# Go Micro Roadmap 2026: The AI-Native Era

**Last Updated:** March 2026

## Executive Summary

The emergence of AI agents represents a **paradigm shift** in how services are consumed. Where APIs served apps, **MCP serves agents**. Go Micro is uniquely positioned to become the **standard microservices framework for the agent era**.

This roadmap outlines Go Micro's evolution from an API-first framework to an **AI-native platform** while maintaining backward compatibility and ensuring long-term sustainability.

---

## The Paradigm Shift

### Before: Apps → API Gateway → Services
```
┌──────────┐     HTTP/REST      ┌─────────────┐     RPC      ┌──────────┐
│  Mobile  │ ───────────────→   │   Gateway   │ ─────────→   │ Services │
│   App    │                    │  (Express)  │              │          │
└──────────┘                    └─────────────┘              └──────────┘
```

Characteristics:
- Apps need HTTP/REST/GraphQL
- Manual API design (OpenAPI specs)
- Developers write integration code
- Static endpoint documentation

### Now: Agents → MCP → Services
```
┌──────────┐      MCP/SSE       ┌─────────────┐     RPC      ┌──────────┐
│  Claude  │ ───────────────→   │     MCP     │ ─────────→   │ Services │
│   GPT    │                    │   Gateway   │              │          │
└──────────┘                    └─────────────┘              └──────────┘
```

Characteristics:
- Agents discover tools automatically
- No manual API design needed
- Agents write their own integration code
- Dynamic tool discovery

### Why This Matters

**API Gateways solve integration for developers.**
**MCP solves integration for AI.**

Go Micro's MCP integration means:
1. **Zero integration work** - Services become AI-accessible instantly
2. **No API wrappers** - Agents call services directly
3. **Dynamic discovery** - New services = new tools automatically
4. **Natural language interface** - No documentation needed

---

## Strategic Vision

### Mission Statement

> **Make every microservice AI-native by default.**

### 2026-2027 Goals

1. **MCP becomes the default** - `micro run` enables MCP automatically
2. **Best-in-class agent integration** - The easiest way to expose services to AI
3. **Sustainable business model** - Open core with premium offerings
4. **Production deployment at scale** - 1000+ services running MCP gateways
5. **Ecosystem leadership** - The go-to framework when AI needs microservices

---

## Roadmap

## Q1 2026: MCP Foundation ✅ COMPLETE

**Status:** COMPLETE as of February 2026

### Delivered
- [x] MCP library (`gateway/mcp`)
- [x] CLI integration (`micro run --mcp-address`)
- [x] Service discovery and tool generation
- [x] HTTP/SSE transport
- [x] Documentation and examples
- [x] Blog post and launch

### Impact
- Services are now AI-accessible with 3 lines of code
- Both library and CLI users can use MCP
- Foundation for agent-first development

---

## Q2 2026: Agent Developer Experience

**Status:** COMPLETE (100%) - All core features and documentation delivered

**Theme:** Make it trivial for any AI to call your services

### MCP Enhancements

#### Stdio Transport for Claude Code ✅ COMPLETE (delivered early)
- [x] Implement stdio JSON-RPC protocol
- [x] Auto-detection: stdio vs HTTP based on environment
- [x] `micro mcp` command for Claude Code integration
- [x] Example: Add go-micro services to Claude Code

**Why:** Claude Code and other local AI tools use stdio MCP servers. This enables:
```bash
# In Claude Code config
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-services": {
      "command": "micro",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}
```

**Business value:** Direct integration with Anthropic's flagship developer tool.

#### Tool Descriptions from Comments ✅ COMPLETE (delivered early)
- [x] Parse Go comments to generate tool descriptions
- [x] Support JSDoc-style tags: `@param`, `@return`, `@example`
- [x] Schema generation from struct tags
- [ ] Auto-generate examples from test cases

**Before:**
```
Tools:
- users.Users.Get - Call Get on users service
```

**After:**
```
Tools:
- users.Users.Get
  Description: Retrieve user profile by ID. Returns full profile including email,
               name, created date, and preferences.
  Parameters:
    - id (string, required): User ID in UUID format
  Returns: User object with profile fields
  Example: {"id": "123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000"}
```

