{
 "acronym": "ADS",
 "adoption": {
  "by": null,
  "level": "unmeasured",
  "probe_run": null
 },
 "aliases": [
  "AGNTCY Directory",
  "dir"
 ],
 "analog": "a distributed package registry (like npm or an OCI container registry) combined with an LDAP-style directory, applied to agents",
 "collisions": [
  "ADS is a generic acronym also used for Active Directory Services and Alternate Data Streams; within the agentic space, unrelated to ARDS/ARD"
 ],
 "discovery": {
  "mechanism": "Content-addressed OCI-artifact storage plus a DHT for global skill-based discovery; a host-local AI Finder service exposes the same records over gRPC and a REST gateway",
  "path": "/.well-known/ai-catalog.json (host-local AI Finder); GET /v1/agents (REST API)"
 },
 "dispute": null,
 "evidence": [
  {
   "claim": "draft-mp-agntcy-ads-02 (6 July 2026) defines ADS as a distributed directory service storing agent metadata as content-addressed OCI artifacts, discoverable via a DHT keyed on a skill taxonomy, and exposes an AI Finder service over gRPC and REST (GET /v1/agents, GET /v1/agents/{cid}, GET /v1/agents/{cid}/export, GET /.well-known/ai-catalog.json) that is explicitly interoperable with the AI Catalog / ARD ecosystem.",
   "date": "2026-07-06",
   "label": "VERIFIED",
   "url": "https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-mp-agntcy-ads-02"
  },
  {
   "claim": "AGNTCY published a technical note describing AI Catalog interoperability layered over its directory service.",
   "date": "2026-06-17",
   "label": "REPORTED",
   "url": "https://blogs.agntcy.org/technical/2026/06/17/ai-catalog-over-directory.html"
  }
 ],
 "form": "endpoint",
 "governance": "AGNTCY project (github.com/agntcy/dir); submitted as an individual IETF Internet-Draft (draft-mp-agntcy-ads)",
 "group": null,
 "history": [
  {
   "date": "2026-09-05",
   "note": "seeded from Exa Agent research run"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-06",
   "note": "verified against draft-mp-agntcy-ads-02 spec text via datatracker.ietf.org"
  }
 ],
 "id": "ads",
 "implementation": "shipping",
 "last_verified": "2026-09-06",
 "name": "Agent Directory Service",
 "native_status": "Internet-Draft; work in progress; canonical spec tracked at spec.dir.agntcy.org",
 "origin": {
  "date": "2026-07-06",
  "org": "AGNTCY (Cisco Outshift-led project, now under the Linux Foundation)"
 },
 "part_of": null,
 "parties": [
  "agent-site",
  "agent-registry"
 ],
 "phase": "draft",
 "probe": {
  "method": "GET",
  "on_absent": "Host does not run an AGNTCY ADS AI Finder REST gateway; the record may still exist in the distributed hash table without a host-local HTTP surface",
  "parse": "200 response is a paginated JSON list of CatalogEntry records; a companion GET /.well-known/ai-catalog.json returns the host's WellKnownCatalog document",
  "path": "https://{origin}/v1/agents"
 },
 "question": "Given a required skill, which agents provide it, where are they, and how can I fetch a verifiable, content-addressed record describing them?",
 "scope": "general",
 "spec_url": "https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-mp-agntcy-ads-02",
 "step": "discover",
 "summary_md": "The Agent Directory Service (ADS) is a distributed directory for storing and discovering metadata about AI agent applications, structured as records that can be searched by the skills they claim to provide [1]. It originates from AGNTCY (an Outshift/Cisco-led project now positioned under the Linux Foundation) and is written up as an individual IETF Internet-Draft, revision -02, dated 6 July 2026, with its living canonical text tracked outside the IETF at spec.dir.agntcy.org and source at github.com/agntcy/dir [1].\n\nADS solves agent discovery at scale using content-addressed storage: each agent record is packaged as an OCI-compliant artifact (reusing container-registry infrastructure and its manifest/layer model) and identified by a content ID (CID) derived from a cryptographic digest [1]. Records are indexed into a distributed hash table keyed by a multi-level skill taxonomy (plus domain and module taxonomies), so a query for a capability resolves to the CIDs and peer IDs of agents that claim it, without a central registry [1]. Distribution between directory nodes happens over the OCI protocol's peer-to-peer synchronization [1].\n\nDistinct from the DHT-based global layer, ADS also runs a host-local \"AI Finder\" service, exposed over gRPC and, via a gateway, as a REST API: `GET /v1/agents` lists catalog entries with deterministic pagination, `GET /v1/agents/{cid}` retrieves one entry, `GET /v1/agents/{cid}/export` renders a stored OASF record into other ecosystems' native formats (a2a, agent-skill, mcp-ghcopilot), and `GET /.well-known/ai-catalog.json` serves the host's catalog document at the well-known URI this project explicitly designed to interoperate with the ARD/AI Catalog ecosystem [1]. The export operation is described as ADS's \"heterogeneity bridge\" -- one canonical OASF record materialized into several downstream protocols' native card formats without changing its underlying storage representation [1].\n\nADS does not define its own agent capability schema from scratch; it uses the separately-maintained Open Agentic Schema Framework (OASF, see `oasf`) as its native record format, and treats other ecosystems' formats (A2A cards, MCP server descriptors) as export targets rather than first-class stored types [1].\n\nCurrent state: the draft was published 6 July 2026 and expires 7 January 2027; it explicitly states it is \"to be removed before publishing as an RFC,\" i.e. still a working draft rather than a finished document [1]. Unlike several other records on this map, this one has a concrete, buildable open-source implementation (github.com/agntcy/dir) referenced directly from the spec text, which supports recording implementation as \"shipping\" -- but no independent count of production deployments or registered agents was located, so adoption remains unmeasured.\n\nWhat is disputed or unknown: how ADS's DHT-based global layer interacts in practice with a search-first, centralized-registry model like ARD's -- the \"AI Catalog Interoperability\" section of the draft describes projection and export, but whether third parties beyond AGNTCY's own tooling actually consume ADS-hosted records via the ai-catalog.json path was not independently verified here.",
 "track": "linux-foundation",
 "version": {
  "date": "2026-07-06",
  "label": "draft-mp-agntcy-ads-02"
 },
 "url": "https://agenticweb.wiki/protocols/ads/",
 "category": "discover",
 "type": "protocol"
}