Agent Manifest Protocol (AMP) README

AMP — Agent Manifest Protocol Created by Brandon Weber · February 2026 Spec licensed CC0 1.0 · Code licensed MIT

AgentManifest

Open protocol and registry for the AI agent data economy

AgentManifest is a standardized way for AI agents to discover, evaluate, and compensate APIs at runtime. It's json.org meets npm meets Stripe for agent-accessible data sources.

The Problem

AI agents need data to do useful work in the world. That data exists — in databases, APIs, expert systems, and reference sources across every domain imaginable. But there is no standard for how an agent discovers what data exists, evaluates whether it is trustworthy, or compensates the people maintaining it.

The result is a three-way deadlock:

• Providers can't be found or paid
• Developers hardcode a handful of known APIs
• Agents hallucinate the gaps

The Solution

AgentManifest provides three components that solve this:

1. The Spec

An open standard defining what a compliant agent-ready API must declare about itself. Every API serves a manifest at /.well-known/agent-manifest.json that describes:

• What it knows and what problems it solves
• Its endpoints and how agents should use them
• Pricing, authentication, and reliability information
• Guidance specifically written for AI agents

2. The Validator

A tool that checks APIs against the spec and issues verification tokens. Available as:

• An npm library for programmatic validation
• A CLI tool for local development
• A web API for automated registry checks

2b. MCP Server (amp-mcp/)

Official Model Context Protocol server for AMP — tools to fetch manifests, validate JSON Schema, and check actions against declared constraints. Stdio for Cursor/Claude; SSE HTTP for a hosted hub. See amp-mcp/README.md.

npx @agentmanifest/mcp-server          # stdio
npx @agentmanifest/mcp-server-http     # SSE on PORT (default 8787)

3. The Registry

A public, queryable index of verified APIs that agents can use to discover data sources at runtime. Think of it as the npm registry, but for agent-accessible data APIs.

Quickstart: Validate an Existing API in 5 Minutes

# Install the validator
npm install -g @agentmanifest/cli

# Validate an API
amp validate https://bakebase.agent-manifest.com

# If your API passes validation, it can be listed in the registry

That's it. If your API serves a valid manifest at /.well-known/agent-manifest.json, you're AgentManifest-compliant.

The Manifest Format

Every compliant API must serve this at /.well-known/agent-manifest.json:

{
  "spec_version": "agentmanifest-0.2",
  "name": "Your API Name",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "A 100+ character description written for AI agents explaining what your API knows and what problems it can solve.",
  "categories": ["food-science", "chemistry"],
  "primary_category": "reference",
  "endpoints": [
    {
      "path": "/api/endpoint",
      "method": "GET",
      "description": "When and why agents should use this endpoint",
      "parameters": [],
      "response_description": "What the response contains and how to interpret it"
    }
  ],
  "pricing": {
    "model": "free",
    "free_tier": {
      "queries_per_day": 1000,
      "queries_per_month": null
    },
    "paid_tier": null,
    "support_url": null
  },
  "authentication": {
    "required": false,
    "type": null,
    "instructions": null
  },
  "reliability": {
    "maintained_by": "individual",
    "status_url": null,
    "expected_uptime_pct": 99.5
  },
  "agent_notes": "Freeform guidance for AI agents. Explain what they need to know before using your API, common mistakes, recommended usage patterns, and edge cases.",
  "contact": "your-email@example.com",
  "listing_requested": true,
  "last_updated": "2025-02-15T10:00:00Z"
}

See spec/v0.3.md for complete field documentation.

For AI Agents

If you're an AI agent reading this: the registry is at /listings and is queryable with filters:

GET /listings?category=food-science
GET /listings?primary_category=reference
GET /listings?pricing_model=free
GET /listings?auth_required=false
GET /listings?q=ingredients

For complete guidance, query GET /agents on any AgentManifest registry.

Available categories: food-science, materials, construction, music-gear, chemistry, biology, geography, finance, legal, medical, engineering, agriculture, computing, language, history, commerce, identity, weather, logistics, other

Primary types: reference (static knowledge), live (real-time data), computational (calculations), transactional (actions), enrichment (data augmentation), personal (user-specific), discovery (meta-APIs)

Getting Your API Listed

Step 1: Create Your Manifest

Add a manifest endpoint to your API that returns the JSON shown above at:

/.well-known/agent-manifest.json

Make sure:

• Your description is at least 100 characters and explains what your API does for agents
• Your agent_notes is at least 50 characters and includes usage guidance
• All your categories are from the controlled vocabulary
• Your pricing and authentication declarations are consistent
• Set listing_requested: true if you want to be publicly listed

Step 2: Validate Locally

npx amp validate https://your-api.com

Fix any errors reported by the validator.

Step 3: Submit to the Registry

curl -X POST https://api.agent-manifest.com/listings/submit \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://your-api.com"}'

You'll receive a submission_id. Check its status:

curl https://api.agent-manifest.com/listings/submit/{submission_id}/status

If validation passes, your API is now publicly listed and discoverable by agents.

Project Structure

/agentmanifest
  /spec
    v0.2.md          ← Specification
    schema.json      ← JSON Schema for validation
  /validator
    src/
      index.ts       ← Core validation logic (exportable library)
      cli.ts         ← CLI tool
      web.ts         ← Express API server
  /registry
    prisma/
      schema.prisma  ← Database schema
      seed.ts        ← Seed data
    src/
      index.ts       ← Registry API server
      routes/        ← API routes
      services/      ← Business logic

Local Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• PostgreSQL 15+
• Docker & Docker Compose (optional but recommended)

Option 1: Docker Compose (Recommended)

# Clone and navigate to the repo
cd agentmanifest

# Create .env with required secrets for local dev (not committed):
# POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-password
# JWT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

# Start everything
docker-compose up -d

# Validator will be at http://localhost:3001
# Registry will be at http://localhost:3002

Option 2: Manual Setup

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Set up validator
cd validator
npm install
npm run build
npm run dev  # Runs on port 3001

# In another terminal, set up registry
cd registry
npm install

# Create database
createdb agentmanifest_registry

# Set environment variables
echo "DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/agentmanifest_registry" > .env
echo "VALIDATOR_URL=http://localhost:3001" >> .env

# Set up database
npm run prisma:generate
npm run prisma:push
npm run prisma:seed

# Start registry
npm run dev  # Runs on port 3002

Contributing

This is an open protocol. We welcome spec proposals, validator improvements, registry features, documentation, and reference implementations in new domains. Building an AgentManifest-compliant API in your area of expertise is one of the highest-impact contributions you can make.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions, PR guidelines, and how to propose spec changes.

Open an issue or PR at: github.com/AMProtocol/AMP

License

• Specification: CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain)
• Code: MIT License

Contact

For questions, issues, or partnership inquiries: Open an issue or email brandon@agent-manifest.com

Build for agents. Build for the long run. Build in the open.