**Why:** Better descriptions = better agent performance. Agents need context to call services correctly.

#### Multi-Protocol Support
- [x] WebSocket transport for streaming (JSON-RPC 2.0, bidirectional)
- [ ] gRPC reflection for MCP (bidirectional streaming)
- [x] Server-Sent Events with auth (HTTP/SSE implemented)
- [ ] HTTP/3 support

**Why:** Different agents prefer different protocols. Support them all.

### Agent SDKs

Create official SDKs for popular agent frameworks:

#### LangChain Integration ✅ COMPLETE
- [x] `langchain-go-micro` Python package
- [x] Auto-generate LangChain tools from registry
- [x] Example: Multi-agent workflow with go-micro services
- [x] Published to contrib/langchain-go-micro/

#### AI Package ✅ COMPLETE
- [x] `ai.Model` interface with Generate and Stream
- [x] Anthropic Claude provider (`ai/anthropic`)
- [x] OpenAI GPT provider (`ai/openai`)
- [x] Tool execution with auto-calling support
- [x] Provider auto-detection from base URL

**Why:** The ai package powers the agent playground and enables services to call AI models directly.

#### LlamaIndex Integration ✅ COMPLETE
- [x] `go-micro-llamaindex` package
- [x] Service discovery as data sources
- [x] Example: RAG with microservices

#### AutoGPT/AgentGPT Support
- [ ] Plugin format adapter
- [ ] Auto-install via plugin marketplace
- [ ] Example: Autonomous agents orchestrating services

**Business value:** Every agent framework can use go-micro services out of the box.

### Developer Experience

#### `micro mcp` Command Suite ✅ COMPLETE

**Implemented:**
```bash
# Start MCP server
micro mcp serve                    # Stdio (for Claude Code) ✅
micro mcp serve --address :3000    # HTTP/SSE (for web agents) ✅

# Development
micro mcp list                     # List available tools ✅
micro mcp list --json              # JSON output ✅
micro mcp test users.Users.Get     # Test a tool ✅
micro mcp docs                     # Generate MCP documentation ✅
micro mcp docs --format json       # JSON output ✅
micro mcp export langchain         # Export to LangChain format ✅
micro mcp export openapi           # Export as OpenAPI ✅
micro mcp export json              # Export as JSON ✅
```

#### Interactive Agent Playground
- [ ] Web UI for testing services with AI
- [ ] Built into `micro run` dashboard
- [ ] Chat with your services
- [ ] See agent tool calls in real-time
- [ ] Share playground URLs for demos

**Example:**
```
http://localhost:8080/playground

> You: "Show me user 123's last 5 orders"

Agent: Let me check that...
→ Calling users.Users.Get with {"id": "123"}
→ Calling orders.Orders.List with {"user_id": "123", "limit": 5}

Here are the 5 most recent orders for Alice Smith:
1. Order #45678 - $125.00 - Shipped (Jan 15)
2. Order #45123 - $89.99 - Delivered (Jan 10)
...
```

**Business value:** Instant demos. Show investors/customers AI calling your services.

### Documentation

- [x] "Building AI-Native Services" guide ✅ COMPLETE
- [x] Agent integration patterns ✅ COMPLETE
- [x] Best practices for tool descriptions ✅ COMPLETE
- [x] MCP security guide ✅ COMPLETE
- [ ] Video: "Your First AI-Native Service in 5 Minutes"

---

## Q3 2026: Production & Scale

**Status:** IN PROGRESS (50%) - Core security and observability features delivered early, infrastructure work remaining

**Theme:** Run MCP gateways in production at scale

### Enterprise MCP Gateway

Create a production-grade standalone MCP gateway:

#### Gateway Features
- [ ] Standalone binary: `micro-mcp-gateway`
- [ ] Horizontal scaling (stateless design)
- [x] Rate limiting per agent/token ✅ (delivered early)
- [ ] Usage tracking and analytics
- [x] Cost attribution (track which agent called what) ✅ (audit logging)
- [x] Circuit breakers for service protection ✅ (per-tool, configurable thresholds)
- [ ] Request/response caching
- [ ] Multi-tenant support (isolate services by namespace)

