AICatalogManifest

JSON Schema for the ai-catalog.json capability manifest, defining how AI artifacts are advertised.

Agentic Resource DiscoveryARDAI CatalogAgent DiscoveryDiscoveryWell-Known URIMedia TypesFederationMCPA2AAgent SkillsStandardsStandards BodySpecificationMachine Readability

Properties

Name Type Description
specVersion string Version of the ai-catalog specification used in this manifest.
host object Information about the catalog publisher or hosting entity.
entries array List of AI agent or capability catalog entries.
View JSON Schema on GitHub

JSON Schema

ai-catalog.schema.json Raw ↑
{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "$id": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ards-project/ard-spec/main/spec/schemas/ai-catalog.schema.json",
  "title": "AICatalogManifest",
  "description": "JSON Schema for the ai-catalog.json capability manifest, defining how AI artifacts are advertised.",
  "type": "object",
  "required": ["specVersion", "entries"],
  "properties": {
    "specVersion": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Version of the ai-catalog specification used in this manifest.",
      "enum": ["1.0"]
    },
    "host": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "Information about the catalog publisher or hosting entity.",
      "required": ["displayName"],
      "properties": {
        "displayName": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Human-readable name of the host."
        },
        "identifier": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Cryptographic or verifiable identifier of the host (e.g. did:web:domain.com)."
        },
        "documentationUrl": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "uri",
          "description": "URL to publisher documentation."
        },
        "logoUrl": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "uri",
          "description": "URL to the publisher's logo image."
        },
        "trustManifest": {
          "$ref": "#/$defs/trustManifest"
        }
      },
      "additionalProperties": false
    },
    "entries": {
      "type": "array",
      "description": "List of AI agent or capability catalog entries.",
      "items": {
        "$ref": "#/$defs/catalogEntry"
      }
    }
  },
  "additionalProperties": false,
  "$defs": {
    "catalogEntry": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "A single AI capability entry within the catalog.",
      "required": ["identifier", "displayName", "type"],
      "oneOf": [
        {
          "required": ["url"],
          "not": { "required": ["data"] }
        },
        {
          "required": ["data"],
          "not": { "required": ["url"] }
        }
      ],
      "properties": {
        "identifier": {
          "type": "string",
          "pattern": "^urn:air:[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+(:[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+)+$",
          "description": "RFC 8141-compliant unique logical URN formatted as: urn:air:<publisher>:<namespace>:<agent-name>"
        },
        "displayName": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Human-friendly display name."
        },
        "type": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "IANA Media Type indicating the specific protocol wrapper or payload structure (e.g. application/mcp-server-card+json)."
        },
        "url": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "uri",
          "description": "HTTP URL reference to retrieve the full artifact document."
        },
        "data": {
          "type": "object",
          "description": "Embedded JSON object containing the complete artifact specification inline."
        },
        "description": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Brief natural-language description of the capability."
        },
        "tags": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": { "type": "string" },
          "description": "Tags or keywords for basic categorizing and filtering."
        },
        "capabilities": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": { "type": "string" },
          "description": "Explicit high-performance indexing tags representing skills, tools, or functions (e.g. ['WeatherTool', 'ForecastTool'])."
        },
        "representativeQueries": {
          "type": "array",
          "minItems": 2,
          "maxItems": 5,
          "items": { "type": "string" },
          "description": "Representative natural-language search queries used for indexing and vector embedding generation."
        },
        "version": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Semantic version of the capability."
        },
        "updatedAt": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "date-time",
          "description": "ISO 8601 timestamp of the last modification."
        },
        "metadata": {
          "type": "object",
          "description": "Arbitrary key-value pairs for custom extensions.",
          "additionalProperties": {
            "type": ["string", "number", "boolean", "null"]
          }
        },
        "trustManifest": {
          "$ref": "#/$defs/trustManifest"
        }
      }
    },
    "trustManifest": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "Zero-trust security, identity, and compliance envelope metadata.",
      "required": ["identity"],
      "properties": {
        "identity": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Globally unique cryptographic workload identifier principal (e.g. SPIFFE ID or DID URI)."
        },
        "identityType": {
          "type": "string",
          "enum": ["spiffe", "did", "https", "other"],
          "description": "Hint representing the cryptographic format of the identity."
        },
        "trustSchema": {
          "$ref": "#/$defs/trustSchema"
        },
        "attestations": {
          "type": "array",
          "description": "List of verifiable claims (SOC 2 audits, compliance statements, HIPAA checks).",
          "items": {
            "type": "object",
            "required": ["type", "uri", "mediaType"],
            "properties": {
              "type": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "Attestation standard type (e.g., SOC2-Type2, HIPAA)."
              },
              "uri": {
                "type": "string",
                "format": "uri",
                "description": "Location of the attestation certificate or document."
              },
              "mediaType": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "Format of the attestation document (e.g. application/pdf, text/html)."
              },
              "digest": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "Cryptographic sha256 digest for document integrity verification."
              }
            },
            "additionalProperties": false
          }
        },
        "provenance": {
          "type": "array",
          "description": "Cryptographic lineage trail of the artifact.",
          "items": {
            "type": "object",
            "required": ["relation", "sourceId"],
            "properties": {
              "relation": {
                "type": "string",
                "enum": ["derivedFrom", "publishedFrom", "copiedFrom"],
                "description": "Lineage relation."
              },
              "sourceId": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "Identifier of the source artifact."
              },
              "sourceDigest": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "Optional sha256 digest for safety."
              }
            },
            "additionalProperties": false
          }
        },
        "signature": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Detached JWS signature generated over the fields of the trustManifest."
        }
      },
      "additionalProperties": false
    },
    "trustSchema": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "Describes the trust framework applied to the artifact.",
      "required": ["identifier", "version"],
      "properties": {
        "identifier": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Unique identifier of the trust schema/framework (e.g. URN)."
        },
        "version": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Version of the trust schema/framework."
        },
        "governanceUri": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "uri",
          "description": "URI pointing to the governance policy document."
        },
        "verificationMethods": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": { "type": "string" },
          "description": "Verification methods supported by the schema (e.g., ['did', 'x509', 'dns-01'])."
        }
      },
      "additionalProperties": false
    }
  }
}