# Personal Agent Protocol (PAP): Spec Status & Comparisons > Independent tracker for the Personal Agent Protocol by Sierra and Meta: what was announced on Oct 6, 2026, spec v0.1 status, partners, and how PAP compares with MCP, A2A, UCP and ACP. Source: https://pap.md/index.html Spec v0.1 not published · checked Oct 8, 2026 # Personal Agent Protocol: what's announced, what's still missing. The **Personal Agent Protocol (PAP)** is an open standard Sierra and Meta announced on October 6, 2026. It sets out how your AI agent signs in to a business and acts for you. You choose read-only or write. The business chooses the route. The spec itself isn't out yet. pap.md is an independent tracker, not affiliated with Sierra, Meta or the partners. We log every partner, date and claim with its source, and we'll annotate v0.1 the day it ships. What is PAP PAP vs MCP, A2A, UCP… Announced Oct 6 Named orgs 10 Auth OAuth How a PAP session works R / W Access ### The customer picks access Read-only or write. That’s the whole menu for now; finer limits are on the "later" list. OAuth Session ### Sessions run on OAuth Sign in on the company’s own page, or use credentials already set up with the agent. A guest visit is fine for stock checks. 3 Routes ### The business picks the route Its website, an API such as MCP or OpenAPI, or its own agent when the job needs a conversation. Fact sheet ## PAP in ten lines Everything here comes from Sierra's post or named coverage. If it isn't sourced, it isn't on the list. Checked Oct 8, 2026. How we got here: the timeline Full name Personal Agent Protocol (PAP) Announced October 6, 2026, at Sierra Summit, San Francisco Created by Sierra (Bret Taylor, Clay Bavor) and Meta What it covers How a personal AI agent signs in to a business and what it may do there Auth OAuth sessions; guest or signed in Access levels Read-only or write, chosen by the customer Routes Company website, APIs (MCP, OpenAPI), or the company’s own agent Spec v0.1 promised for later in October 2026, not published yet Not covered yet Payments, push notifications, finer permissions Not participating OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon As announced ## How the Personal Agent Protocol works You, your agent and the company share one visit. Here's the flow from Sierra's post, minus anything the spec hasn't confirmed. WEB ### Discover on the site The agent finds what the company offers and how to reach it. A guest session can check stock or a returns policy. GUEST OAUTH ### You choose access If the task needs your account, you sign in. You decide read-only or write. The visit stays the same. CONSENT ROUTE ### The company picks a route Website pages, an API such as MCP or OpenAPI, or the company’s own agent. DONE #### Built on OAuth, details pending Sierra says the session is built on OAuth. What it hasn't said yet: the discovery format, scope names, token rules. Those wait for v0.1, and so do we. See the architecture The protocol pile-up ## Where PAP fits next to MCP, A2A, UCP, ACP, TAP and PACT Agents already have a protocol for tools, one for talking to each other, two for shopping and one for proving who they are. PAP adds the customer's permission. Here's where each one ends. ### PAP vs MCP Low overlap Model Context Protocol · Anthropic Tools and data an AI app can call Read the comparison ### PAP vs A2A Some overlap Agent2Agent · Google, now a Linux Foundation project How two agents talk to each other Read the comparison ### PAP vs UCP Some overlap Universal Commerce Protocol · Google, with Shopify and retailers The shopping flow: discovery, checkout, after-sale Read the comparison ### PAP vs ACP Some overlap Agentic Commerce Protocol · OpenAI and Stripe In-agent checkout and payment tokens Read the comparison ### PAP vs TAP High overlap Trusted Agent Protocol · Visa and Cloudflare Proving an agent’s identity on each request Read the comparison ### PAP vs PACT High overlap Personal Agent Consent & Trust Protocol · Decagon and Instinct Agent identity and customer authority, agent-to-agent Read the comparison Who's in ## Two announcements, two partner lists Sierra and Meta didn't publish the same names. Seven appear on both. Instinct is only on Sierra's list; NiCE and Decagon are only on Meta's. Company Role Sierra post Meta post Sierra Co-creator Meta Co-creator Genesys Launch partner Rocket Companies Launch partner Shopify Launch partner Stripe Launch partner Walmart Launch partner Instinct Launch partner NiCE Partner Decagon Working group Not on either list: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon. Meta's list as reported by CMSWire. What each partner actually said ## Questions people keep asking Is the PAP specification published? + Not as of Oct 8, 2026. Sierra said v0.1 would come "later this month", meaning October 2026, followed by design workshops and a reference implementation. Are OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or Amazon part of PAP? + No. None of them is on either partner list. Bret Taylor, who also chairs OpenAI’s board, told CNBC he expects OpenAI and Anthropic to take part and would be "really disappointed" if competitors didn’t use it. Does PAP handle payments? + Not in the announced first version. Payment extensions, letting an agent buy without sharing card details, are listed as a possible later step. Does PAP replace MCP? + No. The announcement names MCP and OpenAPI as API routes a company can offer inside a PAP session. All 17 answers Waiting on v0.1 · promised for October 2026 ## Building for agents before the spec lands? Don't code against guessed endpoints. Start with what's actually been announced, and check the tracker. We'll publish an annotated read of v0.1 the day it goes live. Checklist for businesses Read Sierra's post Spec status RSS updates