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Agent Name Service v2 (ANS)

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This page is about the Agent Name Service in draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2, a DNS-anchored identity layer for AI agents, and the OWASP version 1 work it replaces [5][9]. It is not DNS-AID, whose SVCB records ANS reuses for discovery [5]; not AID or ARD, which GoDaddy names as separate discovery options [22][31]; and not the unrelated "ANS" naming layer of the AGTP drafts [12]. A companion draft proposes an IANA registry for ANS protocol identifiers [11].

Overview

The Agent Name Service gives an AI agent a versioned name rooted in a DNS domain its owner controls, and lets anyone check who stands behind the agent and which release they are talking to [5]. It started as an OWASP GenAI Security Project paper and an individual Internet-Draft, and the current draft is led by a GoDaddy engineer with the original authors [9][5]. It reuses DNS, DNSSEC, the Web PKI and an append-only transparency log rather than adding a new root of trust [5]. GoDaddy runs the main registry and log, and the Linux Foundation has announced its intent to host the project [23][21]. No IETF working group has adopted the draft [1].

How it works

Who uses it

Deployments seen on 2026-10-29 in the GoDaddy log, live DNS, or the operator's own release.

Who reads it

Statements dated as published. "GoDaddy says" marks GoDaddy's description of a partner.

Recent coverage

See also

References

  1. IETF Datatracker, draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2 document page (dates shown in US Pacific time), checked 2026-10-29: "This I-D is not endorsed by the IETF and has no formal standing in the IETF standards process." "Document Type Active Internet-Draft (individual) Authors Scott Courtney, Vineeth Sai Narajala, Ken Huang, Idan Habler, Akram Sheriff Last updated 2026-10-26 Replaces draft-narajala-ans RFC stream (None) Intended RFC status (None)" "Stream state (No stream defined)" — https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2/
  2. IETF Datatracker API, draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2 document record (UTC), checked 2026-10-29: ""rev": "02"" ""expires": "2027-04-29T14:58:32Z"" ""stream": null" ""title": "Agent Name Service v2 (ANS): A Domain-Anchored Identity Layer for Autonomous AI Agents"" — https://datatracker.ietf.org/api/v1/doc/document/draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2/?format=json
  3. IETF Datatracker API, draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2 revision events (UTC), checked 2026-10-29: ""rev": "02"" ""time": "2026-10-26T14:58:32Z"" ""time": "2026-04-13T20:18:43Z"" ""time": "2026-04-13T20:05:40Z"" — https://datatracker.ietf.org/api/v1/doc/newrevisiondocevent/?doc__name=draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2&format=json&limit=50
  4. IETF Datatracker API, draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2 history events (UTC), checked 2026-10-29: ""desc": "Document has expired"" ""time": "2026-10-15T07:09:06Z"" ""desc": "This document now replaces <b>draft-narajala-ans</b> instead of None"" ""time": "2026-04-15T20:29:08Z"" — https://datatracker.ietf.org/api/v1/doc/docevent/?doc__name=draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2&format=json&limit=100
  5. S. Courtney, V. S. Narajala, K. Huang, I. Habler and A. Sheriff, Agent Name Service v2 (ANS): A Domain-Anchored Identity Layer for Autonomous AI Agents, draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2-02, individual Internet-Draft, 26 October 2026, checked 2026-10-29: "Independent Submission S. Courtney Internet-Draft GoDaddy Intended status: Informational V. S. Narajala Expires: 29 April 2027 OWASP K. Huang DistributedApps.ai I. Habler OWASP A. Sheriff Cisco Systems 26 October 2026" "ANS began as the Agent Name Service specification by Huang, Narajala, Habler, and Sheriff [ANSv1], which Vineeth Narajala brought to the IETF as [I-D.narajala-ans]." "the DNS-AID authors develop that draft separately