Protocol Discovery · Emerging · Low impact

ARD resource discovery manifest

Cisco/Outshift's Agentic Resource Discovery specification; Lighthouse audits it too.

Emerging
Low impact
Experimental standard

ARD resource discovery manifest — Property, Value
Property	Value
Check id	`ard-manifest`
Dimension	Protocol Discovery (25%)
Tier	Emerging — pool 5 pts
Weight inside tier	1
Impact	Low
Maturity	Experimental — An early convention that may still change shape.
Conditional	No
Publishing skill	`ard`
Standards	ard-spec

What the scanner requests

/.well-known/ard.json
/.well-known/agent-resources.json
/.well-known/ai-catalog.json
/ard.json

What is measured

The scanner GETs /.well-known/ard.json, /.well-known/agent-resources.json, /.well-known/ai-catalog.json and /ard.json and parses the first 200 response. It passes when the document is an ARD manifest: an entries array whose items each carry the ARD terms identifier, displayName and type, plus exactly one of url or data. It partially passes when entries exist but lack identifier or type, or carry both url and data, which the specification forbids.

Reproduce it yourself

You do not have to take our word for any of this. Run the same measurement against your own domain:

              DOMAIN=https://your-domain.example
for p in /.well-known/ard.json /.well-known/agent-resources.json /.well-known/ai-catalog.json /ard.json; do printf '%s -> ' "$p"; curl -sS "$DOMAIN$p" | jq -c '[.entries[]? | {identifier,displayName,type,url}]' 2>/dev/null || echo "missing or not JSON"; done

The fix

This is the artifact to ship. It is the complete change, not a description of one.

              {
  "entries": [
    {
      "identifier": "urn:air:your-domain.example:server:support",
      "displayName": "Example Support MCP Server",
      "type": "application/mcp-server-card+json",
      "url": "https://your-domain.example/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json",
      "description": "Tools for order status and returns.",
      "representativeQueries": ["where is order 12345"]
    },
    {
      "identifier": "urn:air:your-domain.example:agent:support",
      "displayName": "Example Support Agent",
      "type": "application/a2a-agent-card+json",
      "url": "https://your-domain.example/.well-known/agent-card.json",
      "description": "Agent-to-agent endpoint for support conversations."
    }
  ]
}

Standards referenced

ard-spec

Related checks

Related checks — Check, Tier, Impact, Same skill
Check	Tier	Impact	Same skill
`mcp-card` — MCP server card	Essential	High	—
`openapi` — OpenAPI definition	Essential	High	—
`oauth-discovery` — OAuth discovery documents	Essential	High	—
`api-catalog` — API catalog	Recommended	Medium	—
`agent-skills` — Agent Skills declaration	Recommended	Medium	—
`a2a-card` — A2A agent card	Recommended	Medium	—
`a2a-signed` — Cryptographically signed agent card	Emerging	Medium	—
`auth-md` — /auth.md agent authentication guide	Emerging	Medium	—