Brand protocol

brand.json is the open standard that tells AI agents how to use your brand correctly. Publish logos, colors, tone, and restrictions in one machine-readable file that every agent in the AdCP ecosystem obeys.

AI agents are generating content for your brand right now. Creative tools are picking logo variants, choosing color palettes, and writing copy in what they think is your voice. They pull this from wherever they can find it — cached web pages, scraped style guides, outdated press kits.

You have no control over what they find. You have no way to tell them what not to do.

How it works

You publish a single set of brand rules that every AI agent in the advertising ecosystem can read — your logos, colors, tone of voice, and what they must never do. The format is called brand.json, and it lives on your domain.

A creative agent gets a brief: “Lunch promotion for Bistro Oranje, two-course menu, EUR 18.50.”

Without brand.json, the agent scrapes the website, finds an old logo, guesses at colors from the website, and puts a headline over the hero food shot. Close enough — until the brand team sees it.

With brand.json, the agent fetches the file, pulls the correct wordmark, applies the exact palette, reads the warm tone, and sees the restriction against text over food imagery. It generates a food-forward composition with the headline below the image. No guessing. No corrections.

The brand team did not brief the creative agent on any of this. The file did it for them.

Every brand system in the world can serve a logo. Almost none of them can say “never place text over food imagery” in a way that an AI agent actually obeys. brand.json can — because restrictions are machine-readable rules, not guidelines buried in a PDF.

See what agents know about your brand

Enter any domain on the AgenticAdvertising.org brand registry to see what AI agents find for that brand today. Most brands return nothing — which means agents are guessing. Brands with brand.json show exactly what agents see.

Two tiers: public and authorized

Not everything belongs in a public file. brand.json handles this with two access levels:

Level	What it includes	Who sees it
Public	Name, logo, colors, tagline, basic tone	Any AI agent
Authorized	High-res assets, voice synthesis, detailed guidelines	Partners you approve

The public tier contains what is already on your website. The authorized tier is for the assets and guidelines you share only with agencies and partners. You decide who gets access by linking accounts — no data leaks to agents you have not approved.

One file, many uses

Brands exist in hierarchies — a holding company, its brands, their sub-brands and franchise locations. brand.json handles this: start at any domain and the protocol finds the canonical brand identity. The buy side gets the same structured identity that publishers already have on the sell side.

• License real talent through the same file. Your brand.json can declare which celebrity likenesses and voices are available, and on what terms. A buyer agent finds talent, negotiates pricing, and gets authorization for AI creative tools — without a single email. Follow the full rights licensing story →
• Keep every sub-brand consistent. A franchise domain points to the parent brand in two lines. Every location inherits the full identity — logos, colors, tone, restrictions — with no separate configuration.
• Let the supply chain verify in real time. Before serving an ad, any participant can confirm the talent license is still active and covers the right geography.

Start simple

The smallest useful brand.json is just a name and a logo:

{
  "$schema": "https://adcontextprotocol.org/schemas/v3/brand.json",
  "version": "1.0",
  "house": { "domain": "novabrands.com", "name": "Nova Brands" },
  "brands": [{
    "id": "nova",
    "names": [{"en": "Nova Brands"}],
    "logos": [{"url": "https://novabrands.com/logo.svg"}]
  }]
}

Add colors when you are ready. Add tone guidelines later. Add visual restrictions when you see AI getting it wrong. The file grows with your needs.

Ecosystem support

brand.json feeds into a growing ecosystem of agentic tools that read and act on your brand data:

• Buyer agents that comply with AdCP reference your brand.json during campaign planning to ensure media buys align with your brand guidelines
• Creative agents pull your colors, logos, restrictions, and tone of voice when generating on-brand assets
• The AgenticAdvertising.org registry indexes published brand.json files so buyer and seller agents can discover your brand programmatically
• Any MCP-compatible AI tool that implements the brand protocol can read your brand.json — the format is open and not locked to a single platform

The more tools that adopt the protocol, the more value your brand.json delivers without any additional work on your part.

Go deeper

For brand teams:

For advertisers

How to license real talent for AI-generated campaigns.

For rights holders

How AdCP protects and monetizes talent rights.

Rights licensing

Follow a buyer from talent discovery through acquisition and revocation.

For developers:

brand.json spec

Full technical specification for the file format.

Building a brand agent

Implement a brand agent that serves identity and rights.