in the IETF DNSOP working group." "Beyond its opt-in TXT discovery format, ANS defines one DNS record of its own, the "_ans-badge" TXT record." "The ANS project develops the ANS-0 through ANS-6 specifications, the reference registry, transparency log, verifier, JSON Schemas, SDKs, and CLI as open source at https://github.com/agentnameservice." "This document does not define the wire format of discovery records (DNS-AID does), or the application protocols agents speak (MCP, A2A, and others)." "ANS v2 composes systems the Internet already runs (the DNS with DNSSEC; the Web PKI, with DANE where operators publish it; and an append-only transparency log) and introduces no new root of trust." "Under the current specifications, a new version is a new registration and a new log entry, so a verifier can pin an agent to a specific release." ""ans://v{version}.{agentHost}", for example "ans://v1.4.2.travel.example.com"." "ANS-3 organizes discovery records into named profiles. The registrant chooses the profiles for each registration; ANS_DNSAID is the default." "ANS_TXT (opt-in): One "_ans" TXT record for each endpoint plus an HTTPS record at the agentHost" "Badge record: A TXT record at "_ans-badge.{agentHost}" with the value "v=ans-badge1; version=v{version}; url={badgeURL}", where badgeURL is the TL's public record for the registration." "DANE record (optional):" "ANS-3 requires the discovery and trust records to sit in public DNS zones that any third party can query; a private zone or proprietary lookup channel does not conform." "on the badge tier, the verifier queries the TL when it connects; on the SCITT tier, the verifier checks a receipt and a status token locally with no network call per request." "Method A presents the Identity Certificate in the mutual-TLS handshake; Method B sends a DPoP proof [RFC9449] in an HTTP header, which survives proxies and gateways that terminate TLS." "Retitled from "Trust Layer" to "Identity Layer": ANS identifies an agent; whether to trust it is the relying party's decision, which a separate scoring service can inform." "Adopted DNS-AID SVCB records as the default discovery format; the "_ans" TXT format is now an opt-in profile." "This document has no IANA actions at this time." — https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2-02.txt
  6. draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2-01 (previous revision), 13 April 2026, checked 2026-10-29: "Three verification tiers -- Bronze (PKI), Silver (PKI + DANE), and Gold (PKI + DANE + Transparency Log) -- let clients choose assurance levels appropriate to transaction risk." — https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-narajala-courtney-ansv2-01.txt
  7. IETF Datatracker API, draft-narajala-ans revision events (UTC), checked 2026-10-29: ""rev": "00"" ""time": "2025-05-16T16:44:18Z"" — https://datatracker.ietf.org/api/v1/doc/newrevisiondocevent/?doc__name=draft-narajala-ans&format=json&limit=50
  8. K. Huang, V. S. Narajala, I. Habler and A. Sheriff, Agent Name Service (ANS), draft-narajala-ans-00, May 2025, checked 2026-10-29: "Independent Submission K. Huang Internet-Draft DistributedApps.ai Intended status: Experimental V.S. Narajala Expires: 17 November 2025 Amazon Web Services I. Habler Intuit A. Sheriff Cisco Systems May 2025" "ANS provides a protocol-agnostic registry mechanism that leverages Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificates for verifiable agent identity and trust." — https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-narajala-ans-00.txt
  9. OWASP GenAI Security Project, Agent Name Service (ANS) for Secure Al Agent Discovery v1.0, 2025-05-14, checked 2026-10-29: "Agent Name Service (ANS) for Secure Al Agent Discovery v1.0 May 14, 2025" "The Agent Name Service (ANS), developed under the OWASP GenAI Security Project – Agentic Security Initiative, introduces a secure, DNS-inspired framework for AI agent discovery." — https://genai.owasp.org/resource/agent-name-service-ans-for-secure-al-agent-discovery-v1-0/
