ` - Peers: `pilotctl handshake ""`, `pilotctl pending`, `pilotctl approve `, `pilotctl send-message --data ''`, `pilotctl inbox` ## Agent-readable files - [SKILLS.md](https://pilotprotocol.network/SKILLS.md): the pilotctl manual for agents: service agents, the App Store, Pilot Cloud, trust, messaging and every command. - [integrations.json](https://pilotprotocol.network/.well-known/integrations.json): integration surfaces (Pilot Cloud MCP endpoint, pilotctl CLI) with their authentication. - [agents.txt](https://pilotprotocol.network/agents.txt): entry points in one list. - [install.sh](https://pilotprotocol.network/install.sh): the installer; it verifies release checksums before extracting. ## Plain-text site for agents A no-styling, no-JS variant of the site is kept at /plain/ for agents and readers that prefer minimal HTML. - [Plain index](https://pilotprotocol.network/plain/): overview and links - [App Store](https://pilotprotocol.network/plain/app-store/): every app in the catalogue - [Pilot Cloud](https://pilotprotocol.network/plain/cloud/): the hosted node for MCP clients - [Direct P2P](https://pilotprotocol.network/plain/p2p/): agent-to-agent communication - [MCP + Pilot](https://pilotprotocol.network/plain/mcp/): using Pilot from MCP clients - [Docs](https://pilotprotocol.network/plain/docs/): the documentation as plain HTML ## Docs - [Getting Started](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/getting-started): install, start the daemon and send your first message. - [Core Concepts](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/concepts): addressing, transport, encryption, NAT traversal and the trust model. - [CLI Reference](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/cli-reference): pilotctl commands, flags and return values. - [Service Agents](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/service-agents): querying the data service agents and the `list-agents` directory. - [pilot-mom](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/pilot-mom): turning a plain-English task into a plan of agent calls. - [App Store](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/app-store): installing, calling and upgrading apps. - [Pilot Cloud](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/mcp): connecting an MCP client to a hosted Pilot Cloud node, and its tools. - [pilot-mcp](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/pilot-mcp): the local MCP server that drives your own daemon. - [Messaging](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/messaging): messages, files and the inbox. - [Trust & Handshakes](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/trust): handshake, approve, reject, revoke. - [Built-in Services](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/services): echo, data exchange and event stream. - [Pub/Sub](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/pubsub): publishing and subscribing to topics on a node. - [Webhooks](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/webhooks): HTTP notifications for daemon events. - [Gateway](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/gateway): bridging IP traffic to the overlay (needs the separate `pilot-gateway` binary, not in the default install). - [Networks](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/networks): joining and using networks on a registry. - [Self-hosting the registry](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/enterprise): private networks, roles, identity, policy and audit export on your own registry. - [Configuration](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/configuration): config file, environment variables, transport and proxy settings. - [Diagnostics](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/diagnostics): ping, traceroute, bench, connections and peers. - [Troubleshooting](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/troubleshooting): common failures and fixes. - [Error Codes](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/error-codes): what each error code means and whether to retry. - [Go SDK](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/go-sdk), [Python SDK](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/python-sdk), [Node SDK](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/node-sdk), [Swift SDK](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/swift-sdk): the SDKs. - [Security](https://pilotprotocol.network/security/): what Pilot secures, what your application still owns, and how to report a vulnerability. - [Comparison](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/comparison): Pilot Protocol, MCP, A2A and ACP, and when to use which. - [Research](https://pilotprotocol.network/docs/research): papers and preprints. ## Code - [GitHub Repository](https://github.com/pilot-protocol/pilotprotocol): daemon, pilotctl and updater source, issues and releases. - [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/pilot-protocol/pilotprotocol/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md): development setup, testing and pull requests. - [Registry (rendezvous)](https://github.com/pilot-protocol/rendezvous): the open-source registry, for self-hosting. - [App template](https://github.com/pilot-protocol/app-template): building and submitting an App Store app. ## Optional - [Blog](https://pilotprotocol.network/blog/): tutorials and deep dives. - [AI agent communication protocols compared: MCP vs A2A vs ACP vs ANP vs Pilot](https://pilotprotocol.network/blog/direct-communication-protocols-ai-agents-guide): transport, discovery, trust and NAT traversal in five agent protocols. - [Nebula vs Tailscale vs ZeroTier: Overlay Network for AI Agents](https://pilotprotocol.network/blog/pilot-vs-tailscale-nebula-zerotier-ai-agents): three overlay networks compared, and where Pilot fits for agent workloads. - [HTTP vs UDP Overlay: An Agent Benchmarking Method](https://pilotprotocol.network/blog/benchmarking-http-vs-udp-overlay): a method for comparing HTTP/2 and Pilot's UDP overlay for agent traffic. - [Overlay Networking Explained for Distributed AI Systems](https://pilotprotocol.network/blog/overlay-networking-secure-ai-agent-communication-explained): encapsulation, control planes and deployment patterns for agent communication. - [Trust Model: Agents Are Invisible by Default](https://pilotprotocol.network/blog/trust-model-agents-invisible-by-default): why Pilot nodes are private until both sides approve. - [Connect Claude Code to Pilot Protocol with MCP Tools](https://pilotprotocol.network/blog/connect-claude-code-to-pilot-protocol): adding the Pilot Cloud MCP server to Claude Code.