**Deployment:**
```bash
# Standalone gateway
micro-mcp-gateway \
  --registry consul:8500 \
  --address :3000 \
  --auth jwt \
  --rate-limit 1000/hour \
  --cache redis:6379
```

**Business value:** Enterprise customers need production-grade MCP gateways. This is a **paid offering**.

#### Observability
- [x] OpenTelemetry integration ✅ (spans, attributes, W3C trace context propagation)
- [x] Agent call tracing (which agent called what) ✅ (trace IDs implemented)
- [ ] Tool usage metrics (which tools are popular)
- [ ] Performance dashboards
- [ ] Anomaly detection (unusual agent behavior)
- [ ] Cost analysis (cloud spend per agent)

**Dashboard Example:**
```
Agent Activity - Last 7 Days
─────────────────────────────
Claude Desktop    1,234 calls   $12.34 compute cost
ChatGPT Plugin    567 calls     $5.67 compute cost
Custom Agent      234 calls     $2.34 compute cost

Top Services
────────────
users    45%
orders   30%
payments 15%

Slowest Tools
─────────────
analytics.Reports.Generate   2.3s avg
payments.Payments.Process    890ms avg
```

**Business value:** Enterprises need observability. This justifies MCP Gateway pricing.

### Security ✅ CORE FEATURES COMPLETE (delivered early)

#### Agent Authentication ✅ COMPLETE
- [x] Auth provider integration (auth.Auth)
- [x] Bearer token authentication
- [x] Scope-based permissions (agent can only call certain services)
- [x] Audit logging (full trail of what agents accessed)
- [ ] OAuth2 for agent authorization (basic auth implemented)
- [ ] API keys per agent (bearer tokens supported)

**Implemented Example:**
```go
mcp.Serve(mcp.Options{
    Registry: registry,
    Auth:     authProvider,  // ✅ Implemented
    Scopes: map[string][]string{  // ✅ Implemented
        "blog.Blog.Create": {"blog:write"},
        "blog.Blog.Delete": {"blog:admin"},
    },
    AuditFunc: func(r mcp.AuditRecord) {  // ✅ Implemented
        log.Printf("[audit] %+v", r)
    },
})
```

#### Service-Side Authorization ✅ COMPLETE
- [x] Services can validate which agent is calling
- [x] Agent identity in context (via metadata)
- [x] Fine-grained permissions (Agent X can read but not write)
- [x] Trace ID propagation for debugging

**Implemented - Metadata in Context:**
```go
// Trace ID, Tool Name, and Account ID are automatically
// propagated to services via context metadata:
// - Mcp-Trace-Id
// - Mcp-Tool-Name  
// - Mcp-Account-Id
```

**Future Enhancement - Service-Side Example:**
```go
// Future: Direct access to agent info from context
func (s *Users) Delete(ctx context.Context, req *Request, rsp *Response) error {
    // For now, services can read metadata keys:
    // Mcp-Account-Id, Mcp-Trace-Id, Mcp-Tool-Name
    md, _ := metadata.FromContext(ctx)
    accountID := md["Mcp-Account-Id"]
    
    if accountID != "admin-account" {
        return errors.Forbidden("users", "admin only")
    }
    // ...
}
```

**Business value:** Security is a hard requirement for enterprise adoption.

### Deployment Patterns

#### Kubernetes Operator
- [ ] `micro-operator` for Kubernetes
- [ ] CRD: `MCPGateway` resource
- [ ] Auto-scaling based on agent traffic
- [ ] Service mesh integration

**Example:**
```yaml
apiVersion: micro.dev/v1
kind: MCPGateway
metadata:
  name: production-gateway
spec:
  registry: consul
  replicas: 3
  rateLimit:
    perAgent: 1000/hour
  observability:
    otel: true
    traces: jaeger:14268
```

