dummy-a2a 0.6.3

A dummy a2a agent for testing.

dummy-a2a — A2A compliance in a box

dummy-a2a is a programmable test agent for the A2A protocol. Send it a command keyword, get spec-compliant behavior back. Every task state, every content type, every error code, every extension flow.

Ship it as a test double for your client, point its 46 portable contracts at your server, or plug in your own extension and validate it end-to-end. One pip install, zero config.

What you can validate

Goal	How
Validate your client	Point your client at the dummy server. Send commands (echo, fail, stream, ask, ext, ...) and assert your client handles each response shape, state transition, SSE stream, and error code correctly.
Validate your server	Run the 46 portable contracts against your server. Contracts are dogfooded against the dummy server in CI, so you know they're correct.
Validate your extensions	Register your extension as a plugin via A2APlugin and test it end-to-end: agent card advertising, header negotiation, artifact tagging, and multi-extension activation.

pip install dummy-a2a

async with DummyA2AServer(port=0) as server:
    # server.url → http://127.0.0.1:<random>
    # test your client against every A2A edge case

# or validate any A2A server with portable contracts
results = await verify_a2a_compliance("http://your-server:9000")

~2 600 LOC · 11/11 operations · all 8 task states · 3 content types · 6 extensions + plugin system · 46 compliance contracts

The a2a-sdk pin badge shows the version we test against.

Codebase is intentionally small and modular. Each skill is a self-contained file under 80 lines, each contract is an independent HTTP assertion. When the spec changes, the blast radius is typically one skill or one contract.

---

Table of Contents

• Install
• Quick Start -- get running in 30 seconds
  • Standalone server (HTTP, HTTPS, Docker)
  • As a library
  • Pytest fixtures (HTTP + HTTPS)
• Commands -- keyword-driven test behaviors
• Contract Testing -- 46 portable compliance contracts
  • Run against your server
  • Run as pytest
  • Contract list
• Extensions -- A2A 1.0 extension negotiation
  • How it works
  • Registered extensions
  • Testing with curl
  • Testing with pytest
  • Testing with contracts
• Development
• License

---

Install

From source:

git clone https://github.com/agsuy/dummy-a2a && cd dummy-a2a
uv sync --dev

---

Quick Start

1. Standalone server

# HTTP
dummy-a2a --port 9000

# HTTPS
dummy-a2a --port 9443 --ssl-certfile cert.pem --ssl-keyfile key.pem

# Docker
docker run -p 9000:9000 ghcr.io/agsuy/dummy-a2a

# Quiet mode (suppress a2a SDK noise like push-notification errors)
dummy-a2a --sdk-log-level CRITICAL

# Verbose mode (see all server and SDK activity)
dummy-a2a --log-level info --sdk-log-level DEBUG

--log-level controls the server (uvicorn) logger, --sdk-log-level controls the a2a SDK logger independently. Both accept standard Python log levels (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL).

Try it out:

# Agent card
curl http://localhost:9000/.well-known/agent-card.json
# → {"name": "Dummy A2A Test Agent", "skills": [...], "capabilities": {...}, ...}

# Send a message
curl -X POST http://localhost:9000/ \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'A2A-Version: 1.0' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"SendMessage","params":{"message":{"messageId":"1","role":1,"parts":[{"text":"echo hello"}]}}}'
# → {"result": {"task": {"id": "...", "contextId": "...", "status": {"state": "TASK_STATE_COMPLETED"}, "artifacts": [{"parts": [{"text": "hello"}]}], "history": [...]}}, "id": 1, "jsonrpc": "2.0"}

# Trigger a failure
curl -X POST http://localhost:9000/ \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'A2A-Version: 1.0' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"SendMessage","params":{"message":{"messageId":"1","role":1,"parts":[{"text":"fail"}]}}}'
# → {"result": {"task": {"id": "...", "status": {"state": "TASK_STATE_FAILED", "message": {"role": "ROLE_AGENT", "parts": [{"text": "Deliberate failure for testing purposes."}]}}, "history": [...]}}, "id": 1, "jsonrpc": "2.0"}

