How to Connect Google ADK Agents to Dobby
Connect agents built with Google's Agent Development Kit (ADK) to Dobby for monitoring, governance, cost control, and approval gates. Three integration paths explained.
What you will learn
- Understand the 3 ways to connect ADK agents to Dobby
- Set up MCP Gateway connection for tool access (2 min)
- Enable A2A protocol for bidirectional agent collaboration
- Register an ADK agent as an external agent with webhooks
- Configure cost tracking and governance for ADK agents
Why Connect ADK Agents to a Control Plane?
Google's Agent Development Kit (ADK) is the fastest-growing agent framework with 17.9k GitHub stars. ADK makes building agents easy with native MCP and A2A protocol support. But production agents need guardrails that ADK alone doesn't provide.
By connecting ADK agents to Dobby, you get cost tracking per agent, Content Shield (prompt injection detection), DLP (PII protection), budget limits, kill-switch, approval gates, and a full audit trail.
ADK agent runs autonomously with no cost visibility. Agent calls GPT-4 1,000 times in a loop. You find out when the $500 bill arrives.
Every LLM call is tracked per agent. Budget alert fires at $50. Content Shield blocks prompt injection attempts. Kill-switch can halt the agent instantly.
Three Integration Paths
ADK agents can connect to Dobby via three paths. Choose based on your use case:
- Path 1: MCP Gateway (2 min) — give your ADK agent access to 90 Dobby MCP tools
- Path 2: A2A Protocol — bidirectional agent collaboration with task delegation
- Path 3: External Agent (BYOA) — webhook triggers with scheduling and approval gates
Path 1: MCP Gateway (Recommended Start)
ADK has native MCP support via MCPToolset. This is the fastest integration path — your agent gets access to all 90 Dobby MCP tools in under 2 minutes.
Create a Gateway API key at dobby-ai.com/dashboard/gateway. Use a user key (gk_user_*) for development or a service key (gk_svc_*) for production.
Install Google ADK and Dobby MCP package.
pip install google-adk
npm install -g @dobbyai/mcp-externalAdd MCPToolset to your ADK agent. This connects your agent to Dobby's MCP Gateway.
from google.adk import Agent
from google.adk.tools import MCPToolset
# Connect ADK agent to Dobby's MCP Gateway
dobby_tools = MCPToolset(
command="npx",
args=["-y", "@dobbyai/mcp-external"],
env={
"DOBBY_API_URL": "https://dobby-ai.com",
"DOBBY_API_KEY": "gk_user_your_key_here",
"DOBBY_TENANT_ID": "tenant_your_id",
}
)
agent = Agent(
model="gemini-2.5-flash",
name="my-dobby-agent",
instruction="You are a helpful agent with access to Dobby AI tools.",
tools=[dobby_tools],
)
# Your agent now has access to 90 Dobby MCP tools:
# - Task management (create, update, list tasks)
# - Approval workflows (approve, reject, request changes)
# - Agent operations (status, metrics, health)
# - Knowledge base (search, upload documents)
# - And more...Every LLM call your ADK agent makes through the MCP Gateway is automatically tracked. You'll see cost per request, token usage, and latency in the FinOps dashboard — no extra code needed.
Path 2: A2A Protocol (Agent Collaboration)
ADK agents auto-generate Agent Cards at /.well-known/agent.json. Dobby can discover these cards and register the agent automatically for bidirectional task delegation.
Deploy your ADK agent with a public URL (Cloud Run, GKE, or any hosting).
In Dobby dashboard, go to External Agents, click Add Agent, select Google ADK, paste the agent URL, and click Auto-Discover.
Dobby fetches the Agent Card, discovers skills and capabilities, and registers the agent. You can now delegate tasks to it or receive tasks from it.
A2A protocol is Google's open standard for agent-to-agent communication. ADK agents support it natively — no extra configuration needed. Dobby is listed on the Google Cloud AI Agent Marketplace as an A2A-compatible control plane.
Path 3: External Agent (BYOA Webhooks)
For agents that need scheduling, manual triggers, or approval gates before execution. Register your ADK agent URL and Dobby sends webhook triggers.
Register your ADK agent in Dobby: External Agents, Add Agent, enter webhook URL.
Configure triggers: cron schedule (e.g., daily at 9am), manual trigger, or event-triggered.
Set up approval gates: require human approval before the agent runs destructive tasks.
Which Path Should You Choose?
- MCP Gateway — best for tool access. Your agent needs to create tasks, search knowledge base, or manage approvals in Dobby.
- A2A Protocol — best for agent collaboration. Your agent delegates work to Dobby's agents or receives delegated tasks.
- External Agent — best for scheduled/triggered execution. Your agent runs on a schedule with human approval gates.
You can use all three paths simultaneously! An ADK agent can access MCP tools, participate in A2A collaboration, and be triggered via webhooks — all with unified cost tracking and governance.
What You Get in the Dashboard
- Agent Fleet — your ADK agent listed with status, cost, and health
- FinOps — cost per agent, per provider, per model with daily trends
- Content Shield — prompt injection detection on every LLM call
- DLP — PII detection and blocking (SSN, credit cards, etc.)
- Kill-Switch — instantly halt the agent if something goes wrong
- Audit Trail — full history of every action and decision
- Budget Limits — set daily/monthly cost caps with automatic enforcement