# ERC-8444: Agentic Resource Discovery (ARD) Onchain ERC-8444

[1 · Discover](/category/discover/)

| ERC-8444: Agentic Resource Discovery (ARD) Onchain |
| --- |
| Category | [Discover](/category/discover/) |
| Governed by | Ethereum EIP/ERC process (Ethereum Magicians discussion + ERCs repository); status Draft |
| Status | Draft Standards Track ERC, created 2026-10-12 |
| Phase | draft |
| Implementation | prototype |
| Adoption | unmeasured |
| Version | Draft, created 2026-10-12 (2026-10-12) |
| Specification | [https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8444](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8444) |
| Found at | /.well-known/ard.json |
| Last checked | 2026-10-20 |
| Freshness | current · checked 2026-10-20 |
| Solves | Let agents discover my API or service, Describe an agent's capabilities, Accept payments from agents |

ERC-8444: Agentic Resource Discovery (ARD) Onchain is an agentic-web standard (on-chain registry) at step 1, Discover, governed by Ethereum EIP/ERC process (Ethereum Magicians discussion + ERCs repository); its own status is "Draft Standards Track ERC, created 2026-10-12" (draft). It answers: How can on-chain skills, task bounties and agent identities be found through ordinary ARD search, without the searcher needing a wallet or an RPC endpoint? Adoption is unmeasured, last verified 2026-10-20.

[Discover](/category/discover/) ERC-8444 puts ARD (Agentic Resource Discovery) on Ethereum [[1]](#ref-1). ARD answers what exists and who says so, rooted in domains; this draft adds the other half, what a resource is worth and how it settles, rooted in addresses [[1]](#ref-1). It defines an on-chain registry of value records. Each record is a valid ARD v0.91 entry bound to an on-chain anchor: a token-bound skill, a token-bound task tender with an escrowed bounty, an address-anchored agent identity (which can point to an ERC-8004 registration file), or an ARD registry endpoint [[1]](#ref-1)[[2]](#ref-2).

## Overview
The bridge to the web is two-way. Gateways that serve these records must be conformant ARD registries, so ordinary ARD clients find on-chain offers with no wallet or RPC endpoint [[1]](#ref-1). A domain endorses an address by listing it under value:controllers (or an entry's value:controller) in its own /.well-known/ard.json, which plain ARD registries ignore [[1]](#ref-1). Authority always sits with the address, never the domain, and records are identified by anchor, with ARD URNs as aliases [[1]](#ref-1). Tenders add a new direction to ARD: an entry whose reader is a supplier looking for work [[1]](#ref-1).

Current state: a Draft created 2026-10-12 by a single author, with reference contracts and test vectors in the ERCs repository [[2]](#ref-2). It is not part of the ARD specification itself, and no deployment was found.

## Discovery and probe

On-chain registry of value records, served by gateways that are conformant ARD registries; a domain acknowledges an address in its own ARD manifest through a top-level value:controllers member or an entry's value:controller · /.well-known/ard.json

```
GET https://{origin}/.well-known/ard.json
parse:     ARD manifest with a top-level value:controllers array (did:pkh identifiers) or entries carrying value:controller; a gateway's manifest must also list at least one application/ai-registry+json entry describing itself
on absent: The domain has not acknowledged any ERC-8444 controller address; its ordinary ARD entries remain valid, and per the ERC every existing ARD entry is already a dormant (level 0) value record
```

Live check run by [the MCP probe](/mcp/server-card): GET /.well-known/ard.json. A domain acknowledges an ERC-8444 controller address with value:controllers or value:controller in its ARD manifest.

```
{
 "path": "/.well-known/ard.json",
 "expect": {
  "text_match": "\"value:controllers?\""
 },
 "note": "A domain acknowledges an ERC-8444 controller address with value:controllers or value:controller in its ARD manifest."
}
```

## History
- 2026-10-20 — added from gap scout 2026-10-20; verified against eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8444 and the ERCs repository file erc-8444.md (Draft, 2026-10-12)

## Instances

No instances recorded yet.

## See also

## References

- ERC-8444 defines an on-chain registry of value records for agentic resources: each record binds an ARD entry to an on-chain anchor (a token-bound executable skill, a token-bound task tender, an address-anchored agent identity, or an ARD registry endpoint) and, via a kind adapter, to the controlling address. Every record is a valid ARD entry and every resolver that serves records is a conformant ARD registry; a domain acknowledges an address in /.well-known/ard.json via value:controllers or value:controller. Status Draft; requires 165, 712 and 1271; created 2026-10-12; author Gary Yang (finchip). — [https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8444](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8444) (2026-10-12) VERIFIED
- The ERCs repository file erc-8444.md reads status: Draft and lists reference assets: an ARDOnchainRegistry.sol kernel, four kind adapters (skill, task, agent, registry), example descriptors, a gateway manifest and test vectors, and vendors the ARD v0.91 entry schema. — [https://github.com/ethereum/ERCs/blob/master/ERCS/erc-8444.md](https://github.com/ethereum/ERCs/blob/master/ERCS/erc-8444.md) (2026-10-12) VERIFIED

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