# pap.md

> Independent tracker for the Personal Agent Protocol (PAP). Not affiliated with Sierra, Meta or any partner.

pap.md is an independent tracker for the Personal Agent Protocol (PAP), the open standard Sierra and Meta announced on October 6, 2026 for how personal AI agents sign in to businesses and act for customers. Sessions run on OAuth; the customer chooses read-only or write access; the business chooses the route (website, APIs such as MCP and OpenAPI, or its own agent). As of 2026-10-08 the v0.1 specification had not been published. Each page lists its sources; the primary source is https://sierra.ai/blog/introducing-personal-agent-protocol. pap.md is not affiliated with Sierra, Meta or any partner.

## Start here

- [What is the Personal Agent Protocol?](https://pap.md/docs/overview.md): Definition, how a visit works, who is behind it, what is missing.
- [Spec status tracker](https://pap.md/status.md): Whether PAP v0.1, workshops and the reference implementation have shipped.
- [Timeline](https://pap.md/timeline.md): Dated events from ACP and UCP to Muse, Amazon and the PAP announcement.
- [FAQ](https://pap.md/faq.md): Short sourced answers about PAP.

## How it works

- [Architecture](https://pap.md/docs/architecture.md): Discovery, guest and signed-in sessions, OAuth access, routes.
- [Glossary](https://pap.md/docs/glossary.md): PAP terms plus related protocols.
- [For businesses](https://pap.md/for-businesses.md): Preparation checklist using only announced facts.

## Comparisons

- [Agent protocol map](https://pap.md/compare.md): PAP next to MCP, A2A, UCP, ACP, TAP and PACT.
- [PAP vs MCP: does the Personal Agent Protocol replace MCP?](https://pap.md/compare/pap-vs-mcp.md): No. MCP is one of the API routes PAP names. PAP covers who the agent acts for and what the customer allowed; MCP carries the calls.
- [PAP vs A2A: Personal Agent Protocol and Agent2Agent](https://pap.md/compare/pap-vs-a2a.md): A2A defines how two agents exchange tasks. PAP defines whether a personal agent may act for a customer at a business, and how far.
- [PAP vs UCP: Personal Agent Protocol vs Google’s UCP](https://pap.md/compare/pap-vs-ucp.md): UCP covers shopping from discovery to checkout. PAP covers agent sign-in and customer consent across any industry. Shopify backs both.
- [PAP vs ACP: Personal Agent Protocol vs OpenAI’s ACP](https://pap.md/compare/pap-vs-acp.md): ACP handles checkout with shared payment tokens. PAP handles agent sign-in and consent. Stripe backs both; OpenAI isn’t in PAP.
- [PAP vs TAP: Personal Agent Protocol vs Visa’s TAP](https://pap.md/compare/pap-vs-tap.md): Both help a business tell real customer agents from bots. TAP signs each HTTP request; PAP uses an OAuth session the customer approves.
- [PAP vs PACT: Personal Agent Protocol and Decagon’s PACT](https://pap.md/compare/pap-vs-pact.md): PACT and PAP launched the same day to solve the same problem. PACT has a public spec on A2A and OAuth 2.0; PAP’s v0.1 is still pending.

## Ecosystem

- [Partners](https://pap.md/ecosystem/partners.md): Sierra and Meta partner lists compared.
- [Press coverage](https://pap.md/press.md): Coverage and analysis worth reading.
- [About pap.md](https://pap.md/about.md): Independence and sourcing rules.
- [Contribute](https://pap.md/contribute.md): How to send corrections, sources and spec alerts.