  10. K. Huang, V. S. Narajala, I. Habler and A. Sheriff, arXiv:2505.10609, checked 2026-10-29: "[Submitted on 15 May 2025]" "Authors: Ken Huang, Vineeth Sai Narajala, Idan Habler, Akram Sheriff" "Supported and endorsed by OWASP GenAI ASI Project" — https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.10609
  11. An IANA Registry for Agent Name Service (ANS) Protocol Identifiers, draft-dimare-ans-protocol-registry-00, individual Internet-Draft, checked 2026-10-29: "This document requests that IANA create an "ANS Protocol Identifiers" registry, registers the values already in use, and registers "pay" as the protocol identifier for agent payment." — https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-dimare-ans-protocol-registry-00.txt
  12. C. Hood, draft-hood-agtp-discovery-01 (an unrelated "ANS" for the AGTP protocol), checked 2026-10-29: "ANS is the naming layer for AGTP, architecturally analogous to DNS for the web." — https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-hood-agtp-discovery-01
  13. GitHub API, agentnameservice organization record (UTC), checked 2026-10-29: ""created_at": "2026-05-08T15:58:46Z"" ""public_repos": 12" — https://api.github.com/orgs/agentnameservice
  14. GitHub API, agentnameservice/ans-registry repository record (UTC; the old address godaddy/ans-registry now redirects here), checked 2026-10-29: ""created_at": "2025-11-19T00:01:15Z"" ""description": "An Agent Name Service (ANS) registry, based on https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-narajala-ans-00"" — https://api.github.com/repos/agentnameservice/ans-registry
  15. agentnameservice/ans-registry, README.md, checked 2026-10-29: "It anchors every agent's identity to a domain name whose ownership has been verified" "The ANS protocol is split across seven layered specifications under [`spec/`](spec/):" — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agentnameservice/ans-registry/main/README.md
  16. agentnameservice/ans, README.md, checked 2026-10-29: "`ans` is an open-source implementation of the Agent Name Service" "Identity certificates signed by a private CA for mTLS between agents" — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agentnameservice/ans/main/README.md
  17. GitHub API, agentnameservice/ans releases (UTC), checked 2026-10-29: ""tag_name": "v0.1.6"" ""published_at": "2026-06-26T22:03:56Z"" ""tag_name": "v0.1.1"" ""published_at": "2026-05-07T22:57:57Z"" — https://api.github.com/repos/agentnameservice/ans/releases
  18. agentnameservice organization profile README, checked 2026-10-29: "A registry and transparency log for discovering and verifying AI agents by name." — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agentnameservice/.github/main/profile/README.md
  19. agentnameservice/ans-registry, spec/ans-3-dns-publication.md, checked 2026-10-29: "| Badge | `_ans-badge.{agentHost}` | TXT |" — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agentnameservice/ans-registry/main/spec/ans-3-dns-publication.md
  20. GitHub API, ruvnet/Agent-Name-Service repository record (UTC), checked 2026-10-29: ""description": "Agent Name Service (ANS) Protocol, introduced by the OWASP GenAI Security Project, is a foundational framework designed to facilitate secure discovery and interaction among AI agents. "" ""created_at": "2025-05-15T17:45:15Z"" — https://api.github.com/repos/ruvnet/Agent-Name-Service
  21. Linux Foundation, Linux Foundation Announces Intent to Launch Agent Name Service to Establish Trusted Identity Infrastructure for AI Agents, 2026-06-23, checked 2026-10-29: "SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2026 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the intent to launch the Agent Name Service (ANS), a new open standard designed to provide trusted identity, verification, and discovery for AI agents operating across the internet." "More information, including technical repositories and contribution opportunities, will be available through the Agent Name Service GitHub organization at https://github.com/agentnameservice." "Cloudflare is fully committed to supporting this open standard to ensure the agentic web