Protocol Labs

Protocol Labs is an open-source research and development company founded in 2014 by Juan Benet, best known for creating foundational decentralized web protocols including IPFS (the InterPlanetary File System), Filecoin (a decentralized storage network), libp2p (a modular peer-to-peer networking stack), and IPLD (a data model for content-addressed systems). Since its founding it has grown into an innovation network connecting more than 750 startups, funds, accelerators, foundations, and open-source projects working across web3, AI, robotics, cryptography, and neurotechnology. Protocol Labs itself (protocol.ai) is a research and venture organization rather than a commercial API provider — it publishes no first-party REST API; its developer surfaces (IPFS HTTP APIs, Filecoin JSON-RPC, libp2p) live in their own separate open-source projects and GitHub organizations.

Protocol Labs is profiled on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Company, Decentralized Web, Peer-to-Peer, IPFS, and Filecoin.

Protocol Labs’ developer surface includes engineering blog and 5 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

7.9/100 minimal ▬ flat Agent 0/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

0 APIs

CompanyDecentralized WebPeer-to-PeerIPFSFilecoinlibp2pWeb3Open SourceResearch and DevelopmentDistributed Storage

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

Composite quality — 7.9/100 · minimal

Contract Quality 0.0 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 0.4 / 20

Commercial Clarity 0.0 / 20

Operational Transparency 0.7 / 13

Governance 0.0 / 12

Discoverability 6.8 / 10

Agent readiness — 0/100 · human only

Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 15

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/protocol-labs: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

LLMsTxt

LLMsTxt

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Company 3

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Careers

Careers

Source (apis.yml)

aid: protocol-labs
name: Protocol Labs
description: Protocol Labs is an open-source research and development company founded in 2014 by Juan Benet, best known for
  creating foundational decentralized web protocols including IPFS (the InterPlanetary File System), Filecoin (a decentralized
  storage network), libp2p (a modular peer-to-peer networking stack), and IPLD (a data model for content-addressed systems).
  Since its founding it has grown into an innovation network connecting more than 750 startups, funds, accelerators, foundations,
  and open-source projects working across web3, AI, robotics, cryptography, and neurotechnology. Protocol Labs itself (protocol.ai)
  is a research and venture organization rather than a commercial API provider — it publishes no first-party REST API; its
  developer surfaces (IPFS HTTP APIs, Filecoin JSON-RPC, libp2p) live in their own separate open-source projects and GitHub
  organizations.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/protocol-labs/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- a16z
- union-square-ventures
- y-combinator
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-20'
image: https://protocol.ai/images/og-default.jpg
tags:
- Company
- Decentralized Web
- Peer-to-Peer
- IPFS
- Filecoin
- libp2p
- Web3
- Open Source
- Research and Development
- Distributed Storage
apis: []
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://www.protocol.ai
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/protocol
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.protocol.ai/blog/
- type: Careers
  url: https://www.protocol.ai/join/
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/protocol-labs-llms.txt
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/protocol-labs-domain-security.yml
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-20'
  status: minimal
  artifacts_added: 3
  pass: local-v1