Governance
How Agent Community will be governed — charter, principles, and what's coming.
Governance for Agent Community is actively being designed. The formal governance framework will be published soon. What follows are the principles guiding that work.
The principle
The people building and using agents should decide how the namespace works — not a single company's board.
We're designing a governance model that ensures every policy, standard, and safety guideline goes through community process. No backroom deals, no unilateral changes.
Charter
The community charter is the foundational document that defines our mission, values, and commitments.
What's being designed
Working groups
Focused teams that own specific areas. Anyone can join.
| Group | Focus |
|---|---|
| Discovery | AID spec, DNS-based agent resolution, protocol design |
| Verification | Trust signals, agent authentication, reputation systems |
| Safety | Abuse prevention, content policies, dispute resolution |
| Tooling | SDKs, reference implementations, developer experience |
Working groups will propose standards. The community reviews and ratifies them.
Community decision-making
The governance framework is being designed around:
- Registration policies — eligibility for a
.agentname, name-selection rules, reserved names - Safety standards — what agents must comply with to keep their name
- Dispute resolution — how conflicts over names get resolved
- Grant allocation — how community funds support open source work
Transparent process
Everything in the open:
- All proposals public on GitHub
- Discussion on GitHub Discussions and Discord
- Meeting notes published
- Voting records public
Community vs. registrar
Two separate roles, by design:
| Role | |
|---|---|
| agentcommunity.org | Governance, standards, working groups, policy |
| Registrar (future) | Technical operations — DNS, registration portal, billing |
The community proposes the rules, within ICANN requirements. The registrar executes them. This separation ensures operational decisions don't override community policy.
What membership involves
Membership is free and open to anyone who builds. What you get is a seat at the table rather than a product:
- Working group access — join the open work streams on discovery, verification, and safety, and read their archives
- The member map — appear on the public directory if you want to, so other builders can find you
- Events and introductions — meet the people working on the same problems
- Policy voting rights — a vote on standards and registration rules, as governance is stood up
- Requested-name pre-registration — free and non-binding; if ICANN approves
.agent, any future consideration is subject to ICANN-approved allocation policies
No fees. No binding contracts. Just participation.
Follow the progress
The governance framework is being developed in the open:
- Governance repo — charter, policies, and framework as they evolve
- Discord — real-time discussion on governance design
Want a seat at the table? Join the community or start contributing.