# Personal Agent Protocol (Poppy) vs The Agent Identity Document: A Hosted, Accountable Public Record for AI Agents

They sit at the same step and overlap in purpose; the fields above are the basis for choosing.

[2 Identify](/category/identify/) [Personal Agent Protocol (Poppy)](/protocols/personal-agent-protocol/) · [2 Identify](/category/identify/) [The Agent Identity Document: A Hosted, Accountable Public Record for AI Agents](/protocols/agent-identity-document/)

|  | [Personal Agent Protocol (Poppy)](/protocols/personal-agent-protocol/) Poppy | [The Agent Identity Document: A Hosted, Accountable Public Record for AI Agents](/protocols/agent-identity-document/) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lifecycle step | 2 Identify: Who is this agent? Who is this site? | 2 Identify: Who is this agent? Who is this site? |
| Answers | How does a customer's personal agent identify itself to a business and show it has the customer's permission to act? | How can a counterparty look up who an agent is, who is accountable for it, what the provider has checked about its operator, and whether it has been withdrawn, when the operator has no domain or PKI of their own? |
| Governed by | Sierra and Meta with 35+ design partners (Apache-2.0); no standards body named | Individual Internet-Draft by F. Alla; not adopted by an IETF working group. Intended status Informational. |
| Status (issuer's words) | Version 0.1 published 2026-10-09; Draft 0.2 in progress | Internet-Draft, Intended Status: Informational; expires 13 April 2027 |
| Version | 0.1 (Draft 0.2 in progress) (2026-10-09) | draft-alla-agent-identity-document-01 (2026-10-10) |
| Form / transport | endpoint | well-known file |
| Found at | /.well-known/poppy.json | /.well-known/agent-identity.json |
| Implementation | prototype | shipping |
| Evidence | 2 verified | 1 reported |
| Primary use case | Prove an agent's identity | Prove an agent's identity |
| Last verified | 2026-10-23 (current) | 2026-10-23 (current) |
| Specification | [https://personalagentprotocol.org/docs/0.1/spec](https://personalagentprotocol.org/docs/0.1/spec) | [https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-alla-agent-identity-document-01](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-alla-agent-identity-document-01) |

## When to use which

- Choose Personal Agent Protocol (Poppy) when your question is “How does a customer's personal agent identify itself to a business and show it has the customer's permission to act?” and you accept its maturity: status "Version 0.1 published 2026-10-09; Draft 0.2 in progress", implementation prototype.
- Choose The Agent Identity Document: A Hosted, Accountable Public Record for AI Agents when your question is “How can a counterparty look up who an agent is, who is accountable for it, what the provider has checked about its operator, and whether it has been withdrawn, when the operator has no domain or PKI of their own?” and you accept its maturity: status "Internet-Draft, Intended Status: Informational; expires 13 April 2027", implementation shipping.

Guidance is derived from the two records (question, status, implementation, prerequisites, pairings), not from opinion. Each record's page carries its numbered references.

## Read the full articles

- [Personal Agent Protocol (Poppy)](/protocols/personal-agent-protocol/): How does a customer's personal agent identify itself to a business and show it has the customer's permission to act?
- [The Agent Identity Document: A Hosted, Accountable Public Record for AI Agents](/protocols/agent-identity-document/): How can a counterparty look up who an agent is, who is accountable for it, what the provider has checked about its operator, and whether it has been withdrawn, when the operator has no domain or PKI of their own?

Ask the MCP server to compare any two: the compare-protocols prompt, or get on both ids. [Connect](/connect/).

[personal-agent-protocol.json](/data/protocols/personal-agent-protocol.json) · [agent-identity-document.json](/data/protocols/agent-identity-document.json) · [Markdown](/compare/personal-agent-protocol-vs-agent-identity-document/index.md)