> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.adcontextprotocol.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# A3: The AdCP landscape

> Module A3: Survey of every AdCP domain — media buy, creative, catalogs, accounts, signals, governance, and sponsored intelligence. Free 15-minute interactive overview.

# A3: The AdCP landscape

<Info>
  **Free module** — No account required. \~15 minutes with Addie. Prerequisite: [A2](/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/learning/foundations/a2-protocol-architecture).
</Info>

This is the survey course. Touch everything, go deep on nothing. You'll get a map of the entire AdCP ecosystem — every protocol domain, every discovery mechanism, every governance layer. Designed to pique your curiosity and show you where to go deeper.

Completing A1 + A2 + A3 earns the **AdCP basics** credential.

## Learning objectives

* Describe what `brand.json` is and why every brand should have one
* Explain `adagents.json` and how agents discover each other
* Name all eight AdCP protocol domains and what each covers
* Identify which areas you want to explore deeper in a role track

## Reading list

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Brand protocol" icon="fingerprint" href="/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/brand-protocol/index">
    Brand identity claims, brand.json discovery, and brand hierarchy. Four variants: house portfolio, brand agent, redirects, minimal.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Governance overview" icon="building-columns" href="/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/governance/overview">
    The governance protocol: property governance, brand governance, content standards, creative governance, and campaign governance.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Campaign governance" icon="shield-check" href="/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/governance/campaign">
    Always-on compliance: ties campaigns to media plans, validates every transaction through three independent parties.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Policy registry" icon="book" href="/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/governance/policy-registry">
    Community-maintained library of advertising regulations and standards that brands reference by ID.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Creative protocol" icon="palette" href="/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/creative/index">
    The creative protocol: assets, formats, manifests, creative agents, and 20 channels of adaptation.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Signals overview" icon="signal" href="/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/signals/overview">
    The signals protocol: audience segments, contextual signals, measurement data, and optimization.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Sponsored Intelligence" icon="message-bot" href="/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/sponsored-intelligence/overview">
    Conversational brand experiences in AI assistants — a genuinely new advertising model.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Capability discovery" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/protocol/get_adcp_capabilities">
    How agents advertise what they support so other agents can discover them.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Accounts protocol" icon="building" href="/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/accounts/overview">
    The commercial layer: advertisers, operators, authentication, billing, and account lifecycle.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What you'll cover with Addie

Addie walks through each domain with a quick live example — just enough to understand what each area does:

**Discovery and community:**

* `brand.json`: your brand's machine-readable identity at `/.well-known/brand.json`
* `adagents.json`: how publishers declare which agents can access their inventory
* Community registry: how agents and brands find each other
* AgenticAdvertising.org: working groups, industry councils, how the spec evolves

**Protocol domains:**

* **Accounts** — commercial identity, operator-billed vs agent-billed, account lifecycle, `get_adcp_capabilities`
* **Media buy** — proposals, forecasting, refinement, packages, keyword targeting, geo-proximity
* **Creative** — formats vs manifests, 20 channels, AI-powered generation with `build_creative`
* **Signals** — audience data, privacy-compliant signals, conversion tracking, attribution
* **Governance** — content standards, property lists, the Oracle model for AI-driven brand safety, campaign governance (multi-party validation, budget authority, policy registry)
* **Sponsored Intelligence** — conversational brand experiences, cost-per-conversation instead of CPM
* **Brand Protocol** — `brand.json` resolution, brand identity claims, brand hierarchy
* **Registry** — entity resolution, agent discovery, community directory

## Assessment

| Dimension            | Weight | What Addie looks for                                                      |
| -------------------- | ------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Breadth              | 35%    | Can you describe what each protocol domain does?                          |
| Discovery mechanisms | 25%    | Do you understand brand.json, adagents.json, and capability discovery?    |
| Key concepts         | 25%    | Can you explain format vs manifest, billing models, and the Oracle model? |
| Synthesis            | 15%    | Can you connect concepts across domains without prompting?                |

Passing threshold: 70%.

## Start this module

<Card title="Start A3 with Addie" icon="play" href="https://agenticadvertising.org/chat">
  Open Addie and say "I'd like to start certification module A3."
</Card>

**Next:** Choose your role track — [Publisher](/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/learning/tracks/publisher), [Buyer](/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/learning/tracks/buyer), or [Platform](/dist/docs/3.0.0-rc.2/learning/tracks/platform)