2. As a library

from dummy_a2a import DummyA2AServer

async with DummyA2AServer(port=0) as server:
    print(server.url)  # http://127.0.0.1:<random>
    # query with any HTTP client, any language, any A2A SDK

# With HTTPS
async with DummyA2AServer(port=0, ssl_certfile="cert.pem", ssl_keyfile="key.pem") as server:
    print(server.url)  # https://127.0.0.1:<random>

# Silence SDK noise programmatically
async with DummyA2AServer(port=0, sdk_log_level="CRITICAL") as server:
    ...

# Verbose server + quiet SDK
async with DummyA2AServer(port=0, log_level="info", sdk_log_level="ERROR") as server:
    ...

3. Pytest fixtures

Drop this in your conftest.py:

from dummy_a2a.testing import a2a_server, a2a_url, a2a_http  # noqa: F401

Write tests using the a2a_http fixture (an httpx.AsyncClient with base_url and A2A-Version already set):

import pytest
from tests.helpers import send  # or write your own JSON-RPC helper

@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_echo(a2a_http):
    task = await send(a2a_http, "echo hello")
    assert task["status"]["state"] == "TASK_STATE_COMPLETED"

@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_failure(a2a_http):
    task = await send(a2a_http, "fail")
    assert task["status"]["state"] == "TASK_STATE_FAILED"

For HTTPS testing:

from dummy_a2a.testing import a2a_https_server, a2a_https_url, a2a_https_http  # noqa: F401

@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_tls(a2a_https_url):
    assert a2a_https_url.startswith("https://")
    # self-signed cert, auto-generated per test

All available fixtures

Fixture	Type	Description
a2a_server	DummyA2AServer	Server on random port
a2a_url	str	http://127.0.0.1:<port>
a2a_http	httpx.AsyncClient	Client with base_url set
a2a_https_server	DummyA2AServer	TLS server (self-signed cert)
a2a_https_url	str	https://127.0.0.1:<port>
a2a_https_http	httpx.AsyncClient	TLS client (verify=False)
webhook_receiver	WebhookReceiver	Collects push notifications

---

Commands

Send a command keyword as the first word of your message:

Command	Behavior	States
echo <text>	Echoes text back	completed
stream <text>	Streams response in chunks (SSE)	working, completed
ask	Asks for input, completes on follow-up	input_required, completed
slow	Runs ~10s with progress updates	working, completed/canceled
fail	Transitions to FAILED with error	failed
reject	Immediately rejects	rejected
auth	Requires auth token, completes on follow-up	auth_required, completed
file	Returns a FilePart artifact	completed
data	Returns a DataPart (JSON) artifact	completed
multi	Returns 3 artifacts with chunked delivery	completed
ext	Exercises extension negotiation	completed
ext-required	Enforces required extension or returns -32008	completed/error
debug	Returns request metadata (extended card only)	completed
<anything>	Falls back to echo	completed

---

Contract Testing

46 portable contracts that verify A2A spec compliance against any server.

The dummy server is the reference implementation -- contracts are dogfooded against it in CI. Run them against your server to validate compliance.

Run contracts against your server

Sequential execution against a shared server:

import asyncio
from dummy_a2a import verify_a2a_compliance

async def main():
    results = await verify_a2a_compliance("http://localhost:9000")
    for r in results:
        print(f"{'PASS' if r.passed else 'FAIL'} {r.contract_id}: {r.detail}")

asyncio.run(main())

Concurrent execution with isolated servers (each contract gets a fresh instance):

import asyncio
from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
from dummy_a2a import DummyA2AServer, verify_a2a_compliance

@asynccontextmanager
async def factory():
    async with DummyA2AServer(port=0) as server:
        yield server.url

async def main():
    results = await verify_a2a_compliance(server_factory=factory)
    for r in results:
        print(f"{'PASS' if r.passed else 'FAIL'} {r.contract_id}: {r.detail}")

asyncio.run(main())

Run contracts as pytest

import pytest
from dummy_a2a.contracts import a2a_contracts

@pytest.mark.asyncio
@pytest.mark.parametrize("contract", a2a_contracts, ids=lambda c: c.id)
async def test_a2a_compliance(contract):
    result = await contract.verify("http://localhost:9000")
    assert result.passed, f"{result.contract_id}: {result.detail}"

