Agentic Intent Protocol (AIP) Specification

Version: 0.1.0
Status: Public Specification
Last Updated: 2026-03-27

Overview

The Agentic Intent Protocol (AIP) is an open protocol for AI advertising, commercial delegation, and outcome-based settlement inside AI platforms. It standardizes how Platforms, Operators, and Brand Agents exchange intent-safe auction context, run selection, verify lifecycle events, and settle the highest-value outcome per serve_token.

This repository contains:

• JSON Schemas for the public wire surface
• Narrative specification chapters
• Reference examples
• Conformance fixtures

Primary docs: https://aip.mintlify.app

What v1.0 standardizes

• Platform ingress through platform-request.json
• Operator fanout through context-request.json
• Brand Agent bids through bid.json
• Platform responses through auction-result.json
• Lifecycle events across exposure, interaction, delegation, and outcome
• Final settlement records through ledger-record.json

Canonical public identifiers in v1.0:

• request_id
• context_id
• bid_id
• response_id
• auction_id
• serve_token

Canonical decision phases in v1.0:

• awareness
• research
• consideration
• decision
• action
• post_purchase
• support

Billing and lifecycle model

AIP separates selection logic from settlement semantics.

• Operators define ranking and selection.
• Settlement paths describe what may be billed after a winner is chosen.

Canonical settlement paths:

• External click-out flow: CPX -> CPC -> CPA
• Delegated session flow: CPX -> CPE -> CPA

Only the highest-value verified event is billable per serve_token.

Event types

Event	event_type	Settlement
Exposure shown	exposure_shown	CPX
Interaction started	interaction_started	CPC or CPE
Delegation started	delegation_started	Non-billable
Delegation activity	delegation_activity	Non-billable
Delegation expired	delegation_expired	Non-billable
Task completed	task_completed	CPA

Delegated sessions

Delegation in v1.0 uses a hybrid model:

• The Operator mediates session authorization and startup.
• After delegation_started, live task turns may flow directly between Platform and Brand Agent.
• The Operator remains the governance, scoping, audit, and settlement layer.
• session_timeout_seconds is an inactivity timeout.
• Platform and Brand Agent both emit delegation_activity.
• The Operator records delegation_expired when the inactivity timer elapses.

Repository structure

aip-spec/
├── schemas/
│   ├── platform-request.json
│   ├── context-request.json
│   ├── bid.json
│   ├── auction-result.json
│   ├── event-exposure-shown.json
│   ├── event-interaction-started.json
│   ├── event-delegation-started.json
│   ├── event-delegation-activity.json
│   ├── event-delegation-expired.json
│   ├── event-task-completed.json
│   ├── ledger-record.json
│   └── common.json
├── examples/
├── docs/
├── tests/
└── governance and policy files

Quick start

Inspect the core schemas:

cat schemas/platform-request.json
cat schemas/context-request.json
cat schemas/bid.json
cat schemas/auction-result.json

Inspect the lifecycle schemas:

cat schemas/event-exposure-shown.json
cat schemas/event-interaction-started.json
cat schemas/event-delegation-started.json
cat schemas/event-delegation-activity.json
cat schemas/event-delegation-expired.json
cat schemas/event-task-completed.json

Review the examples:

cat examples/platform-request.example.json
cat examples/context-request.example.json
cat examples/bid.example.json
cat examples/auction-result.example.json
cat examples/event-task-completed.example.json

Relationship to external commerce protocols

AIP covers intent, selection, delegation, attribution, and settlement. Downstream commerce execution may hand off to an external protocol such as Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), but that handoff is outside the core AIP wire model. In those flows, AIP remains the attribution and settlement layer, while the downstream commerce protocol provides transaction proof.