What is the Agent Directory Service?
The Agent Directory Service (ADS) is the discovery layer of agents, an open source project under the Linux Foundation building the Internet of Agents. It gives agent builders a place to publish structured metadata about their agents and lets others find them by capability, trust signals, and federation policy—not by vendor or framework.
Directory records use the OASF schema, discovery follows a hierarchical skill taxonomy, and independent directory nodes interconnect through content routing and DHT-based federation.
Why use the Agent Directory Service
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Capability-Based Discovery
Publish and find agents by structured skills and attributes using OASF taxonomies and content routing across a distributed network of directory servers.
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Federated Architecture
Interconnect directory instances through DHT-based content routing, enabling decentralized discovery without a single central registry.
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Verifiable Claims
Cryptographic integrity and provenance for directory records help users make informed decisions about agent selection and trust.
Get started with ADS
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Quickstart
Run a local Directory instance in minutes.
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Read the Introduction
Understand core concepts, architecture, and features.
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Dive into the Specification
Explore the ADS Internet Draft and protocol definition.
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SDKs and Tools
Client libraries, CLI, and API references.
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Deploy
Local, Kubernetes, and production deployment guides.
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Source Code
Reference implementation and related repositories.
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Join the Federation Testbed
We invite organizations, researchers, and developers to join the Agent Directory Testbed—a decentralized, open staging environment for next-generation AI agent discovery and secure registry federation.
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Linux Foundation Press Release
Read how the Linux Foundation welcomed the AGNTCY project to standardize open multi-agent system infrastructure and break down AI agent silos.