Insights · New standard

The Personal Agent Protocol: how customers' AI agents will sign in to you

On 6 October 2026 Meta and Sierra announced a shared way for a customer's personal AI agent to sign in to a business, with the customer's permission, and get things done. This guide explains what it does, who's behind it, where it fits among the other agent standards, and what it means for a business in Ireland today.

SproutMedia team9 October 2026 · 12 minute read

A customer's personal agent · illustration

My bike from Canal Cycles hasn't come. If it's late, switch it to collection in the shop.

canalcycles.ie

Opening canalcycles.ie to see what the shop offers agents…

1. DiscoverWebsite, as a guestNow
2. Sign inYou choose the accessNext
3. ActAPI, website or the shop's agentNext

One sign-in, one visit.The shop knew it was an agent, who it was acting for and what it was allowed to do.

Checked on 9 October 2026 against Sierra's and Meta's announcements, partners' statements and press coverage. The v0.1 specification isn't published yet, so details may change. The shop in the illustration is fictional. General information, not legal advice.

The short version

Four things to know today

A personal agent is an AI that acts for one person: it books, buys and sorts out problems. This protocol is about how it deals with your business.

A sign-in for AI agents

The Personal Agent Protocol lets a customer's own AI agent sign in to a business with the customer's permission, and choose read-only or write access.

Meta and Sierra lead it

Announced on 6 October 2026 with Stripe, Shopify, Walmart, Genesys, Rocket and others. Meta makes Muse, the personal agent with millions of US users.

Nothing to build against yet

The first specification, v0.1, is due later in October. Payments aren't in it, and no licence or governing body has been published.

No rush in Ireland

No region is mentioned, Muse isn't available in Europe, and no European retailer or bank has signed up. It's one to watch, not to act on today.

companies involved across Sierra's and Meta's announcements, counting the two that lead it

Sierra and Meta, 6 Oct 2026

v0.1

the first specification, due later in October 2026

Sierra, 6 Oct 2026

Millions

of US users on Meta's Muse, the biggest personal agent behind it

Meta, via CNBC, 6 Oct 2026

European retailers, banks or payment companies named so far

The Next Web, 6 Oct 2026

Why now

Agents arrived before the rules did

Personal agents mostly use websites built for people. Businesses can't tell who's behind them, so some block them. This protocol is a response.

The problem

Amazon shut out Meta's agent

Two weeks after Muse launched, Amazon started telling Muse users that access by an “unauthorized AI agent” broke its rules. Amazon said Muse didn't identify itself; Meta disputed how it works.

Source: TechCrunch, 21 Sep 2026

Meta's answer

Turning away the agent means turning away the customer

That's Meta's own line in its announcement. The protocol is its proposal for how a business can let customers' agents in on terms it sets, knowing who each agent acts for and what it may do.

Source: Meta, 6 Oct 2026

For customers

For businesses

Know when it's an agent, who it's acting for and what it's allowed to do, instead of guessing or blocking.

For agent makers

One way to work with many businesses, instead of a deal or a workaround for each.

The catch

Whoever runs a standard shapes who gets in. The biggest agent makers outside Meta haven't joined.

How it works

One visit, five steps

What Sierra and Meta have described so far, what's still open, and what it means for you. Pick a step.

Sign inThe customer decides the access

What's announced: The customer signs in on your page, or with details already set up with their agent, and chooses read-only or write access. It's built on OAuth, the standard behind “Sign in with Google”.
Not specified yet: No permission names beyond read-only and write. Finer permissions are a planned extension.

Ask whoever runs your customer accounts whether the login supports OAuth. Hosted platforms usually do.

Where it fits

Six questions, six kinds of standard

PAP isn't the only agent standard. Each one answers a different question a business has about an agent. Pick one to see who's behind it and whether it's in Europe.

Who is it acting for, and what may it do?The customer signs in and gives their agent read-only or write access, so you know the person behind it and what they allowed.

Personal Agent ProtocolMeta and Sierra, with partnersAnnounced 6 Oct 2026. The v0.1 specification is due later in October.
PACTDecagon, with InstinctReleased as open source on 6 Oct 2026, built on A2A and OAuth. Decagon says it's joining the PAP working group.
Sign in with ChatGPTOpenAIA limited trial with selected partners.

In Europe: No regions mentioned. There's nothing for a business to switch on yet.
What it doesn't do: The newest layer. No published specification, licence or governing body yet.

Scope

What's in the first version

Sierra lists what v0.1 covers and what comes later. Some things that matter to a business haven't been said at all.