#### Helm Charts ✅ COMPLETE
- [x] Official Helm chart for MCP gateway (`deploy/helm/mcp-gateway/`)
- [x] Support for major registries (Consul, etcd, mDNS)
- [x] Ingress configuration with TLS support
- [x] HPA auto-scaling support
- [ ] Secrets management

**Business value:** Easy deployment = faster adoption.

### Performance
- [ ] Connection pooling for high-throughput
- [ ] Response streaming for long-running tools
- [ ] Parallel tool execution when agents make multiple calls
- [ ] Caching layer for idempotent operations

**Target:** Support 10,000 concurrent agent requests on a single gateway.

---

## Q4 2026: Ecosystem & Monetization

**Theme:** Build the MCP ecosystem and sustainable business

### Agent Marketplace

Create a marketplace of pre-built AI agents that use go-micro services:

#### Concept
Developers build agents that solve specific problems using microservices:

**Examples:**
- **Customer Support Agent** - Integrates with users, tickets, orders services
- **DevOps Agent** - Integrates with logs, metrics, deployments services
- **Sales Agent** - Integrates with CRM, leads, analytics services
- **Data Analyst Agent** - Integrates with analytics, reports services

**Format:**
```yaml
# agent.yaml
name: customer-support
description: AI agent that handles customer support tickets
services:
  - users
  - tickets
  - orders
  - payments
prompts:
  - system: "You are a helpful customer support agent..."
  - examples: [...]
mcp:
  gateway: "mcp://services.company.com"
pricing: free|paid
```

**Usage:**
```bash
# Install agent from marketplace
micro agent install customer-support

# Run agent
micro agent run customer-support

# Agent now has access to your services via MCP
```

**Business value:**
- Marketplace fee (15% of paid agents)
- Showcase go-micro capabilities
- Drive framework adoption

### Premium Offerings

Build a sustainable business model around open-source core:

#### Open Source (Free Forever)
- Core framework (`go-micro.dev/v5`)
- Basic MCP gateway (`gateway/mcp`)
- CLI (`micro run`, `micro server`)
- Documentation and examples
- Community support

#### Go Micro Cloud (SaaS)
**Target:** Teams that want managed MCP gateways

**Features:**
- Managed MCP gateway (no ops required)
- Built-in observability dashboard
- Agent usage analytics
- Multi-region deployment
- 99.9% SLA
- Priority support

**Pricing:**
- Starter: $99/month (10,000 agent calls/month)
- Team: $499/month (100,000 calls/month)
- Enterprise: Custom (millions of calls/month)

**Value proposition:** "Don't run your own MCP gateway. We'll do it for you."

#### Go Micro Enterprise
**Target:** Large companies deploying at scale

**Features:**
- On-premise MCP gateway
- SSO integration
- Advanced security (mTLS, Vault integration)
- Custom SLAs
- Dedicated support
- Training and consulting

**Pricing:**
- Starting at $10,000/year
- Per-seat licensing or infrastructure-based

**Value proposition:** "Production-grade MCP for your entire organization."

#### Professional Services
- Custom agent development
- Migration from other frameworks
- Architecture consulting
- Training workshops
- Proof-of-concept projects

**Pricing:** $200-300/hour

### Strategic Integrations

#### Anthropic Partnership
- [ ] Official Anthropic integration guide
- [ ] Listed on MCP servers directory
- [ ] Co-marketing blog posts
- [ ] Featured in Claude documentation
- [ ] Joint conference talks

**Why:** Anthropic created MCP. Being their preferred microservices framework drives adoption.

#### OpenAI Integration
- [ ] ChatGPT plugin format support
- [ ] GPTs integration (services as GPT actions)
- [ ] OpenAI Assistants API support
- [ ] Listed in OpenAI plugin store

**Why:** OpenAI has largest AI user base. Tap into that market.

#### Google Gemini
- [ ] Gemini API function calling support
- [ ] Google Cloud integration guide
- [ ] Vertex AI compatibility

