About NDP
AI agents are multiplying. Claude, GPT, Amp, Ollama, custom wrappers. They all need tools. MCP solved the tool interface. But the way agents find and connect to MCP servers today has a structural problem: the gateway.
A single-instance MCP gateway can become a chokepoint. It centralizes credential handling, routes every request, and becomes an operational dependency. Redundant gateways mitigate this, but add complexity that local setups rarely need.
NDP takes a different approach. Instead of routing through a central gateway, agents discover MCP servers directly on the local network. Each server broadcasts what it offers. Each agent connects independently. Each connection has its own authentication. No middleman. No single point of failure.
The protocol is intentionally simple. UDP broadcast for discovery. HMAC for auth. Standard MCP JSON-RPC for tool calls. Zero dependencies. Two terminals. Working in 60 seconds.
Principles
Local first
Built for LAN. No cloud dependency. No internet required. Your tools, your network.
MCP intact
NDP only handles discovery and connection setup. MCP protocol is untouched. Existing servers need a thin NDP wrapper for discovery, but the tool logic stays the same.
Distributed trust
No central authority. Each server manages its own access control. Breach one, the rest are unaffected.
Zero ceremony
No npm install. No config files to sync. No tokens to distribute. Clone and run.
Roadmap
MCP JSON-RPC 2.0 Protocol
initialize, tools/list, tools/call over authenticated connections
Multi-Server Mesh
Agent connects to multiple MCP servers simultaneously with unified tool routing
Health Checks + Failover
Automatic detection of server failures with graceful degradation
Per-Agent Event Logging
Distributed logging with console and file output, no central log store
WebRTC Data Channels
Encrypted P2P connections with NAT traversal beyond LAN
mDNS / DNS-SD Discovery
Python SDK uses zeroconf for proper mDNS service discovery
Claude Desktop / VS Code / Cursor / Windsurf Integration
One-command installer configures all five AI tools automatically via install.ps1
MCP Server Proxy Mode
NDP discovers servers, then proxies to existing MCP HTTP endpoints
Ollama Integration
Expose local LLM inference as an MCP tool via NDP
OAuth 2.0 / mTLS Auth
Cross-network trust for enterprise and multi-team setups
Web Dashboard
Monitor active agents, servers, tool calls, and health in real time
Open Source
NDP is open source and available on GitHub. Contributions, feedback, and ideas are welcome.
View on GitHub