Conformance Requirements

​

Overview

• MUST / REQUIRED — An absolute requirement. Implementations that fail this are non-conformant.
• SHOULD / RECOMMENDED — There may be valid reasons to ignore this in particular circumstances, but the implications must be understood.
• MAY / OPTIONAL — Truly optional. Implementations may or may not include this.

​

App Conformance

​

Required (MUST)

​

Recommended (SHOULD)

1. Implement listCapabilities() and supports() for runtime discovery
   • Allows agents to query capabilities dynamically
   • See API Reference
2. Support notifications via notify() and notifyProgress()
   • Enables real-time updates to agents
   • See Elicitation & Progress
3. Support elicitation via elicit() for requesting input from agents
   • Allows capabilities to ask for user preferences or confirmation
   • See Elicitation & Progress
4. Validate inputs against declared inputSchema before executing capabilities
   • Prevents invalid data from causing errors
   • See Building ABP Apps: Parameter Validation
5. Declare requirements for permission-gated capabilities
   • Lets agents know what conditions must be met
   • See Security Considerations

​

Client Conformance

​

Required (MUST)

​

Recommended (SHOULD)

1. Support both headless and headful browser modes when using Puppeteer/Playwright
   • Some capabilities require a visible browser (authenticated sessions, GPU, permissions)
   • Default to headless; allow headful as an option
   • See Architecture Guide: Browser Requirements
2. Handle notifications — Set up page.exposeFunction() for __abp_notification and __abp_progress
   • See Architecture Guide
3. Handle elicitation — Set up page.exposeFunction() for __abp_elicitation to respond to app requests
   • See Elicitation & Progress
4. Handle binary data — Process BinaryData and BinaryDataReference responses
   • See Binary Data Protocol
5. Handle errors — Implement retry logic for retryable errors with exponential backoff
   • See Error Handling
6. Handle version mismatches gracefully — Agents SHOULD handle manifest protocol version mismatches according to the version compatibility rules
   • See Discovery Guide

​

Verification

​

Verifying App Conformance

// 1. Check window.abp exists
console.log(window.abp);  // Should be an object, not undefined

// 2. Check required methods exist
console.log(typeof window.abp.initialize);  // "function"
console.log(typeof window.abp.shutdown);    // "function"
console.log(typeof window.abp.call);        // "function"

// 3. Test initialization
const session = await window.abp.initialize({
  agent: { name: 'test', version: '1.0' },
  protocolVersion: '0.1',
  features: { notifications: false, progress: false, elicitation: false }
});
console.log('Session:', session);  // Should have sessionId, app, capabilities

// 4. Test capability call
const result = await window.abp.call('convert.markdownToHtml', {
  markdown: '# Hello ABP',
  options: { sanitize: true }
});
console.log('Result:', result);  // Should have success: true, data: { ... }

// 5. Verify data, not status message
console.log('Has actual data?', result.data && typeof result.data === 'object');
console.log('Not a status message?', !result.data?.status && !result.data?.message);

// 6. Test shutdown
await window.abp.shutdown();
console.log('Shutdown complete');

# Connect to your app
abp_connect("http://localhost:3000")

# Should succeed and show available capabilities
# Then test a capability:
abp_call("convert.markdownToHtml", {"markdown": "# Test", "options": {"sanitize": true}})

# Should return actual data, not a status message

​

Verifying Client Conformance

1. Discovery test:
   Copy

   const discovery = await discoverABP('https://app.example.com');
   console.assert(discovery.supported === true);
   console.assert(discovery.manifest.abp === '1.0');
   
2. Session lifecycle test:
   Copy

   const session = await client.connect('https://app.example.com');
   console.assert(session.sessionId !== null);
   console.assert(session.capabilities.length > 0);
   
   await client.disconnect();
   console.assert(session.sessionId === null);
   
3. Capability call test:
   Copy

   const result = await client.call('convert.markdownToHtml', { markdown: '# Test' });
   console.assert(result.success === true || result.error !== undefined);
   

​

Common Conformance Failures

​

For Apps

​

For Clients

​

Next Steps