[FEATURE] Add support for the Universal Tool Calling Protocol (UTCP)

[perrozzi]

Problem Statement

Add support for the Universal Tool Calling Protocol (UTCP) to enable Strands agents to discover and call tools directly using their native protocols - no wrapper servers required.

What is UTCP?

UTCP is a lightweight, secure, and scalable standard that enables AI agents to call tools directly. Unlike other approaches that require wrapper servers and proxy protocols, UTCP acts as a "manual" that tells agents how to call your tools directly with zero latency overhead.

Key Benefits

• 🚀 Zero Latency Overhead - Direct tool calls, no proxy servers
• 🔒 Native Security - Use existing authentication and authorization
• 🌐 Protocol Flexibility - HTTP, WebSocket, CLI, GraphQL, and more
• ⚡ Easy Integration - Load existing OpenAPI specs or add one endpoint to the existing API, no infrastructure changes
• 📈 OpenAPI Compatible - Extends OpenAPI for AI agents while maintaining full backward compatibility

Proposed Solution

Proposed Implementation

• UTCPClient - Main interface for UTCP integration with async context manager support
• UTCPAgentTool - Adapter between UTCP tools and Strands framework
• Support for multiple protocols (HTTP, WebSocket, CLI, etc.)
• OpenAPI/Swagger automatic conversion to UTCP manuals
• Comprehensive error handling and logging

Example Usage

from strands import Agent
from strands.tools.utcp import UTCPClient

# Configure UTCP client with HTTP call templates
utcp_config = {
   "manual_call_templates": [
       {
           "name": "petstore",
           "call_template_type": "http",
           "http_method": "GET", 
           "url": "https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/swagger.json"
       },
       {
           "name": "weather_api",
           "call_template_type": "http",
           "http_method": "GET",
           "url": "https://api.weather.com/utcp"
       }
   ]
}

async with UTCPClient(utcp_config) as utcp_client:
   # Discover tools from all configured APIs
   tools = await utcp_client.list_tools()
   print(f"Found {len(tools)} tools from external APIs")
   
   # Create agent with UTCP tools
   agent = Agent(tools=tools)
   result = await agent.invoke("Find information about pets and current weather")

Use Case

Use cases

This would complement our existing MCP support and allow Strands users to:

• Connect to multiple external APIs simultaneously using native protocols
• Automatically generate tools from existing OpenAPI/Swagger specifications
• Access tools without requiring wrapper servers or additional infrastructure
• Leverage existing API security and scaling infrastructure

Alternatives Solutions

UTCP vs MCP Comparison

Feature	UTCP	MCP
Infrastructure	None required	Wrapper servers
Latency	Direct calls	Double hop
Security	Native	Reimplemented
Protocols	Multiple (HTTP, WebSocket, CLI)	HTTP streaming
OpenAPI Support	Native compatibility	Requires conversion

Additional Context

References

• UTCP Specification
• Python Implementation
• UTCP GitHub Organization

[perrozzi]

Issue authors: @perrozzi @Robobc

[dbschmigelski]

@perrozzi, thank you for the feature request to add UTCP support. This seems like an interesting standard.

However, we believe it's premature to integrate it directly into the SDK. One of the factors we consider when doing work prioritization is community demand. Given the lack of reactions on this issue we aren't considering this, or reviewing the proposed PR at the moment. We will be monitoring the UTCP repositories to gauge community adoption as well.

That being said, Strands Agents is keen on promoting useful/interesting contributions from the community. If you would be willing to create and vend a PyPI package for this utcp adapter we would be glad to highlight it on strandsagents.com. For example, we are promoting (not yet published but merged) Clova on our docs page .

Thanks!

[an0kh1n]

Several Adobe teams are interested in using it with Strands Agent SDK, and I believe it potentially could be as impactful as MCP. There is already UTCP adapter for LangChain/LangGraph. It’d be great to see AWS lead as an early adopter. I’ve initiated an industry-wide discussion on this, and it’s gaining some traction. Feel free to join.

Join the discussion: Introduction — Universal Tool Calling Protocol

[perrozzi]

Hello @dbschmigelski thanks for the feedback.
I wasn't aware of the community packages, if that is the preferred way to integrate quickly, here it is the adapter for UTCP:
https://github.com/universal-tool-calling-protocol/strands-utcp
also available on pypi:
https://pypi.org/project/strands-utcp/

@an0kh1n thanks for the interest, feel free to use the package and provide feedback directly opening issues and pull requests in case of need

@h3xxit for visibility

[dbschmigelski]

Hello @dbschmigelski thanks for the feedback. I wasn't aware of the community packages, if that is the preferred way to integrate quickly, here it is the adapter for UTCP: https://github.com/universal-tool-calling-protocol/strands-utcp also available on pypi: https://pypi.org/project/strands-utcp/

@an0kh1n thanks for the interest, feel free to use the package and provide feedback directly opening issues and pull requests in case of need

@h3xxit for visibility

Perfect, I'll make a PR on our docs repo to highlight this!

[dbschmigelski]

Just raised strands-agents/docs#278.

Also regarding the implementation of the adapter, we are introducing, in experimental for now, a ToolProvider in #895. This is going to address the with mcp syntax which customers have not loved. I'd expect the UTCPAdapter would benefit from the same change where the Agent manages the lifecycle. So the user would have a DX like

Agent(tools=[UtcpToolProvider(config)]