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Documentation Index

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brand.json is not only for advertisers. On the sell side, it is the public company record for the organization operating an AdCP sales path: name, logo, domains, sales agents, and signing-key discovery. adagents.json is the publisher’s authorization record: which properties exist and which agents may sell them. Buyer agents need both views. brand.json answers “who is this seller or platform, and what is it claiming?” adagents.json answers “does the publisher authorize this agent to sell this inventory?”

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Requirement boundary

The practical rule is:
  • If you operate an AdCP agent, that agent needs operator identity and signing-key discovery. Publish a brand.json entry for the operating organization, list the agent in agents[], and expose public keys through agents[].jwks_uri or the default /.well-known/jwks.json.
  • If you publish inventory, you need a publisher authorization record. Publish adagents.json on the publisher domain so buyers can verify which agents may sell which properties.
  • If you both publish inventory and operate the sales agent, do both on the same organization/domain.
  • If you delegate sales to another operator, your adagents.json is the authorization hinge. Your own brand.json is still recommended for publisher identity, portfolio context, and governance, but the delegated operator’s brand.json carries the sales-agent identity buyers interact with.
The protocol requirement is verifiability: public keys must be discoverable, and signed requests or webhooks must validate against those keys. Production agents should protect private signing keys with KMS/HSM or a managed secret system, but AdCP does not mandate a specific vendor or hosting pattern. This page covers the discovery and verification records; implementation details for key storage and signing live in request signing.

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Who publishes what

OrganizationPublish brand.json?Publish adagents.json?Why
Publisher selling directYesYesThe publisher is both the inventory owner and the sales operator. Buyers verify its identity, sales endpoint, keys, and property authorization from the same organization.
Publisher delegating salesRecommendedYesThe publisher’s adagents.json authorizes the external sales agent. Its brand.json gives buyers the publisher’s own identity and house/portfolio context, but the external operator’s brand.json carries the sales-agent identity.
Network, SSP, or sales representativeYesUsually no, unless it also owns propertiesThe operator’s brand.json declares its sales agent, signing keys, and represented properties. The publisher confirms the relationship in its own adagents.json.
If the publisher and sales operator are the same company, both files can live on the same domain. If a third-party platform sells for the publisher, the operator’s brand.json lives on the operator domain and the publisher’s adagents.json lives on the publisher domain.

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How verification works

The sell-side chain is bilateral:
  1. The seller’s brand.json declares the sales agent in agents[].
  2. The seller’s brand.json declares the properties it owns, sells directly, manages, or represents in properties[].
  3. The publisher’s adagents.json declares the same sales agent in authorized_agents[].
  4. For delegated or network paths, the relationship value in brand.json matches the publisher’s delegation_type in adagents.json. For first-party inventory, relationship: "owned" is inline ownership and has no delegation_type counterpart.
  5. The signing key used by the agent is discoverable from the seller’s brand.json agents[].jwks_uri; for mutating seller authorizations, the publisher also pins allowed keys in adagents.json authorized_agents[].signing_keys[].
The result is a verifiable supply path. The operator publicly says “I sell this property”; the publisher publicly says “this operator is authorized to sell it.”

