An open standard for
AI agent communication.
The Open Agent Protocol (OAP) is a vendor neutral specification for verifiable identity, discovery, invocation, governance, and accountability between autonomous AI agents and the tools they use. Identifiable. Verifiable. Enforceable.
Built around the questions every agent must answer.
OAP separates the seven concerns that platform local APIs entangle. Each plane is independently specified, independently testable, and independently extensible.
Identity
Verifiable agent identity via W3C DIDs. did:web by default, did:key, did:plc, did:ion supported.
Discovery
Intent based action lookup. Manifests describe what an agent or tool does, what it costs, what it risks.
Invocation
Signed request and response envelopes with replay protection, idempotency, and capability checks.
Commercial
Per call pricing, usage based billing, subscriptions, and portable Wallets that settle through any regulated rail without lock in.
Governance
Four layer policy stack: platform, legal and jurisdictional, organization or profession, personal. Every decision recorded.
Accountability
Hash chained receipts. Complete, tamper evident audit trail across the entire invocation tree.
Coordination
Neutral services that anchor trust, revocation, and arbitration. Open source, multi operator, no monopoly.
Publish a manifest. Become discoverable.
Any tool, agent, or service becomes part of the agent web by serving a single signed JSON document at a well known URL. No registration, no platform lock in, no proprietary client.
{
"oap_version": "1.0",
"did": "did:web:tool.example",
"name": "Example Tool",
"conformance_level": "L2",
"actions": [
{
"id": "create_task",
"intent": "create a task with title and due date",
"input_schema": { "$ref": "..." },
"output_schema": { "$ref": "..." },
"risk_class": "low",
"cost": { "currency": "EUR", "amount": "0.001" }
}
],
"endpoints": {
"discover": "https://tool.example/oap/discover",
"invoke": "https://tool.example/oap/invoke",
"audit": "https://tool.example/oap/audit"
}
}37 active RFCs extending the standard.
Drafted from production deployments. Contributions welcome through the public RFC process.
Standards win when implementations exist.
OAP ships with reference servers, JSON Schemas, and SDKs from day one. Adopt the spec, list your implementation, and join the working groups shaping the next generation of agent interoperability.