In the first version

Discovery on your websiteWhere an agent learns what you offer and how to reach you.
Guest sessionsChecking stock or a policy without signing in.
Sign-in built on OAuthThe customer chooses read-only or write access.
Three routesYour website, your APIs (MCP, OpenAPI) or your own agent.
One session across channelsBefore and after sign-in counts as one visit.

Planned for later

Finer permissionsLimits on specific actions, beyond read and write.
Push notificationsSuch as a delayed flight or a shipped order.
PaymentsBuying without sharing card details with the agent.
Steering agentsPointing agents to the flows and tools you prefer (Meta).
Agent to agentPersonal agents talking to business agents (Meta).

Not said yet

Licence and governanceWho owns it, and how others contribute.
What you publishThe file or address an agent looks for.
Permission namesAnything beyond read-only and write.
RegionsNo country or region is mentioned.
Code to build withA reference implementation is promised, not out.

Who's in

Ten companies, two lists

Sierra and Meta named slightly different partners. Here's each one, what it does, and what it has said.

CompanyWhat it doesIts part, in its own words or ours

SierraBuilds AI customer-service agents for businesses. Co-founded by Bret Taylor, who also chairs OpenAI's board.Wrote the announcement and is co-developing the protocol. Says it's open for anyone to implement and welcomes all partners.

MetaMakes Muse, a personal agent launched on 8 September 2026 in the US and Canada.Co-developing it. Says it has designed the core parts, and a working group of partners will build the rest.

StripePayments. Runs dual headquarters in San Francisco and Dublin.Called itself a founding partner. Its head of payments wants “a standard way to recognize their customers' agents”.

ShopifyE-commerce platform.Sees merchants handling product questions, purchases, returns and exchanges for customers' agents.

WalmartRetailer.Named as a partner. No role or comment published.

GenesysContact-centre software.Says brands need to know who an agent represents and what it's allowed to do.

RocketUS mortgages and property, including Redfin.Built agents with Sierra that take a Muse user from finding a home to financing it.

NiCEContact-centre software. Named by Meta, not by Sierra.Describes discovery as one document at a fixed address on a company's website. Unconfirmed until v0.1.

DecagonAI customer-service agents. Named by Meta, not by Sierra.Released a similar protocol, PACT, the same day, and says it's joining the working group.

InstinctA personal-agent startup, invite-only. Named by Sierra, not by Meta.Sierra says it's joining. Instinct built PACT with Decagon.

Sierra names Genesys, Instinct, Rocket, Shopify, Stripe and Walmart. Meta names Genesys, NiCE, Decagon, Rocket, Shopify, Stripe and Walmart. Quotes are from Sierra's announcement unless stated.

Open questions

What we don't know yet

An announcement isn't a standard yet. These are the questions analysts and developers raised in the first days, and what we found.

Not publishedWho runs it

No licence, foundation or way to contribute yet. Developers have asked for it to go to the Linux Foundation, where MCP and A2A now live.

MissingWho's missing

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon and Apple aren't involved. Bret Taylor told CNBC he'd be disappointed if competitors didn't use it.

UnconfirmedWhat a business publishes

Sierra and Meta haven't named a file or address. NiCE describes one document at a fixed address; v0.1 should settle it.

OpenOverlap with other standards

Google's UCP and MCP already use OAuth sign-in, and Decagon's PACT covers similar ground. Stripe and Shopify back several of these.

OpenNeutrality

CMSWire asks whether it stays neutral on whose agent answers the door. Forkast warns that whoever controls the standard controls the gate.

Not mentionedEurope

No region is named, and no European retailer, bank or payment company. Stripe, with its Dublin headquarters, is the only partner based partly in Europe.

The EU and Ireland

What it means here

The protocol says nothing about Europe yet. But the rules that apply when an agent acts for a customer here are already in place.

Muse isn't here

Meta's Muse, the biggest personal agent behind the protocol, is available only in the US and Canada. Meta has given no date for Europe.

Customers still confirm payments

When payments are added, EU card payments will usually still need the customer to confirm. Visa's European agent purchases use passkeys for this.

GDPR still applies

What a customer's agent reads or changes is still that customer's personal data, and you're responsible for it. France's CNIL points to logging and fine-grained control for agents.

Digital identity wallets

Every EU country must offer one by the end of 2026. No EU rule yet lets a wallet authorise an AI agent to act for someone.

In IrelandA Dublin link, and time to prepare

Stripe, with dual headquarters in San Francisco and Dublin, is the only partner based partly in Europe. There's nothing for an Irish business to switch on today, and no sign yet of when that will change.

