Open Agentic Schema Framework (OASF) vs Agentic Resource Discovery (ARD)
The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both.
| Open Agentic Schema Framework OASF | Agentic Resource Discovery ARD | |
|---|---|---|
| Lifecycle step | 1 Discover: What is here, and where? | 1 Discover: What is here, and where? |
| Answers | How can an agent's skills, domains, deployment modules and identity be described using a shared, versioned taxonomy so registries can classify and filter it consistently? | Where are an organization's discoverable agentic resources (MCP servers, A2A agents, skills, registries), and how can they be found by search rather than pre-installed one at a time? |
| Governed by | AGNTCY project, published under Linux Foundation-adjacent open governance; source and issue tracker on GitHub, browsable schema at schema.oasf.outshift.com | Authored by individuals at Google, Microsoft and Hugging Face (Junjie Bu, R.V. Guha, Shaun Smith); published as an open GitHub project (ards-project/ard-spec) with no formal standards body yet; contributions acknowledged from AWS, Cisco, Databricks, GitHub, GoDaddy, Nvidia, Salesforce and Snowflake |
| Status (issuer's words) | Active, versioned schema framework | Proposal |
| Version | v1.1.0 (2026-07-10) | v0.91 (2026-08-26) |
| Form / transport | document format | well-known file |
| Found at | none | /.well-known/ard.json |
| Implementation | shipping | multi-implementation — agenticweb.wiki /check/ probe (13/268 origins on /.well-known/ard.json; 43/268 on predecessor /.well-known/ai-catalog.json) |
| Evidence | 2 verified, 1 reported | 2 verified, 2 reported |
| Primary use case | Describe an agent's capabilities | Let agents discover my API or service |
| Last verified | 2026-10-23 (current) | 2026-10-23 (current) |
| Specification | https://schema.oasf.outshift.com/ | https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ards-project/ard-spec/main/spec/ard.md |
When to use which
- Choose Open Agentic Schema Framework when your question is “How can an agent's skills, domains, deployment modules and identity be described using a shared, versioned taxonomy so registries can classify and filter it consistently?” and you accept its maturity: status "Active, versioned schema framework", implementation shipping.
- Choose Agentic Resource Discovery when your question is “Where are an organization's discoverable agentic resources (MCP servers, A2A agents, skills, registries), and how can they be found by search rather than pre-installed one at a time?” and you accept its maturity: status "Proposal", implementation multi-implementation (agenticweb.wiki /check/ probe (13/268 origins on /.well-known/ard.json; 43/268 on predecessor /.well-known/ai-catalog.json)).
Read the full articles
- Open Agentic Schema Framework: How can an agent's skills, domains, deployment modules and identity be described using a shared, versioned taxonomy so registries can classify and filter it consistently?
- Agentic Resource Discovery: Where are an organization's discoverable agentic resources (MCP servers, A2A agents, skills, registries), and how can they be found by search rather than pre-installed one at a time?