Agent Network Best Practices

general > card-provider-required

Guidance

This rule validates that every agent card includes complete provider information with both organization name and URL properties. Provider information establishes clear agent ownership and accountability, supports proper attribution, identifies necessary support channels, and builds trust. Without complete provider details, verifying agent authenticity, contacting responsible parties for support or security issues, and establishing trust relationships in multiorganization agent networks becomes difficult. This rule applies to all agent cards in broker definitions and external agent declarations. Every agent must have traceable ownership to its responsible organization with available support resources for users and administrators.

Message

Agent Card must include complete provider information. Add a provider section with both organization name and URL to clearly identify the agent's owner and enable proper attribution and support.

Examples

valid

schemaVersion: 1.0.0
brokers:
  my-broker:
    card:
      protocolVersion: "0.3.0"
      name: "Weather Coordination Broker"
      description: "A sample broker with complete provider information"
      url: "https://my-broker.example.com"
      version: "1.0.0"
      provider:
        organization: "Weather Solutions Inc"
        url: "https://weather-solutions.com"
      capabilities:
        streaming: false
        pushNotifications: false
        stateTransitionHistory: false
        extensions: []
      defaultInputModes:
        - "application/json"
      defaultOutputModes:
        - "application/json"
      skills:
        - id: "coordination"
          name: "Agent Coordination"
          description: "Coordinates agent activities"
          tags: ["coordination"]
    spec:
      llm:
        ref:
          name: "openai-llm"
        configuration:
          model: "gpt-4"
      instructions:
        - "You are a helpful assistant"
      links:
        - agent:
            ref:
              name: "external-agent"

invalid

schemaVersion: 1.0.0
brokers:
  my-broker:
    card:
      protocolVersion: "0.3.0"
      name: "Weather Coordination Broker"
      description: "A sample broker missing provider information"
      url: "https://my-broker.example.com"
      version: "1.0.0"
      # Missing provider property - this should trigger the validation rule
      capabilities:
        streaming: false
        pushNotifications: false
        stateTransitionHistory: false
        extensions: []
      defaultInputModes:
        - "application/json"
      defaultOutputModes:
        - "application/json"
      skills:
        - id: "coordination"
          name: "Agent Coordination"
          description: "Coordinates agent activities"
          tags: ["coordination"]
    spec:
      llm:
        ref:
          name: "openai-llm"
        configuration:
          model: "gpt-4"
      instructions:
        - "You are a helpful assistant"
      links:
        - agent:
            ref:
              name: "external-agent"

Applies to card

Constraint

Type: Declarative Validation