is fast, secure, and built on a shared foundation of trust." – Dane Knecht, Chief Technology Officer, Cloudflare" "ANS defines a common standard for identity and verification, so developers can move faster with trust, interoperability, and security built in from the start." – Srini Tallapragada, President and Chief Engineering & Customer Success Officer, Salesforce, Inc." "That is why Cisco is contributing to open standards efforts at the IETF and the Linux Foundation, alongside partners across the industry" "That is the most efficient and responsible path forward: one shared specification, built on DNS, open to every organization and beholden to none." – Wei Chen, Chief Legal Office & Executive Vice President of Regulatory Strategy, Infoblox" — https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-announces-intent-to-launch-agent-name-service-to-establish-trusted-identity-infrastructure-for-ai-agents
  22. ansinfo.ai, home page (run by GoDaddy), checked 2026-10-29: "Standards Convergence in Progress Infoblox (DNS-AID), GoDaddy (ANS), and Nemethi (AID) are actively collaborating on a shared DNS profile under the _ag label." "License © 2026 GoDaddy." — https://ansinfo.ai/
  23. GoDaddy, Agent Identity registry page, checked 2026-10-29: "Built on the Linux Foundation ANS v2 open standard" "Agent Identity is GoDaddy's implementation of this open standard." "GoDaddy is a Gold Member of the Agentic AI Foundation (part of The Linux Foundation), which governs open standards for the agentic AI ecosystem." "Server certificates are signed by the GoDaddy public CA; identity certificates are signed by the ANS private CA." "Log entries are append-only, verifiable by any party, tamper-evident, and publicly auditable at transparency.ans.godaddy.com." "Publish Agent (Coming Soon) Manage Agents (Coming Soon)" — https://www.godaddy.com/en/ans
  24. GoDaddy ANS transparency log, checkpoint endpoint (JSON), checked 2026-10-29: ""checkpointFormat":"c2sp-tlog/v1"" ""originName":"transparency.ans.godaddy.com"" — https://transparency.ans.godaddy.com/v1/log/checkpoint
  25. GoDaddy ANS transparency log, entry tile 0 (first 256 entries, January to February 2026; binary, quoted as stored), checked 2026-10-29: ""agent":{"host":"concise.koopman.me","name":"Concise Rewrite","version":"v1.0.0"}" ""_ra-badge.concise.koopman.me":"v=ra-badge1; url=https://transparency.ans.godaddy.com/v1/agents/cb0f6ca3-b9a9-408f-8e0b-8605fa438773"" — https://transparency.ans.godaddy.com/tile/entries/000
  26. GoDaddy ANS transparency log, entry tile 1750 (entries logged 2026-10-28; binary, quoted as stored), checked 2026-10-29: ""_ans-badge.support-e4c874ed-305c-4f6e-bc10-579d7684160d.helpagent.club":"v=ans-badge1; version=v1.0.0; url=https://transparency.ans.godaddy.com/v1/agents/a9ed929d-537b-421e-81ee-1e339153e83f"" ""_ans.support-e4c874ed-305c-4f6e-bc10-579d7684160d.helpagent.club":"v=ans1; version=v1.0.0; p=a2a; mode=direct; url=https://support-e4c874ed-305c-4f6e-bc10-579d7684160d.helpagent.club/a2a"" ""name":"Vetus Carta Rare Maps Customer Support Agent"" — https://transparency.ans.godaddy.com/tile/entries/1750
  27. GoDaddy and Infoblox, Infoblox and GoDaddy Support Open Standards for AI Agent Discovery, Identity and Verification, 2026-05-14, checked 2026-10-29: "GoDaddy is a co-author of the ANS IETF draft and a significant contributor to its open-source implementation." "Put simply: ANS answers who an agent is, and DNS-AID helps others find what it can do." — https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/news-releases/press-release-details/2026/Infoblox-and-GoDaddy-Support-Open-Standards-for-AI-Agent-Discovery-Identity-and-Verification-2026-0acKMntvOC/default.aspx
  28. GoDaddy, GoDaddy ANS Integrates with Salesforce's MuleSoft Agent Fabric, 2026-02-19, checked 2026-10-29: "MuleSoft's Agent Scanners pull verified agents from ANS into MuleSoft Agent Registry, where they appear for review and approval before accessing enterprise systems." — https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/news-releases/press-release-details/2026/GoDaddy-ANS-Integrates-with-Salesforces-MuleSoft-Agent-Fabric/default.aspx
