World2agent Protocol

World2Agent Protocol Skill

Skill by ara.so — AI Agent Skills collection.

What is World2Agent?

World2Agent (W2A) is an open protocol that standardizes how AI agents perceive the real world. Sensors watch data sources (news feeds, production alerts, market data, etc.) and emit structured signals following the W2A schema. Your agent receives these signals and decides what to do.

Architecture: World → Sensor → Agent

• Sensors are npm packages that watch external data sources
• Signals are structured JSON events following the W2A protocol
• Agents consume signals via runtime plugins or direct SDK integration

Installation

For Claude Code

/plugin marketplace add machinepulse-ai/world2agent-plugins
/plugin install world2agent@world2agent-plugins
/reload-plugins

Add a sensor:

/world2agent:sensor-add @world2agent/sensor-hackernews

Restart with plugin channel:

claude --dangerously-load-development-channels plugin:world2agent@world2agent-plugins

For Hermes

npm install -g @world2agent/hermes-sensor-bridge
hermes skills install machinepulse-ai/world2agent-plugins/hermes-sensor-bridge/skills/world2agent-manage

In Hermes session:

/world2agent-manage add @world2agent/sensor-hackernews

For OpenClaw

npm install -g @world2agent/openclaw-sensor-bridge
openclaw skills install world2agent-manage

Then in chat:

Use world2agent-manage skill install @quill-io/sensor-frontier-ai-news

Direct SDK Integration (TypeScript/Node.js)

npm install @world2agent/core
npm install @world2agent/sensor-hackernews

Core Concepts

Signal Format

Every W2A signal follows this schema:

{
  "signal_id": "uuid-v4",
  "sensor_id": "@world2agent/sensor-hackernews",
  "timestamp": "2026-05-17T10:30:00Z",
  "type": "news.hackernews.story",
  "priority": "medium",
  "data": {
    "title": "Show HN: World2Agent Protocol",
    "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123456",
    "score": 340,
    "author": "machinepulse"
  },
  "metadata": {
    "ttl": 3600,
    "schema_version": "1.0"
  }
}

Key Fields

• signal_id: Unique identifier for deduplication
• sensor_id: npm package name of the sensor
• type: Hierarchical type (category.source.event)
• priority: critical | high | medium | low
• data: Sensor-specific payload
• metadata.ttl: Signal lifetime in seconds

Using the SDK

Basic Signal Consumption

import { W2AClient } from '@world2agent/core';
import HackerNewsSensor from '@world2agent/sensor-hackernews';

const client = new W2AClient();

// Register sensor
await client.registerSensor(new HackerNewsSensor({
  minScore: 100,
  keywords: ['AI', 'agents', 'protocol']
}));

// Listen for signals
client.on('signal', (signal) => {
  console.log(`[${signal.priority}] ${signal.type}`);
  console.log(signal.data);
  
  // Your agent logic here
  if (signal.priority === 'high') {
    handleUrgentSignal(signal);
  }
});

// Start receiving signals
await client.start();

Signal Filtering

import { W2AClient, SignalFilter } from '@world2agent/core';

const client = new W2AClient();

// Filter by type pattern
const newsFilter = new SignalFilter({
  typePattern: /^news\./,
  minPriority: 'medium'
});

client.on('signal', newsFilter.apply((signal) => {
  // Only news signals with medium+ priority
  processNewsSignal(signal);
}));

Multi-Sensor Setup

import { W2AClient } from '@world2agent/core';
import HackerNewsSensor from '@world2agent/sensor-hackernews';
import FrontierAISensor from '@quill-io/sensor-frontier-ai-news';
import WeatherSensor from '@world2agent/sensor-weather';

const client = new W2AClient();

// Register multiple sensors
await client.registerSensor(new HackerNewsSensor({ minScore: 200 }));
await client.registerSensor(new FrontierAISensor({ labs: ['openai', 'anthropic'] }));
await client.registerSensor(new WeatherSensor({ 
  location: 'San Francisco',
  alerts: true 
}));