Filter by category

results = await verify_a2a_compliance(
    "http://localhost:9000",
    categories=["agent-card", "streaming", "extensions"],
)

Categories: agent-card send-message task-state multi-turn get-task list-tasks cancel-task streaming subscribe-to-task content-types push-notifications errors extensions

All 46 contracts

ID	Category	What it checks
card.well-known	agent-card	Card served at /.well-known/agent-card.json
card.required-fields	agent-card	Has name, description, version, skills, etc.
card.skills-have-required-fields	agent-card	Each skill has id, name, description, tags
card.interface-protocol-version	agent-card	Interface declares protocolVersion
card.extended-card	agent-card	Extended card via GetExtendedAgentCard
send.completed	send-message	SendMessage returns COMPLETED
send.has-task-id	send-message	Response has task ID and context ID
send.has-artifacts	send-message	Completed task has artifacts
send.has-history	send-message	Task includes message history
state.failed	task-state	FAILED state with error message
state.rejected	task-state	REJECTED state
state.input-required	task-state	INPUT_REQUIRED with prompt
state.auth-required	task-state	AUTH_REQUIRED with message
multi-turn.input-required-follow-up	multi-turn	Follow-up after INPUT_REQUIRED completes
multi-turn.auth-required-follow-up	multi-turn	Follow-up after AUTH_REQUIRED completes
get-task.retrieves-task	get-task	GetTask returns created task
get-task.not-found	get-task	GetTask errors on missing task
get-task.includes-artifacts	get-task	GetTask includes artifacts
list-tasks.returns-tasks	list-tasks	ListTasks returns created tasks
cancel.cancels-task	cancel-task	CancelTask transitions to CANCELED
cancel.nonexistent-task	cancel-task	CancelTask errors on missing task
stream.sse-events	streaming	SSE yields status + artifact events
content.text-part	content-types	TextPart artifact
content.file-part	content-types	FilePart with raw bytes
content.data-part	content-types	DataPart with structured JSON
content.multi-artifact	content-types	Multiple artifacts in one task
push.create-config	push-notifications	Create push notification config
push.delete-config	push-notifications	Delete push notification config
push.get-config	push-notifications	Retrieve a stored push notification config
push.list-configs	push-notifications	List push notification configs for a task
subscribe.reattach	subscribe-to-task	SubscribeToTask reattaches to a running task via SSE
error.method-not-found	errors	Unknown method returns -32601
error.invalid-jsonrpc	errors	Invalid jsonrpc version returns error
ext.card-advertises-extensions	extensions	Card has extensions with uri + description
ext.negotiation-activates	extensions	Requesting a known extension activates it (artifact.extensions)
ext.unknown-ignored	extensions	Unknown extension URIs don't error
ext.artifact-tagged	extensions	artifact.extensions contains activated URIs
ext.multiple-extensions	extensions	Multiple extensions activated simultaneously
ext.params-in-card	extensions	Extension params accessible in card
ext.required-enforced	extensions	Missing required extension returns -32008
ext.required-satisfied	extensions	Providing required extension succeeds
ext.partial-activation	extensions	Only known extensions activate when mixed with unknown URIs
ext.all-non-required	extensions	All non-required extensions activate when requested together
ext.artifact-extensions-exact	extensions	artifact.extensions matches the activated set exactly
ext.header-and-artifact-agree	extensions	Activated extensions in artifact match the requested known extensions
ext.ordering-stable	extensions	Same combination produces stable ordering across requests

---

Extensions

The dummy server implements A2A 1.0 extension negotiation for testing extension plugins.