#### Microsoft Copilot
- [ ] Copilot Studio integration
- [ ] Azure OpenAI compatibility
- [ ] Teams bot support

**Business value:** Every major AI platform can use go-micro services.

### Community Growth

#### Content Strategy
- [ ] Monthly blog posts (case studies, tutorials)
- [ ] Weekly Twitter/LinkedIn updates
- [ ] YouTube channel (tutorials, demos)
- [ ] Podcast: "Agents & Services" (interview users)

#### Events
- [ ] "AI-Native Microservices" conference (virtual)
- [ ] Monthly community calls
- [ ] Hackathons with prizes
- [ ] Sponsor AI/agent conferences

#### Open Source Program
- [ ] Contributor rewards (swag, recognition)
- [ ] "Agent of the Month" showcase
- [ ] Grant program for open-source agents
- [ ] University partnerships (courses using go-micro)

**Target:** Grow from 5K GitHub stars to 15K+ by end of 2026.

---

## 2027: Platform Dominance

**Theme:** The AI-native microservices platform

### Vision: The Agent Operating System

Go Micro becomes the **platform layer between AI and infrastructure**:

```
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│         AI Agents Layer              │
│  Claude | GPT | Gemini | Custom     │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
                 ↓ MCP
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│       Go Micro Platform              │
│  Gateway | Registry | Auth | Mesh   │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
                 ↓ RPC
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│      Microservices Layer             │
│  Users | Orders | Payments | ...    │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
```

### Features

#### Autonomous Service Discovery
- Agents discover services automatically
- AI-generated service integration code
- Self-healing service mesh
- Zero-config multi-cloud

#### Agent Orchestration
- Multi-agent workflows built-in
- Agent-to-agent communication via MCP
- Conflict resolution when agents disagree
- Collaborative agents working on tasks

#### Intelligent Routing
- ML-based service routing (predict best endpoint)
- A/B testing for agents
- Canary deployments driven by agent feedback
- Auto-scaling based on agent behavior

#### Development Copilot
- AI assistant for service development
- Auto-generate services from requirements
- Suggest optimizations
- Detect bugs before deployment

**Example:**
```bash
$ micro generate "a user authentication service with JWT"

[AI] Analyzing requirements...
[AI] Generating service scaffold...
[AI] Adding JWT auth with RS256...
[AI] Creating database schema...
[AI] Writing tests...
[AI] Service ready: ./auth-service

$ cd auth-service && micro run
[AI] Service running. MCP-enabled. Try asking Claude to create a user!
```

---

## Business Model Deep Dive

### Revenue Streams

#### 1. Go Micro Cloud (SaaS) - Primary Revenue
**Target ARR:** $1M Year 1, $5M Year 2

**Customer Segments:**
- **Startups:** Need MCP but don't want to run infrastructure
- **Mid-size companies:** Building AI features, need reliable MCP gateway
- **Enterprises:** Multi-region, high-availability requirements

**Unit Economics:**
- CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): $500 (content marketing, freemium)
- LTV (Lifetime Value): $12,000 (2-year retention, $500/mo avg)
- LTV:CAC ratio: 24:1 (excellent)

**Growth Strategy:**
- Freemium model (free tier up to 1,000 calls/month)
- Self-service signup
- Upsell to Team/Enterprise based on usage

#### 2. Enterprise Licenses - High Margin
**Target ARR:** $500K Year 1, $3M Year 2

**Value Proposition:**
- On-premise deployment
- Enterprise support
- Custom SLAs
- Training included

**Typical Deal:**
- $25K-100K/year per company
- 10-20 deals/year = $500K-$2M

#### 3. Professional Services - Consulting
**Target Revenue:** $250K Year 1, $750K Year 2

**Services:**
- Agent development (build custom agents)
- Migration consulting (move to go-micro)
- Architecture design
- Training workshops

**Pricing:**
- $200-300/hour
- 1,000-2,500 billable hours/year

#### 4. Marketplace - Platform Revenue
**Target Revenue:** $100K Year 1, $500K Year 2

**Model:**
- Take 15% of paid agent sales
- Host agents for free (community)
- Charge for premium listings

**Growth:**
- 100 agents by end of 2026
- 10% are paid ($10-100/agent)
- Average sale: $50 × 10 agents × 200 customers = $100K gross
- 15% marketplace fee = $15K net

