What Is an Agent Manifest?
An agent manifest is a machine-readable document an organisation serves to declare its agent-facing surface: who it is, what capabilities it exposes, how to reach them, and often who is accountable. Served at a well-known path, it is the file an agent reads first. A manifest declares meaning and capability; it is the discovery half of the agentic internet, distinct from the authority and record that let an agent actually act.
If you serve it, declare it
A manifest is only true if it matches what the organisation actually serves and does. Over-declaring fails the first fetch; serving a capability without declaring it fails silently, because nobody calls what they were never told about. A manifest kept honest against the real surface is the difference between a door and a sign pointing at a wall.
Related standards
Questions
Is an agent manifest the same as agents.txt?
agents.txt is one manifest-like convention focused on discovery. A manifest is the general idea; the estate’s charter and handshake serve the identity and capability layer agents.txt leaves out.
Where is the manifest served?
At a well-known path on the organisation’s own domain, so an agent can find it by convention rather than configuration.
Where this lives in the estate
FlashyOS — the charter and handshake served at well-known paths
Keep reading
By Michael Gord · published 2026-10-04 · part of the Agentic Encyclopedia. Dates are the day of publication; events are cited at their own dates.