On 25 September 2026 the Data Protection Commission published its AI insights report, and flagged a continuing lack of transparency from companies launching agentic AI in the EU.

Timeline

How we got here

The standards and launches around personal agents in the last year, and what's coming next. Pick one for the detail.

Today

Already applies6 Oct 2026 · PAP announced

Meta and Sierra announce the Personal Agent Protocol with industry partners. Decagon releases its own protocol, PACT, the same day.

This month

Five things to do now

None of these cost money, and all of them help with any agent standard that wins, not just this one.

Don't buy anything yet

There's no specification to build against until v0.1. Be wary of anyone selling PAP readiness today.

List what an agent could do

Your customers' top five requests. Mark which need an account, which only read and which change something.

Ask your providers

Your shop platform, booking system and customer-service software: will they support it, and when in Europe?

Check your sign-in

If customers have accounts with you, ask whether your login supports OAuth. Most hosted platforms do.

Don't block customers' agents by accident

Check your bot protection, and decide on purpose which agents you let in.

The bigger picture

A “Sign in with…” button, for agents

Bret Taylor compared the protocol to signing in with your Google or Facebook account. It's a useful picture: once that kind of sign-in became standard, every website could offer it without building its own. If this works, a business won't need a separate arrangement with every agent its customers use.

Whether it works depends on things nobody can see yet: the specification, who governs it, and whether OpenAI, Google, Amazon and Apple join or build their own. For now it's one of several competing proposals, and it starts in the US. Meanwhile, the groundwork is the same whichever standard wins: be clear on your website, decide what an agent may do, and don't block your customers' agents by accident. Our guides on agents booking a business, which AI bots to let in and which personal agent to use cover each of these.

We'll update this article when v0.1 is published, and the date at the top will tell you when we last checked.

Written bySproutMedia team

We help service businesses get ready for their customers' AI assistants and agents. Our team has spent years building software and apps, and has worked hands-on in e-commerce, affiliate marketing and social media, so we know how customers find and choose a business online.

SproutMedia writes about AI agents and agent readiness for service businesses in Ireland, Europe, the United States and beyond.

FAQ

Questions people ask us

Short answers to what people search for most. The details are in the guide above.

What is the Personal Agent Protocol?

An open standard, announced on 6 October 2026 by Meta and Sierra, for how a person's own AI agent deals with a business. The agent finds out on the business's website what it offers, can start as a guest, and signs in with the customer's permission, built on OAuth, with read-only or write access. It then acts through the business's website, its APIs (such as MCP or OpenAPI) or the business's own AI agent, as one visit the business can see.

Who is behind the Personal Agent Protocol?

Meta and Sierra are developing it. Sierra names Genesys, Instinct, Rocket, Shopify, Stripe and Walmart as partners; Meta names Genesys, NiCE, Decagon, Rocket, Shopify, Stripe and Walmart. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon and Apple aren't involved as of 9 October 2026.

Is the Personal Agent Protocol available yet?

No. As of 9 October 2026 it's an announcement. Sierra says the v0.1 specification will be published later in October 2026, followed by design workshops and a reference implementation. No licence, governing body or code has been published yet.

Does the Personal Agent Protocol handle payments?

Not in the first version. Payments are a planned extension that would let an agent complete a purchase without sharing card details. Other standards cover agent payments, such as Google's AP2, Visa Intelligent Commerce and Mastercard Agent Pay. In the EU, card payments usually still need the customer to confirm.

How is the Personal Agent Protocol different from MCP?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a standard way for an agent to connect to a business's tools and data. The Personal Agent Protocol sits on top: it covers which customer the agent is acting for and what that customer has allowed it to do. PAP names MCP and OpenAPI as ways a business can offer its APIs to agents.

Is the Personal Agent Protocol available in Ireland or the EU?

Nothing is live anywhere yet, and the announcements don't mention any region. Meta's Muse, the biggest personal agent behind it, is available only in the US and Canada. Stripe, with headquarters in San Francisco and Dublin, is the only partner based partly in Europe.

Does my business need to do anything about the Personal Agent Protocol now?

Not yet. There's nothing to build against until v0.1 is published. Useful groundwork: list the tasks customers ask for most and which need an account, ask your e-commerce, booking and customer-service providers whether they plan to support it, check whether your customer login supports OAuth, and make sure your bot protection isn't blocking customers' agents by accident.

Sources

Checked on 9 October 2026. Partners' descriptions of their roles are their own claims. The v0.1 specification wasn't published when we checked, so details may change. This article is general information, not legal advice.