#### Total Revenue Projection
- **Year 1 (2026):** $1.85M
  - SaaS: $1M
  - Enterprise: $500K
  - Services: $250K
  - Marketplace: $100K

- **Year 2 (2027):** $9.25M (5x growth)
  - SaaS: $5M
  - Enterprise: $3M
  - Services: $750K
  - Marketplace: $500K

### Cost Structure

#### Infrastructure (SaaS)
- Cloud hosting: $50K/year (Year 1) → $250K (Year 2)
- CDN/bandwidth: $10K/year → $50K
- Monitoring/logging: $5K/year → $20K

#### Team
**Year 1 (Lean):**
- 2 engineers (full-time): $300K
- 1 DevRel: $120K
- 1 part-time designer: $50K
- Founder (you): sweat equity

**Year 2 (Growth):**
- 5 engineers: $750K
- 2 DevRel: $240K
- 1 PM: $150K
- 1 sales: $150K
- 1 designer: $100K
- Founder salary: $150K

#### Marketing
- Content creation: $30K/year
- Conferences/events: $50K/year
- Ads/SEO: $20K/year

#### Total Costs
- **Year 1:** $635K
- **Year 2:** $1.78M

### Profitability
- **Year 1:** $1.85M - $635K = **$1.21M profit** (65% margin)
- **Year 2:** $9.25M - $1.78M = **$7.47M profit** (81% margin)

**Why such high margins?**
- Software = low marginal cost
- Open-source drives adoption (low CAC)
- Self-service model (low sales cost)
- High customer retention (sticky product)

### Funding Strategy

#### Bootstrap Path (Recommended)
- Start with consulting revenue
- Launch SaaS with freemium model
- Grow organically from profits
- No dilution, full control

#### VC Path (If Scaling Faster)
- Raise $2M seed at $8M pre-money
- Deploy for:
  - 2x engineering team
  - 2x marketing budget
  - Faster enterprise sales
- Target: $10M ARR in 18 months
- Series A: $15M at $50M valuation

**Recommendation:** Bootstrap first, then raise Series A if needed for expansion.

---

## Success Metrics

### Technical KPIs
- [ ] 95%+ of Claude Desktop users can add go-micro services (stdio MCP)
- [ ] 10,000+ services exposed via MCP in production
- [ ] <100ms p99 latency for tool discovery
- [ ] Support 10K concurrent agent requests per gateway
- [ ] 99.9% MCP gateway uptime

### Business KPIs
- [ ] $1.85M ARR by end of 2026
- [ ] 100+ paying SaaS customers
- [ ] 20+ enterprise deals
- [ ] 15K+ GitHub stars
- [ ] 5K+ Discord members
- [ ] 100+ agents in marketplace

### Community KPIs
- [ ] 50+ conference talks mentioning go-micro + MCP
- [ ] 1M+ blog views
- [ ] 100+ community-contributed examples
- [ ] 20+ case studies published

---

## Risk Mitigation

### Technical Risks

**Risk:** MCP protocol changes (Anthropic controls spec)
- **Mitigation:** Stay involved in MCP working group, implement protocol versions

**Risk:** Performance issues at scale
- **Mitigation:** Benchmark early, optimize hot paths, use caching aggressively

**Risk:** Security vulnerabilities in MCP gateway
- **Mitigation:** Security audits, bug bounty program, responsible disclosure

### Business Risks

**Risk:** AI hype dies down
- **Mitigation:** Go Micro still works as regular microservices framework. MCP is additive, not core.

**Risk:** Competitors build MCP support
- **Mitigation:** First-mover advantage, best integration, agent marketplace moat

**Risk:** Cloud providers offer competing solutions
- **Mitigation:** Open source = no vendor lock-in. We're the community choice.

