ACT: Agent Component Tools

A self-documenting RPC protocol for AI agent tools, built on the WebAssembly Component Model.

A single .wasm component serves AI agents (via MCP), application developers (via HTTP+JSON/CBOR), CLI users, and browsers — with hardware-enforced sandboxing by default.

Why ACT

Universal tools, not framework-locked plugins. Write a tool once as a Wasm component. Run it from Claude, GPT, Gemini, your own orchestrator, a REST client, or the command line. The host adapts the transport — the component doesn't change.

Secure by construction. Components run in WebAssembly's capability-based sandbox. No filesystem, network, or system access unless the operator explicitly grants it. This isn't a policy layer that can be bypassed — it's enforced by the runtime.

Self-describing. Component metadata, tool schemas, and usage instructions are embedded in the .wasm binary. act info --tools component.wasm tells you everything — no external docs or API keys needed to discover what a component does.

Streaming and async. Every tool call returns stream<stream-event>, so components can emit progress, partial results, and structured errors incrementally. Built on WASI Preview 3 native async.

Specification

Document	Description
ACT-SPEC	Core protocol specification (normative)
ACT-HTTP	HTTP API binding (normative)
ACT-CONSTANTS	Well-known std: constants registry (normative)
ACT-MCP	MCP adapter mapping guide (informative)
ACT-AUTH	Authentication best practices (informative)
ACT-AGENTSKILLS	Agent Skills embedding (normative)
OpenAPI	OpenAPI 3.2 definition for ACT-HTTP

WIT interfaces: wit/

Architecture

graph TD
    MCP["MCP stdio"] --> MA["MCP Adapter"]
    HTTP["HTTP"] --> HA["HTTP Adapter"]
    CLI["CLI"] --> CA["CLI Adapter"]

    subgraph Host["ACT Host (act-cli)"]
        MA & HA & CA --> Runtime
        Runtime["Wasmtime Component Runtime\n<i>capability-based sandbox · deny-all</i>"]
    end

    Runtime --> Component

    subgraph Component[".wasm Component"]
        Section["act:component section\nname · version · description"]
        Export["tool-provider export"]
        LT["list-tools()"]
        CT["call-tool() → stream"]
        Export --- LT & CT
    end

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Tool Call Flow

sequenceDiagram
    participant Client
    participant Host as ACT Host
    participant Wasm as .wasm Component

    Client->>Host: tools/call (MCP, HTTP, or CLI)
    Host->>Host: Validate args against JSON Schema
    Host->>Wasm: call-tool(tool-call)
    loop stream<stream-event>
        Wasm-->>Host: content(part) | error(err)
        Host-->>Client: SSE event / MCP response
    end

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Quick Start

# Install the CLI
npm i -g @actcore/act        # or: pip install act-cli / cargo install act-cli

# Inspect a component from the OCI registry
act info --tools ghcr.io/actpkg/sqlite

# Call a tool directly
act call ghcr.io/actpkg/sqlite query \
  --args '{"sql":"SELECT sqlite_version()"}' \
  --metadata '{"database_path":"/tmp/test.db"}' \
  --allow-dir /tmp:/tmp

# Serve over MCP (plug into Claude, Cursor, etc.)
act run --mcp ghcr.io/actpkg/sqlite

# Serve over HTTP
act run -l ghcr.io/actpkg/sqlite
# → http://[::1]:3000/tools/query

Build a Component

# Install the Rust SDK
cargo add act-sdk

# Build for WebAssembly
cargo build --target wasm32-wasip2 --release

# Embed metadata and package
act-build pack target/wasm32-wasip2/release/my_component.wasm

Minimal component with the SDK:

use act_sdk::prelude::*;

#[act_component("my-tools", version = "0.1.0", description = "Example tools")]
struct MyComponent;

#[act_tool(description = "Say hello")]
fn greet(name: String) -> String {
    format!("Hello, {name}!")
}

See the Rust SDK for full documentation and examples. A Python SDK is also available.

Available Components

Components are distributed as OCI artifacts from ghcr.io/actpkg/.

Component	Description
sqlite	SQLite database with vector search
filesystem	Sandboxed file system operations
http-client	HTTP fetch
crypto	Hashing, HMAC, encryption
encoding	Base64, hex, URL encoding
random	Secure random generation, UUIDs
time	Date/time utilities
python-eval	Python code evaluation
openwallet	Crypto wallet operations
mcp-bridge	Bridge to any MCP server
openapi-bridge	Bridge any OpenAPI service
act-http-bridge	Bridge to remote ACT hosts

Ecosystem

Repository	Description
act-spec	This repo — protocol specification and WIT
act-cli	CLI host (act and act-build binaries)
act-sdk-rs	Rust SDK with proc macros
act-sdk-py	Python SDK
act-template-rust	cargo-generate template for Rust components
act-template-python	Template for Python components

Status

ACT is in active development. The protocol is at v0.2.0 with a working host, SDKs in Rust and Python, and 12+ production components. The specification is complete and stable within the 0.2.x line — breaking changes will increment the minor version.

We welcome feedback via GitHub Issues and Discussions.

License

Apache-2.0