How it works

Client                                              Server
  |                                                    |
  |  POST / + A2A-Extensions: urn:a2a:dummy:...      |
  | -------------------------------------------------> |
  |                                                    | checks context.requested_extensions
  |                                                    | activates matching extensions
  |                                                    | tags artifacts with extension URIs
  |  Response with artifact.extensions: [...]          |
  | <------------------------------------------------- |
  |                                                    |

1. Agent card advertises extensions in capabilities.extensions
2. Client sends A2A-Extensions header with comma-separated URIs
3. Server activates recognized extensions, ignores unknown ones
4. Activated extensions are listed in artifact.extensions

Registered extensions

URI	Required	Params	What it does
urn:a2a:dummy:echo-metadata	no	none	Reflects negotiation state in response artifact
urn:a2a:dummy:timestamp	no	{"format": "iso8601"}	Adds server timestamp to artifacts
urn:a2a:dummy:trace-id	no	none	Attaches a trace identifier to the response
urn:a2a:dummy:priority	no	{"levels": "low,normal,high"}	Acknowledges priority level in the response
urn:a2a:dummy:locale	no	none	Acknowledges locale preference in the response
urn:a2a:dummy:required-test	yes	none	Enforced by ext-required. Returns -32008 if missing

Extension URIs are importable:

from dummy_a2a.agent_card import (
    EXT_ECHO_METADATA, EXT_TIMESTAMP, EXT_TRACE_ID,
    EXT_PRIORITY, EXT_LOCALE, EXT_REQUIRED,
)

Extension plugins — test your own extension

Register your own A2A extension with the dummy server using A2APlugin. The server will advertise it in the agent card, route its command to your handler, and the ext skill will activate it during header negotiation -- no changes to dummy-a2a needed.

An A2APlugin bundles four pieces:

Field	Type	What it does
extension	AgentExtension	Declared in capabilities.extensions on the agent card
skill	AgentSkill	Listed in skills on the agent card
command	str	First word of the user message that routes to your handler
handler	SkillHandler	Async handler that produces task events and artifacts

Minimal example:

from a2a.server.agent_execution import RequestContext
from a2a.server.events import EventQueue
from a2a.types import (
    AgentExtension,
    AgentSkill,
    TaskArtifactUpdateEvent,
    TaskState,
    TaskStatus,
    TaskStatusUpdateEvent,
)
from a2a.helpers import new_text_artifact

from dummy_a2a import A2APlugin, DummyA2AServer

MY_EXT_URI = "urn:example:my-extension"


class MyExtensionSkill:
    async def handle(self, context: RequestContext, event_queue: EventQueue) -> None:
        await event_queue.enqueue_event(
            TaskStatusUpdateEvent(
                task_id=context.task_id,
                context_id=context.context_id,
                status=TaskStatus(state=TaskState.TASK_STATE_WORKING),
            )
        )
        await event_queue.enqueue_event(
            TaskArtifactUpdateEvent(
                task_id=context.task_id,
                context_id=context.context_id,
                artifact=new_text_artifact(name="result", text="hello from plugin"),
                last_chunk=True,
            )
        )
        await event_queue.enqueue_event(
            TaskStatusUpdateEvent(
                task_id=context.task_id,
                context_id=context.context_id,
                status=TaskStatus(state=TaskState.TASK_STATE_COMPLETED),
            )
        )


my_plugin = A2APlugin(
    extension=AgentExtension(
        uri=MY_EXT_URI,
        description="My custom A2A extension",
    ),
    skill=AgentSkill(
        id="myext",
        name="My Extension",
        description="Test skill for my extension.",
        tags=["test"],
        examples=["myext hello"],
        input_modes=["text/plain"],
        output_modes=["text/plain"],
    ),
    command="myext",
    handler=MyExtensionSkill(),
)

Start the server with your plugin:

async with DummyA2AServer(port=0, extensions=[my_plugin]) as server:
    print(server.url)
    # Agent card now lists your extension and skill
    # "myext hello" routes to MyExtensionSkill
    # "ext" with A2A-Extensions header activates your extension

Use in pytest:

import httpx
import pytest

from dummy_a2a import A2APlugin, DummyA2AServer

@pytest.fixture
async def server():
    async with DummyA2AServer(port=0, extensions=[my_plugin]) as s:
        yield s

@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_my_extension(server):
    async with httpx.AsyncClient(
        base_url=server.url, headers={"A2A-Version": "1.0"},
    ) as client:
        # Verify extension is in the agent card
        card = (await client.get("/.well-known/agent-card.json")).json()
        uris = [e["uri"] for e in card["capabilities"]["extensions"]]
        assert MY_EXT_URI in uris

