Agent Name Service (ANS): A Universal Directory for Secure AI Agent Discovery and Interoperability
It addresses the problem of secure discovery and interoperability for AI agents in multi-agent systems, though it appears incremental as it builds on DNS and PKI concepts.
The paper tackles the lack of a public framework for secure AI agent discovery by introducing the Agent Name Service (ANS), a DNS-inspired architecture that provides a protocol-agnostic registry with PKI-based identity verification, resulting in a foundational directory service for multi-agent systems.
The proliferation of AI agents requires robust mechanisms for secure discovery. This paper introduces the Agent Name Service (ANS), a novel architecture based on DNS addressing the lack of a public agent discovery framework. ANS provides a protocol-agnostic registry infrastructure that leverages Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificates for verifiable agent identity and trust. The architecture features several key innovations: a formalized agent registration and renewal mechanism for lifecycle management; DNS-inspired naming conventions with capability-aware resolution; a modular Protocol Adapter Layer supporting diverse communication standards (A2A, MCP, ACP etc.); and precisely defined algorithms for secure resolution. We implement structured communication using JSON Schema and conduct a comprehensive threat analysis of our proposal. The result is a foundational directory service addressing the core challenges of secured discovery and interaction in multi-agent systems, paving the way for future interoperable, trustworthy, and scalable agent ecosystems.