Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI, Cursor, Vercel agree on agent plugin standard

Amazon, Cursor, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Vercel jointly released Agent Plugins, an open standard defining a single package format for AI agent extensions. Version 1.0.0 uses a plugin.json manifest file and supports both agent skills and MCP servers.

Why it matters: A shared plugin format from five major competitors reduces fragmentation in the fast-growing agent-tooling ecosystem, letting developers write an extension once and run it across different agent platforms. It's a sign the industry is standardizing infrastructure layers, similar to how MCP itself became a cross-vendor standard, even as the labs compete fiercely on models.