MCP vs A2A: When to Use Each
Use MCP when
- You need deterministic tool execution.
- You want schemas and strict validation.
- You are building operational workflows.
Use A2A when
- You need explicit agent handoffs.
- You exchange contextual messages/artifacts.
- You orchestrate multi-agent collaboration loops.
Most teams use both
A common pattern is A2A for handoff/bootstrap and MCP for deterministic action execution.