### Market Risks

**Risk:** Enterprises slow to adopt agents
- **Mitigation:** Focus on startups first (faster adoption), build proof points

**Risk:** Different MCP implementations fragment market
- **Mitigation:** Support multiple protocols, be the most compatible

---

## Competitive Landscape

### Direct Competitors
- **Spring Boot** - Java, no MCP support (yet)
- **Express.js** - JavaScript, minimal microservices support
- **gRPC-based frameworks** - No MCP support

**Our advantage:** First-mover in MCP + microservices space.

### Indirect Competitors
- **API Gateway vendors** (Kong, Tyk) - Could add MCP support
- **Service meshes** (Istio, Linkerd) - Focus on ops, not AI

**Our advantage:** Purpose-built for agent integration, not retrofitted.

### Potential Threats
- **AWS/GCP/Azure** building managed MCP gateways
- **Anthropic** launching their own microservices framework

**Defense:**
- Open source = community ownership
- Best DX (developer experience)
- Agent marketplace = network effects

---

## Key Integrations Priority

### Tier 1: Must-Have (Q2 2026)
1. **Claude Desktop** (stdio MCP) - Anthropic's flagship IDE
2. **ChatGPT Plugins** - Largest user base
3. **Kubernetes** - Production deployment
4. **OpenTelemetry** - Observability standard

### Tier 2: Important (Q3 2026)
5. **LangChain** - Popular agent framework
6. **Google Gemini** - Major AI player
7. **Consul/etcd** - Service discovery for enterprise
8. **Vault** - Secrets management

### Tier 3: Nice-to-Have (Q4 2026)
9. **LlamaIndex** - RAG and data
10. **AutoGPT** - Autonomous agents
11. **Microsoft Copilot** - Enterprise AI
12. **AWS Bedrock** - Multi-model platform

---

## Sustainability Principles

### Open Source Sustainability
1. **Core stays free** - Framework, basic MCP, CLI always open source
2. **Community-first** - Features users want, not just what we want to build
3. **Transparent roadmap** - This document is public
4. **Contributor recognition** - Credit and compensation for contributions

### Business Sustainability
1. **Clear value ladder** - Free → SaaS → Enterprise (logical upgrade path)
2. **High margins** - Software business scales without linear costs
3. **Multiple revenue streams** - Don't depend on one customer segment
4. **Profitable by default** - Revenue exceeds costs from Year 1

### Technical Sustainability
1. **Backward compatibility** - No breaking changes in v5.x
2. **Stable interfaces** - MCP gateway API won't change unexpectedly
3. **Performance first** - Fast by default, not through hacks
4. **Documentation** - Every feature is documented

---

## Call to Action

### For Contributors
- Pick a roadmap item
- Open an issue to discuss
- Submit a PR
- Join Discord for coordination

### For Users
- Try MCP with your services
- Share feedback (what works, what doesn't)
- Write case studies
- Star the repo ⭐

### For Companies
- Become a design partner (help shape roadmap)
- Pilot Go Micro Cloud (early access)
- Sponsor development (your priorities get built first)
- Hire us for consulting

### For Investors
- This is a $100M+ opportunity
- Agents need microservices
- We're the first to bridge them
- Contact: [your-email]

---

## Conclusion

**The future of microservices is AI-native.**

API gateways connected apps to services.
MCP connects agents to services.

Go Micro is uniquely positioned to own this space:
- ✅ First MCP integration in a major framework
- ✅ Library-first (not just CLI)
- ✅ Production-ready from day one
- ✅ Clear path to monetization

**The question isn't whether agents will use microservices.**
**The question is: which framework will they use?**

Let's make it Go Micro.

---

**Next Steps (March 2026):**
1. Complete remaining Q2 items: documentation guides, playground polish
2. Begin Q3 infrastructure: standalone gateway binary, Kubernetes operator
3. Write "Building AI-Native Services" guide and MCP security guide
4. Publish case studies and community content
5. Plan Go Micro Cloud beta launch
6. Explore sustainable business model and product strategy

**Questions? Feedback?**
- GitHub Discussions: https://github.com/micro/go-micro/discussions
- Discord: https://discord.gg/WeMU5AGxD

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_This roadmap is a living document. It will evolve based on market feedback, technical discoveries, and community input. Last updated: March 2026._
