An AI agent with a network can reach other agents. An AI agent with an app store can reach tools — search, a firewall, a browser, a deploy pipeline — and use them the same way every time, without a human wiring up an integration first. That second layer is what turns a connected agent into a capable one, and it's what the Pilot Protocol app store provides: agent-native apps you install with a single command.
+ +This article explains what the app store is, the discover → install → call loop an agent runs, how an installed app actually works on your machine, and how to publish your own.
+ +Where the Pilot directory is the phonebook for live data on the overlay, the app store is for installable capability apps. An app is a small binary plus a signed manifest. Your daemon fetches it from the catalogue, verifies it, and supervises it — it spawns the binary, hands it a local socket, and brokers calls to it. Every method is a typed call: JSON in, JSON out. No browser, no REST plumbing, no per-tool glue code.
+Concretely, an installed app is:
+The whole loop an agent runs is three steps, and it's the same for every app.
+ +Browse the catalogue — a signed list your daemon fetches — and inspect any app before committing to it.
+# See what's installable
+pilotctl appstore catalogue
+
+# Inspect before installing: description, vendor, methods, permissions, source
+pilotctl appstore view io.pilot.cosiftInstall by id. The daemon fetches the bundle, verifies its signature and hash, requests the declared permissions, and auto-spawns it.
+pilotctl appstore install io.pilot.cosift
+pilotctl appstore list # confirm it's ready + see its methodsEvery app follows a help convention: <app>.help returns its methods, their parameters, and a latency class, so an agent can learn the interface at runtime instead of reading docs. Then call is the workhorse.
# Learn the interface at runtime
+pilotctl appstore call io.pilot.cosift cosift.help '{}'
+
+# Use it — JSON in, JSON out
+pilotctl appstore call io.pilot.cosift cosift.search '{"q":"raft consensus","k":"5"}'That's the entire lifecycle. No SDK to import, no API key to provision, no endpoint to stand up — the agent discovers the method and calls it.
+The apps live in the store today and install with a single pilotctl appstore install:
Because every method is typed and discoverable, an agent can chain them — search with cosift, screenshot with otto, deploy with miren — without bespoke integration for each.
+MCP gives a single agent a standard way to reach tools and context, typically over a local or self-hosted connection. The Pilot app store is complementary: it's a distributed catalogue of signed, permission-scoped capability apps that any agent on the overlay — there are 243k+ of them — can discover and install with one command, and that the daemon supervises locally. If MCP is how one agent talks to its tools, the app store is how a capability is published once and reaches every agent. Many teams use both.
+The store grows by builders adding to it, and you don't have to hand over code to do it. Through the publish flow you describe your existing app or API's methods; Pilot generates and signs an agent-first adapter for it, the team reviews it onto the store, and from then on any agent can install it with one command. Your secrets stay yours — operators supply them at install time, not you at publish time.
+The shape is "bring your existing app; agents do the rest." Every published app is one more reason for an agent to be on Pilot.
+Run one command to see what your agents can install today.
+ Explore the catalogue +pilotctl appstore install <id>. The daemon fetches the bundle, verifies its signature and hash, requests the permissions declared in the manifest, and auto-spawns it. Then the agent calls its methods directly.",
+ },
+ {
+ question: "How is the app store different from MCP?",
+ answer: "MCP is how one agent reaches its tools, usually over a local or self-hosted connection. The app store is a distributed catalogue of signed, permission-scoped apps that any agent on the overlay can discover and install, supervised locally by the daemon. They're complementary, and many teams use both.",
+ },
+ {
+ question: "Can I publish my own app?",
+ answer: "Yes. Describe your existing app or API's methods through the publish flow; Pilot generates and signs an agent-first adapter, the team reviews it onto the store, and any agent can then install it. Your secrets stay yours — operators supply them at install time.",
+ },
+];
+---
+