        # Plugin command routes to your handler
        resp = await client.post("/", json={
            "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1,
            "method": "SendMessage",
            "params": {"message": {"messageId": "1", "role": 1,
                "parts": [{"text": "myext hello"}]}}
        })
        task = resp.json()["result"]["task"]
        assert task["status"]["state"] == "TASK_STATE_COMPLETED"

        # ext skill activates your extension during negotiation
        resp = await client.post("/", json={
            "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 2,
            "method": "SendMessage",
            "params": {"message": {"messageId": "2", "role": 1,
                "parts": [{"text": "ext"}]}}
        }, headers={"A2A-Extensions": MY_EXT_URI})
        task = resp.json()["result"]["task"]
        assert MY_EXT_URI in task["artifacts"][0].get("extensions", [])

Multiple plugins:

async with DummyA2AServer(port=0, extensions=[plugin_a, plugin_b]) as server:
    ...

Collision rules:

• Duplicate extension URIs (between plugins or with built-ins) raise ValueError at startup.
• Command collisions with built-in skills log a warning and override the built-in.

Public API for plugin authors:

from dummy_a2a import A2APlugin, SkillHandler, DummyA2AServer

SkillHandler is the protocol your handler must satisfy:

class SkillHandler(Protocol):
    async def handle(self, context: RequestContext, event_queue: EventQueue) -> None: ...

Testing extensions with curl

# Check what extensions the server supports
curl -s http://localhost:9000/.well-known/agent-card.json | jq '.capabilities.extensions'

# Negotiate extensions
curl -s http://localhost:9000/ \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'A2A-Version: 1.0' \
  -H 'A2A-Extensions: urn:a2a:dummy:echo-metadata, urn:a2a:dummy:timestamp' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"SendMessage","params":{"message":{"messageId":"1","role":1,"parts":[{"text":"ext"}]}}}' \
  -D - 2>/dev/null | head -20

# Test required extension enforcement (returns -32008)
curl -s http://localhost:9000/ \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'A2A-Version: 1.0' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"SendMessage","params":{"message":{"messageId":"1","role":1,"parts":[{"text":"ext-required"}]}}}'

# Satisfy the required extension
curl -s http://localhost:9000/ \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'A2A-Version: 1.0' \
  -H 'A2A-Extensions: urn:a2a:dummy:required-test' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"SendMessage","params":{"message":{"messageId":"1","role":1,"parts":[{"text":"ext-required"}]}}}'

Testing extensions with pytest

import httpx
import pytest

@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_extension_negotiation(a2a_url):
    async with httpx.AsyncClient(
        base_url=a2a_url, headers={"A2A-Version": "1.0"},
    ) as client:
        resp = await client.post("/", json={
            "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1,
            "method": "SendMessage",
            "params": {"message": {"messageId": "1", "role": 1,
                "parts": [{"text": "ext"}]}}
        }, headers={"A2A-Extensions": "urn:a2a:dummy:echo-metadata"})

        task = resp.json()["result"]["task"]
        assert "urn:a2a:dummy:echo-metadata" in task["artifacts"][0]["extensions"]

@pytest.mark.asyncio
async def test_required_extension_error(a2a_url):
    async with httpx.AsyncClient(
        base_url=a2a_url, headers={"A2A-Version": "1.0"},
    ) as client:
        resp = await client.post("/", json={
            "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1,
            "method": "SendMessage",
            "params": {"message": {"messageId": "1", "role": 1,
                "parts": [{"text": "ext-required"}]}}
        })
        assert resp.json()["error"]["code"] == -32008

Testing extensions with portable contracts

from dummy_a2a import verify_a2a_compliance

results = await verify_a2a_compliance(
    "http://localhost:9000",
    categories=["extensions"],
)
for r in results:
    print(f"{'PASS' if r.passed else 'FAIL'} {r.contract_id}")

---

Development

uv sync --dev
uv run pytest tests/ -v
uv run ruff check src/ tests/  # lint
uv run pyright                  # type check

---

License

Apache License 2.0