// Route by type
client.on('signal', (signal) => {
  if (signal.type.startsWith('news.')) {
    routeToNewsHandler(signal);
  } else if (signal.type.startsWith('weather.')) {
    routeToWeatherHandler(signal);
  }
});

await client.start();

Building a Custom Sensor

Minimal Sensor Structure

// my-sensor/src/index.ts
import { BaseSensor, Signal } from '@world2agent/core';

export default class MySensor extends BaseSensor {
  constructor(config: { apiKey?: string } = {}) {
    super({
      id: '@myorg/sensor-example',
      name: 'Example Sensor',
      version: '1.0.0'
    });
    this.apiKey = config.apiKey || process.env.EXAMPLE_API_KEY;
  }

  async start() {
    // Poll every 60 seconds
    this.interval = setInterval(() => this.poll(), 60000);
    await this.poll();
  }

  async stop() {
    if (this.interval) clearInterval(this.interval);
  }

  private async poll() {
    const data = await this.fetchData();
    
    for (const item of data) {
      const signal: Signal = {
        signal_id: crypto.randomUUID(),
        sensor_id: this.config.id,
        timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
        type: 'example.data.update',
        priority: item.urgent ? 'high' : 'medium',
        data: {
          title: item.title,
          value: item.value
        },
        metadata: {
          ttl: 3600,
          schema_version: '1.0'
        }
      };
      
      this.emit(signal);
    }
  }

  private async fetchData() {
    const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/data', {
      headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${this.apiKey}` }
    });
    return response.json();
  }
}

Package.json for Sensors

{
  "name": "@myorg/sensor-example",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "W2A sensor for Example API",
  "keywords": ["w2a-sensor", "world2agent", "example"],
  "main": "dist/index.js",
  "types": "dist/index.d.ts",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "tsc",
    "prepublishOnly": "npm run build"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@world2agent/core": "^1.0.0"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "typescript": "^5.0.0"
  }
}

SETUP.md for Interactive Configuration

# Setup Questions

## API Key
**prompt:** What is your Example API key?
**env:** EXAMPLE_API_KEY
**required:** true

## Update Interval
**prompt:** Poll interval in seconds (default: 60)?
**env:** EXAMPLE_POLL_INTERVAL
**default:** 60

Configuration Patterns

Environment Variables

# .env
EXAMPLE_API_KEY=sk-xxxxxxxxxxxx
HACKERNEWS_MIN_SCORE=150
WEATHER_LOCATION=London

import { W2AClient } from '@world2agent/core';
import { config } from 'dotenv';

config(); // Load .env

const client = new W2AClient();

await client.registerSensor(new HackerNewsSensor({
  minScore: parseInt(process.env.HACKERNEWS_MIN_SCORE || '100')
}));

Runtime Configuration

import { W2AClient } from '@world2agent/core';

const client = new W2AClient({
  maxSignalsPerSecond: 10,
  deduplication: true,
  persistSignals: './signals.log'
});

// Update sensor config at runtime
await client.updateSensorConfig('@world2agent/sensor-hackernews', {
  minScore: 250,
  keywords: ['AI', 'machine learning']
});

Common Patterns

Signal Deduplication

import { W2AClient, Deduplicator } from '@world2agent/core';

const client = new W2AClient();
const dedup = new Deduplicator({ windowMs: 60000 }); // 1 minute window

client.on('signal', (signal) => {
  if (dedup.isNew(signal.signal_id)) {
    processSignal(signal);
  }
});

Priority-Based Routing

client.on('signal', async (signal) => {
  switch (signal.priority) {
    case 'critical':
      await notifyPagerDuty(signal);
      await handleImmediate(signal);
      break;
    case 'high':
      await queueForProcessing(signal);
      break;
    default:
      await logSignal(signal);
  }
});

