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Merchant Agent Readiness Kit

Most merchants will not care about agentic commerce protocol debates. They will care whether agents can understand their products, policies, prices, inventory, returns, geographic restrictions, and trust credentials. The Merchant Agent Readiness Kit gives any merchant a structured path to becoming agent discoverable without joining every protocol network individually.

Status: The kit is a v0.1 working draft. Tooling described here is in development. Autheo Foundation grants support builders extending this kit through manifest generators, validators, scoring tools, and platform integrations.

Merchant manifest

A merchant manifest is a JSON document that describes the merchant in agent readable form. It is hosted at a well known URL on the merchant's site or in the agentic registry where the merchant has chosen to publish.

identity

FieldDescription
merchantIdStable identifier, typically a DID or canonical URL.
displayNamePublic merchant name.
legalEntityLegal entity name and jurisdiction.
websitePublic homepage URL.
contactObject with email and optional phone and address.
merchantCredentialRefOptional reference to a KYA Merchant Credential.

policies

FieldDescription
returnsURL or inline structured return policy.
shippingURL or inline structured shipping policy.
privacyPrivacy policy URL.
termsTerms of service URL.
disputesOptional structured dispute resolution policy.
geoRestrictionsAllowed and disallowed regions.

catalog

FieldDescription
catalogFeedURL of the agent readable product feed.
feedFormatFeed format identifier, e.g. schema.org.product.v2 or acp.feed.v1.
inventorySignalOptional URL or convention for inventory state checks.
updateCadenceHow often the feed is refreshed.

agentSupport

FieldDescription
acceptsKyaAgentsWhether the merchant transacts with KYA credentialed agents.
kyaPolicyRequired KYA scopes, accepted issuers, merchant constraints.
acceptedAgentProtocolse.g. acp.checkoutSession, ucp.universalCart, mcp.toolBridge, a2a.directNegotiation.

paymentRoutes

FieldDescription
acceptedPaymentProtocolse.g. ap2.mandate, card.network.token, x402.http.usdc, chain.stablecoin.signedTransfer.

settlementRails

FieldDescription
acceptedSettlementRailse.g. card.network, chain.stablecoin.usdc.evm, x402.http.usdc.

compliance

FieldDescription
jurisdictionPrimary jurisdiction.
kybReferenceOptional pointer to a KYB record.
salesTaxBehaviorOptional notes on tax calculation behavior.
regulatedCategoriesIndicators if the merchant sells regulated goods.

trust

FieldDescription
readinessScoreOptional score from a merchant readiness scanner.
attestationsOptional array of third party attestations.
auditLogOptional URL of a public audit or status log.

endpoints

FieldDescription
manifestUrlCanonical URL of this manifest.
checkoutEndpointIf the merchant exposes an ACP or UCP checkout endpoint.
agentContactEndpointAgent facing inquiry endpoint.
webmcpEndpointOptional WebMCP base URL.
mcpEndpointOptional MCP endpoint.

Readiness checklist

A merchant is considered ready when the following items are present and verifiable.

Identity

  • Manifest publishes a stable merchantId.
  • Display name matches the merchant's public facing brand.
  • Legal entity name and jurisdiction are accurate.
  • Contact information is monitored.

Policies

  • Returns, shipping, privacy, and terms URLs return 200 with plain language policies.
  • Geographic restrictions are explicit.
  • Dispute resolution path is described.

Catalog

  • Catalog feed validates against the declared feedFormat.
  • Product and Offer entries include name, description, price, priceCurrency, availability, and a stable sku or productID.
  • Feed update cadence is documented.

Agent support

  • The merchant has decided whether it accepts KYA credentialed agents.
  • If yes, kyaPolicy lists required scopes and accepted issuers.
  • Accepted agent protocols are explicit.

Payment and settlement

  • Accepted payment protocols match what the merchant can actually accept.
  • Accepted settlement rails are accurate.
  • Settlement dispute contact path is documented.

Trust

  • Recommended: a KYA Merchant Credential is referenced.
  • Recommended: third party attestations or a public audit log are referenced.

Example manifest snippet

{
  "identity": {
    "merchantId": "did:web:example.com",
    "displayName": "Example Goods",
    "legalEntity": "Example Goods, Inc. (US-DE)",
    "website": "https://example.com",
    "contact": { "email": "[email protected]" }
  },
  "agentSupport": {
    "acceptsKyaAgents": true,
    "acceptedAgentProtocols": [
      "acp.checkoutSession",
      "ucp.universalCart",
      "mcp.toolBridge"
    ]
  },
  "paymentRoutes": {
    "acceptedPaymentProtocols": [
      "ap2.mandate",
      "card.network.token",
      "x402.http.usdc"
    ]
  },
  "settlementRails": {
    "acceptedSettlementRails": [
      "card.network",
      "chain.stablecoin.usdc.evm",
      "x402.http.usdc"
    ]
  },
  "endpoints": {
    "manifestUrl": "https://example.com/.well-known/merchant.json"
  }
}

Grant opportunities

Autheo Foundation supports developers extending the kit through Shopify and WooCommerce manifest generators, static site manifest generators, return policy parsers, catalog to manifest converters, merchant readiness scoring tools, and hosted manifest endpoints and validators.

Apply for grants at AutheoFoundation.org →

Related documents

KYA (Know Your Agent)

Merchant Credentials slot directly into the identity section.

Protocol Router

How accepted protocols and rails inform route selection.

The Agentic Commerce Stack

Where merchant discovery sits in the seven layer model.

Docs hub

Index of all agentic commerce docs.