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Direct publisher example

A publisher with its own sales agent publishes brand.json at https://streamhaus.example/.well-known/brand.json: 
{
  "$schema": "https://adcontextprotocol.org/schemas/v3/brand.json",
  "version": "1.0",
  "id": "streamhaus",
  "url": "https://streamhaus.example",
  "names": [{ "en_US": "StreamHaus" }],
  "industries": ["media"],
  "properties": [
    {
      "type": "ctv_app",
      "identifier": "com.streamhaus.ctv",
      "relationship": "owned"
    }
  ],
  "agents": [
    {
      "type": "sales",
      "id": "streamhaus_sales",
      "url": "https://ads.streamhaus.example/mcp",
      "jwks_uri": "https://ads.streamhaus.example/.well-known/jwks.json"
    }
  ]
}
The same publisher publishes adagents.json at https://streamhaus.example/.well-known/adagents.json: 
{
  "$schema": "https://adcontextprotocol.org/schemas/v3/adagents.json",
  "contact": {
    "name": "StreamHaus",
    "email": "adops@streamhaus.example",
    "domain": "streamhaus.example"
  },
  "properties": [
    {
      "property_id": "streamhaus_ctv",
      "property_type": "ctv_app",
      "name": "StreamHaus CTV App",
      "publisher_domain": "streamhaus.example",
      "identifiers": [{ "type": "bundle_id", "value": "com.streamhaus.ctv" }]
    }
  ],
  "authorized_agents": [
    {
      "authorization_type": "property_ids",
      "url": "https://ads.streamhaus.example/mcp",
      "authorized_for": "StreamHaus direct CTV inventory",
      "property_ids": ["streamhaus_ctv"],
      "signing_keys": [
        {
          "kid": "streamhaus-sales-prod-2026",
          "kty": "OKP",
          "alg": "EdDSA",
          "crv": "Ed25519",
          "x": "w8zcY1LZqV4n1oKbfyq3n2q3sL2uV3z7kEw1m9Qjv4A",
          "use": "sig"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
The buyer verifies that agents[].url in brand.json matches authorized_agents[].url in adagents.json, that StreamHaus owns the property it claims, and that signed mutating responses use a key pinned by StreamHaus in signing_keys[].

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Delegated seller example

When a network sells another publisher’s inventory, the network publishes its own brand.json: 
{
  "$schema": "https://adcontextprotocol.org/schemas/v3/brand.json",
  "version": "1.0",
  "id": "northwind_media",
  "url": "https://northwind.example",
  "names": [{ "en_US": "Northwind Media" }],
  "industries": ["advertising"],
  "properties": [
    {
      "type": "website",
      "identifier": "streamhaus.example",
      "relationship": "delegated"
    }
  ],
  "agents": [
    {
      "type": "sales",
      "id": "northwind_sales",
      "url": "https://northwind.example/mcp",
      "jwks_uri": "https://northwind.example/.well-known/jwks.json"
    }
  ]
}
StreamHaus confirms the relationship in https://streamhaus.example/.well-known/adagents.json: 
{
  "$schema": "https://adcontextprotocol.org/schemas/v3/adagents.json",
  "contact": {
    "name": "StreamHaus",
    "email": "adops@streamhaus.example",
    "domain": "streamhaus.example"
  },
  "properties": [
    {
      "property_id": "streamhaus_web",
      "property_type": "website",
      "name": "StreamHaus",
      "publisher_domain": "streamhaus.example",
      "identifiers": [{ "type": "domain", "value": "streamhaus.example" }]
    }
  ],
  "authorized_agents": [
    {
      "authorization_type": "property_ids",
      "url": "https://northwind.example/mcp",
      "authorized_for": "StreamHaus inventory via delegated sales agreement",
      "property_ids": ["streamhaus_web"],
      "delegation_type": "delegated",
      "signing_keys": [
        {
          "kid": "northwind-sales-prod-2026",
          "kty": "OKP",
          "alg": "EdDSA",
          "crv": "Ed25519",
          "x": "Xe2lAKRJR_zr3FQRdSNwp3zsrv_IXnVCWJXDcWXwkLI",
          "use": "sig"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
Northwind’s brand.json alone is not authorization. Any operator can claim a property. The publisher’s matching adagents.json entry is what turns the claim into an authorized supply path.

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Setup checklist

  1. Publish brand.json for each organization that operates an AdCP sales agent at https://{seller-domain}/.well-known/brand.json.
  2. Add a sales entry to agents[] for each AdCP sales endpoint the organization operates.
  3. Publish the endpoint’s JWKS through agents[].jwks_uri, or rely on the default /.well-known/jwks.json on the agent origin.
  4. Add every owned, direct, delegated, or network-represented property to properties[] with the right relationship; use owned for first-party inventory.
  5. Publish adagents.json on each publisher domain that owns the inventory.
  6. In authorized_agents[], list the seller’s agent URL, authorization scope, matching delegation_type for delegated or network paths, and signing_keys[] for any mutating seller authorization.
  7. Keep both files aligned when a sales relationship, endpoint, or signing key starts, changes, or ends.

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Where to go next