AIMS - Agent Identity and Manifest Standard

v0.1 - Draft specification, open for comment.

Verifiable identity for AI agents that access web content.

Part of the OpenAttribution project. See also the Content Telemetry standard for the content usage reporting format.

AIMS is the identity layer in the four-layer content-agent stack. It provides:

• Agent identity: DID-based, using any W3C DID method
• Content licences: Machine-readable proof of what content this agent is licensed to access
• Telemetry compliance: Links the agent's identity to its OpenAttribution telemetry endpoint

Installation

pip install openattribution-aims

Quick start

from openattribution.aims import AIMSManifest, Operator, Licence, TelemetryCompliance

manifest = AIMSManifest(
    id="did:web:example.com:agents:my-agent",
    operator=Operator(name="Example Corp", domain="example.com"),
    licences=[
        Licence(source="reuters.com", type="rsl", scope="inference"),
        Licence(source="wirecutter.com", type="partnership", scope="full"),
    ],
    telemetry=TelemetryCompliance(
        endpoint="https://api.openattribution.org/v1/events",
        agent_id="did:web:example.com:agents:my-agent",
    ),
)

# Resolve another agent's manifest
from openattribution.aims import resolve_manifest

other = await resolve_manifest("did:web:other.com:agents:search")
if other:
    print(other.licences)

Specification

Full specification: SPECIFICATION.md

Where AIMS fits

Layer	Question	Standard
Declaration	What are the terms?	RSL, robots.txt
Access control	Does this agent have permission?	RSL CAP/OLP
Identity	Who is this agent?	AIMS
Telemetry	What happened after access?	OA Telemetry

Without identity, telemetry is anonymous. Without telemetry, identity is credentials with no audit trail.

Licence

Apache 2.0