  29. GoDaddy, GoDaddy and LegalZoom Partner to Support Open Agentic Web, 2026-04-02, checked 2026-10-29: "In support of that blueprint, LegalZoom registered its first AI agent, leveraging GoDaddy ANS." — https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/news-releases/press-release-details/2026/GoDaddy-and-LegalZoom-Partner-to-Support-Open-Agentic-Web/default.aspx
  30. Cloudflare, Cloudflare and GoDaddy Partner to Help Enable an Open Agentic Web, 2026-04-07, checked 2026-10-29: "Cloudflare is committed to a transparent agentic web and supports ANS and the development of a broad range of verifiable agent identity standards." "By supporting ANS and Web Bot Auth, Cloudflare and GoDaddy are providing the verifiable identity layer needed for a functional digital marketplace." — https://www.cloudflare.com/press/press-releases/2026/cloudflare-and-godaddy-partner-to-help-enable-an-open-agentic-web/
  31. GoDaddy, GoDaddy, Infoblox, Google and Cloudflare Demonstrate Secure AI Agent Transactions Across Platforms, 2026-10-14, checked 2026-10-29: "Establishes a registered identity that anyone can verify from public evidence, not just a certificate the agent presents in a single session (the open Agent Name Service standard, ANS, alongside the Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone (SPIFFE) for the identity of each running instance)." "Leverages Agent Resources Discovery (ARD) for resource and capability discovery or DNS-AID for DNS-based lookup, to find which agents exist and where they run." "The mock buyer agent ran on Amazon Web Services, the seller agent was hosted on Cloudflare Workers, and the mandate authority and the verifier agent ran on Google." — https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/news-releases/press-release-details/2026/GoDaddy-Infoblox-Google-and-Cloudflare-Demonstrate-Secure-AI-Agent-Transactions-Across-Platforms/default.aspx
  32. GoDaddy, GoDaddy advances trusted AI agent identity with ANS API and Standards site, 2025-11-20, checked 2026-10-29: "ANS API is live for builders." — https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/news-releases/press-release-details/2025/GoDaddy-advances-trusted-AI-agent-identity-with-ANS-API-and-Standards-site/default.aspx
  33. GoDaddy Developers changelog, ANS scopes for Personal Access Tokens, 2026-10-15, checked 2026-10-29: "You can now generate a Personal Access Token (PAT) with Agent Name Service (ANS) scopes and use it to call the ANS API, so you can register and manage agents with a scoped, revocable credential instead of a classic developer key." — https://developer.godaddy.com/en/docs/api-users/changelog/ans-pat-scopes
  34. Frederic Lardinois, The New Stack, Can DNS become the basis for AI agent identity?, 2026-06-23, checked 2026-10-29: "The Linux Foundation's new Agent Name Service wants to give AI agents verifiable identities by piggybacking on DNS but the trust hierarchy it inherits is old, fragile, and being pushed hardest by the domain registrars who'd profit most from it." — https://thenewstack.io/can-dns-become-the-basis-for-ai-agent-identity/
  35. Alyx MacQueen, diginomica, Agent identity gets a DNS anchor – how GoDaddy built the Agent Name Service, then gave it to the Linux Foundation, 2026-07-14, checked 2026-10-29: "We've got our implementation and integration with Salesforce, and through their MuleSoft division, agents are being registered in ANS into the DNS as we speak." "The named backers are Cloudflare, Cisco, Salesforce, Infoblox and GoDaddy." — https://diginomica.com/agent-identity-gets-dns-anchor-how-godaddy-built-agent-name-service-then-gave-it-linux-foundation
  36. Brandon Vigliarolo, The Register, Cloudflare, GoDaddy team up to curb AI bot brigades, 2026-04-07, checked 2026-10-29: "ANS was ultimately built by GoDaddy, we note, and is available on GitHub." — https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/04/07/cloudflare-godaddy-team-up-to-curb-ai-bot-brigades/5224477

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