Webhook Integration

import express from 'express';
import { W2AClient } from '@world2agent/core';

const app = express();
const client = new W2AClient();

app.post('/webhook/w2a', express.json(), (req, res) => {
  const signal = req.body;
  
  // Validate signature
  if (!client.validateSignature(signal, req.headers['x-w2a-signature'])) {
    return res.status(401).send('Invalid signature');
  }
  
  // Process signal
  client.ingestSignal(signal);
  res.status(200).send('OK');
});

app.listen(3000);

Persistent Signal Log

import fs from 'fs/promises';
import { W2AClient } from '@world2agent/core';

const client = new W2AClient();
const logPath = './signals.jsonl';

client.on('signal', async (signal) => {
  // Append to newline-delimited JSON log
  await fs.appendFile(logPath, JSON.stringify(signal) + '\n');
  
  // Your processing logic
  await processSignal(signal);
});

Finding Sensors

Browse SensorHub

Visit https://world2agent.ai/hub to browse the full catalog.

CLI Search

npm search w2a-sensor

Popular Sensors

• @world2agent/sensor-hackernews — Hacker News top stories
• @quill-io/sensor-frontier-ai-news — AI lab announcements (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)
• @world2agent/sensor-weather — Weather alerts and forecasts
• @world2agent/sensor-github — Repository events and releases
• @world2agent/sensor-reddit — Subreddit posts and trends

Troubleshooting

Signals Not Flowing

Check sensor status:

const status = client.getSensorStatus('@world2agent/sensor-hackernews');
console.log(status); // { running: true, lastSignal: '2026-05-17T10:30:00Z' }

Enable debug logging:

const client = new W2AClient({ logLevel: 'debug' });

Verify sensor is started:

await client.start(); // Starts all registered sensors

Duplicate Signals

Enable built-in deduplication:

const client = new W2AClient({ deduplication: true });

Or implement custom logic:

const seen = new Set<string>();

client.on('signal', (signal) => {
  if (seen.has(signal.signal_id)) return;
  seen.add(signal.signal_id);
  
  processSignal(signal);
});

Rate Limiting

Throttle signal processing:

import pThrottle from 'p-throttle';

const throttle = pThrottle({ limit: 5, interval: 1000 }); // 5/sec

const throttledProcess = throttle(async (signal) => {
  await processSignal(signal);
});

client.on('signal', throttledProcess);

Sensor Crashes

Wrap sensor registration with error handling:

try {
  await client.registerSensor(new MySensor({ apiKey: process.env.API_KEY }));
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Sensor registration failed:', error);
  // Fall back or retry
}

client.on('sensor-error', (sensorId, error) => {
  console.error(`Sensor ${sensorId} error:`, error);
  // Implement restart logic
});

Missing Environment Variables

Validate before sensor initialization:

const requiredEnv = ['EXAMPLE_API_KEY', 'HACKERNEWS_MIN_SCORE'];

for (const key of requiredEnv) {
  if (!process.env[key]) {
    throw new Error(`Missing required environment variable: ${key}`);
  }
}

Advanced: Graph Layer (Experimental)

Compose and enrich signals from multiple sensors before they reach your agent:

import { W2AGraph } from '@world2agent/graph';

const graph = new W2AGraph();

// Merge HN and Reddit signals about the same topic
graph.addRule({
  inputs: ['news.hackernews.*', 'news.reddit.*'],
  merge: (signals) => ({
    type: 'news.aggregated.topic',
    data: {
      sources: signals.map(s => s.sensor_id),
      combined_score: signals.reduce((sum, s) => sum + s.data.score, 0)
    }
  }),
  window: 300 // 5 minutes
});

graph.on('enriched-signal', (signal) => {
  // Receives merged signals
});

See RFC for details.

Resources

• Documentation
• SensorHub
• Signal Format Spec
• Build a Sensor Guide
• Discord Community

License

Apache 2.0