Semantic Agent Discovery and Attribution
An open, community-governed specification for semantic discovery, capability attribution, and governed invocation of agents, tools, and services
The documentation within this repository represents work in progress. As such, it is subject to material changes, additions, deletions, etc..
Semantic Agent Discovery and Attribution (SADAR™) is a community-governed specification that defines how agents, tools, and services are:
- Discovered based on industry-defined capabilities, data semantics, and non-functional requirements
- Attributed so that every invocation carries verified, traceable identity across the full call chain
- Invoked deterministically within an industry-defined business process, with cross-agent and cross-environment attribution preserved end-to-end
SADAR closes the agent attribution gap — the inability to know definitively who invoked what, on whose behalf, and within which process context. Attribution is established across four complementary mechanisms:
| Mechanism | What It Establishes |
|---|---|
| OIDC authentication | Concrete identity of both the requesting and serving agent |
| mTLS channel binding | Authenticated endpoints — the channel itself is verified, not just the token |
| Publisher-signed manifests | Integrity of capability declarations — manifests cannot be silently altered |
| OIDC claim extension | Originator identity propagated through the full invocation chain |
SADAR defines how attribution is established and carried. Authorization policy — what any system does with that attributed identity — is outside the scope of this specification and left to implementors.
SADAR moves from agents probabilistically deciding what, when, and how to invoke other agents, tools, and resources to a deterministic process grounded in existing industry process, task, and data definitions.
For value proposition, use cases, and adoption guidance, visit opensemantics.org/sadar.
SADAR defines interoperability across three primary dimensions:
Structured representation of business and technical intent, aligned to industry and domain standards (e.g., industry → process → task → operation/document, grounded in NAICS, APQC PCF, O*NET)
Shared meaning of data and interactions using standard vocabularies and schemas (e.g., HL7, X12, ISO 20022, schema.org, domain-specific models)
Constraints and expectations governing agent selection and execution, including:
- Security and compliance (e.g., SOC 2, HIPAA, FedRAMP)
- Operational characteristics (e.g., latency, availability, SLA)
- Commercial terms (e.g., pricing model, rate limits)
/
├── spec/
│ ├── sadar-core-v0.9.md # Normative specification text
│ ├── manifest-schema.json # Agent/service manifest JSON schema
│ └── sct-schema.json # Attribution token schema
├── docs/
│ ├── images/
│ │ └── SADAR_Logo.png
│ ├── 0_CS_Contributor_License_Agreement.md
│ ├── 1_Community_Specification_License-v1.md
│ ├── 2_Scope.md
│ ├── 3_Notices.md
│ ├── 4_License.md
│ ├── 5_Governance.md
│ ├── 6_Contributing.md
│ └── 7_CS_Template.md
├── TRADEMARKS.md
└── README.md
└── EXCLUSIONS.md
The Official SADAR Reference App is currently in development.
| Name | Organization | Type | Status |
|---|
To list your implementation, open a pull request updating this table.
| Goal | Resource |
|---|---|
| Understand the value proposition | opensemantics.org/sadar |
| Contribute to the specification | CONTRIBUTING.md |
| Review governance | GOVERNANCE.md |
| Trademark usage | TRADEMARKS.md |
| Patent/IP Exclusions | EXCLUSIONS.md |
SADAR is designed to complement, not replace, existing agent ecosystem standards:
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) — SADAR provides semantic discovery and attribution on top of MCP tool invocation
- A2A (Agent-to-Agent Protocol) — SADAR manifest and attribution patterns extend A2A for enterprise governance contexts
- OIDC / mTLS — SADAR leverages existing identity infrastructure rather than defining new identity mechanisms
SADAR is governed as a community specification under the Community Specification License 1.0. Contributions are welcome subject to the Contributor License Agreement.
The specification is stewarded by OpenSemantics.org, an initiative of Cognita AI Inc., with the goal of open, vendor-neutral governance.
© 2026 Cognita AI Inc. Licensed under the Community Specification License 1.0.
SADAR™ is a trademark of Cognita AI Inc. See TRADEMARKS.md for permitted and prohibited uses.