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Meta, Sierra, Stripe and Walmart are writing a standard for how AI agents deal with shops

Your agent would sign in like you do, and the shop would decide what it's allowed to touch.

By Think Facility · October 6, 2026 · Meta AI agents Save

On October 6, 2026, Sierra and Meta announced Personal Agent Protocol, an open standard for how your AI agent deals with a company on your behalf. Genesys, Instinct, Rocket, Shopify, Stripe and Walmart are working on it with them.

There's no spec yet. The post from Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor says version 0.1 comes later this month, followed by design workshops and a reference implementation.

Who

Sierra and Meta, with Genesys, Instinct, Rocket, Shopify, Stripe and Walmart

What

an open standard for how personal agents interact with businesses

Built on

OAuth

Next

v0.1 specification later this month

What it would change

Right now most personal agents use a company's site the way you would. They load pages, fill in forms and, when that fails, call the support line or open the web chat. Sierra's post says a direct connection could do the same job securely in seconds.

Under the protocol, an agent finds out from the company's website what it offers, then opens a session for you. It can start as a guest, which is enough to check stock or ask about returns. Anything touching your account needs you to sign in, and you pick whether the agent gets read-only or write access.

The company decides what the agent can reach. That might be its normal web pages, its APIs (built on standards like MCP and OpenAPI) or its own customer service agent, for things that need a conversation, like a warranty claim. Because the session runs on OAuth, a question you asked before signing in and an order you change afterward count as one visit.

What the partners said

Stripe framed it as a way for shops to tell a real customer's agent from everything else hitting their sites.

Rocket's CTO, Shawn Malhotra, said its technology, built with Sierra, already lets a Muse agent move from finding a home to securing financing. Genesys CEO Tony Bates said brands need to know who an agent represents and what it's authorized to do.

Walmart and Meta signed on as partners, but the post carries no quote from either. Nor does it say whether OpenAI or Google, whose assistants also act for users, have been asked to join. It does say anyone can implement the standard.

What's on the list

Some of the useful parts are still ideas. The post lists finer permissions for specific actions, push alerts when a flight is delayed or an order ships, and payment extensions that would let an agent buy something without seeing your card number. None of them has a date.

The v0.1 specification is due later in October.