Linux Foundation details intent to launch Agent Name Service
We need a new open standard to extend the Internet’s existing DNS infrastructure to enable portable identity, verification and discovery for the emerging agentic web.
But what is the DNS infrastructure?
The Domain Name System (DNS) is the web’s decentralied directory responsible for translating human-readable domain names into machine-readable IP addresses through a hierarchical network of root, top-level domain (TLD) and authoritative nameservers.
Although it was created in the 1980s, most emerging open standards aim to act as a parallel root-level supplemen.
The Linux Foundation has a special approach here.
The foundation has announced the intent to launch the Agent Name Service (ANS), a new open standard designed to provide trusted identity, verification and discovery for AI agents operating across the web.
Identifying autonomous agents
ANS is built on the existing Domain Name System (DNS) and establishes a federated framework for securely identifying autonomous agents at Internet scale without relying on proprietary registries or centralised control.
“AI agents will increasingly operate across enterprises, platforms, and digital services, which makes trusted identity infrastructure a foundational requirement,” said Jim Zemlin, CEO of Linux Foundation. “By building on DNS and open standards, ANS creates a scalable and interoperable framework for verified agent communication across the global digital economy.”
As AI agents rapidly move from experimentation into production systems, organisations face growing challenges around authentication, trust, governance, and interoperability.
Extending the same infrastructure
According to World Economic Forum data, 82% of executives plan to adopt AI agents within the next one to three years, despite widespread uncertainty around how to securely evaluate and manage autonomous systems. ANS addresses this gap by extending the same infrastructure that already powers the web today, creating a verifiable identity layer for the agentic era.
Rather than introducing a new lookup network or proprietary ecosystem, ANS anchors agent identity directly to DNS, the globally distributed infrastructure that already processes more than 100 million queries per second worldwide.
The framework allows systems and users to verify who an agent represents, what permissions it has, and whether its code and operational history remain authentic and unchanged.
“The success of the internet didn’t come from proprietary systems – it came from open standards, shared infrastructure, and an ecosystem committed to working together,” said Jared Sine, chief Strategy and Legal Officer of GoDaddy. “We’re grateful to the many organisations and contributors who helped advance Agent Name Service and bring that same collaborative approach to the age of AI agents.”
Sine suggests that by building on proven internet foundations, ANS creates a path for agents to be identified and discovered across the open web, helping ensure the next era of innovation remains as open and interoperable as the last.”
The ANS framework also supports decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs), enabling organizations to integrate existing identity systems into a unified verification model.
The project is seeking participation from enterprises, AI developers, infrastructure providers, and security researchers interested in helping establish open standards for the emerging agentic ecosystem.
More information, including technical repositories and contribution opportunities, will be available through the Agent Name Service GitHub organization at.