Skip to main content
Common questions from teams building AdCP sales agents and integrations, with direct answers based on the specification.

​
Product Discovery

​
Q: Does get_products require specific parameters like budget, dates, and objectives?

A: Currently, get_products only has three parameters: brief (natural language string), brand, and filters (structured filters). Campaign details like budget, dates, and objectives should be included in the natural language brief. Future: Structured parameters for budget, dates, objectives, and targeting are being considered to reduce conversational back-and-forth. Track the roadmap for updates. Current Workaround: Include these details in your brief: 
{
  "brand": {
    "domain": "acmecorp.com"
  },
  "brief": "Tech startup needs display and video inventory to reach IT decision makers. Budget: $25K. Timeline: March 1-31. Objective: Lead generation with 2% conversion target."
}

​
Q: How do I request specific audience targeting in get_products?

A: All targeting requests currently go in the natural language brief. There’s no structured targeting filter yet. Example: 
{
  "brand": {
    "domain": "energydrink.com"
  },
  "brief": "Target sports fans, ages 18-34, in major US cities for energy drink campaign"
}
The publisher’s AI interprets this and returns relevant products. Future versions may add structured targeting filters.

​
Q: What does “no brief = standard catalog” mean? We don’t have a standard catalog.

A: When buyers omit the brief field, they’re requesting your standard catalog - baseline products available to all advertisers without custom recommendations. If you don’t offer a standard catalog, return an error: 
{
  "message": "We require a campaign brief to recommend products. Please provide details about your campaign goals, audience, and objectives.",
  "products": []
}
If you do offer standard catalog, return standard products matching the provided filters (format types, delivery type, etc.).

​
Q: Should buyers call list_creative_formats before or after get_products?

A: After get_products. The recommended flow is:
  1. Call get_products with your campaign brief/filters
  2. Review the products returned (they include format_ids arrays)
  3. Call list_creative_formats for the specific format IDs you need details on
  4. Verify creative requirements match your capabilities
  5. Call create_media_buy for selected products
Why: You don’t know which format IDs you need until you see which products are available. Getting all formats upfront is inefficient.

​
Policy Compliance

​
Q: How do publishers know if there’s an ad policy issue (alcohol, adult content, etc.)?

A: Publishers extract advertiser identity from the brand field:
  1. Extract advertiser info from the brand’s brand.json (resolved via brand.domain)
  2. Check what’s being promoted from the brief text
  3. Apply policy rules based on your publisher policies
  4. Return appropriate response:
    • Allowed: Return products normally
    • Blocked: Return empty products array with policy explanation
    • Restricted: Indicate manual approval needed
Example blocked response: 
{
  "message": "I'm unable to offer products for this campaign. Our publisher policy prohibits alcohol advertising without age verification capabilities.",
  "products": []
}
See Policy Compliance for complete implementation guidance.

​
Q: Is the advertiser’s name always shared?

A: Yes, the brand field is required in both get_products and create_media_buy. It provides the advertiser identity needed for:
  • Policy compliance checks
  • Business relationship management (KYC)
  • Billing and reporting
Brand references are simple: 
{
  "brand": {
    "domain": "acmecorp.com"
  }
}
The brand’s brand.json (resolved from the domain) provides category and other identity data for automated policy filtering.

​
Schema and Fields

​
Q: Why is the filters parameter called an “object”?

A: Because it’s a nested JSON object with multiple optional fields: 
{
  "filters": {
    "delivery_type": "guaranteed",
    "standard_formats_only": true,
    "is_fixed_price": true,
    "min_exposures": 10000
  }
}
It’s not a single filter—it’s a collection of filter criteria for product catalog search.

​
Q: Why is it called format_ids instead of ad_units?

A: AdCP uses protocol-agnostic terminology:
  • format_ids: Structured references to creative format specifications (e.g., {agent_url: "...", id: "video_30s_hosted"})
  • Ad units: Platform-specific terminology (like “300x250 banner”)
Formats are abstract specifications that work across all ad platforms. The _ids suffix indicates these are references—use list_creative_formats to get full format objects.

​
Q: How do I specify what’s being promoted?

A: There are two mechanisms depending on the context:
  • Advertiser identity → brand.domain (required on get_products and create_media_buy, resolves via /.well-known/brand.json)
  • What’s being promoted → Described in the brief field for product discovery, or provided via a catalog on creatives
For product discovery: 
{
  "brand": {
    "domain": "nike.com"
  },
  "brief": "Nike Air Max 2024 - latest innovation in cushioning technology targeting runners and fitness enthusiasts"
}
For catalog-driven creatives, reference a synced catalog:
test=false
{
  "creative_id": "product-carousel",
  "format_id": { "agent_url": "...", "id": "product_carousel" },
  "catalogs": [{
    "catalog_id": "product-feed",
    "type": "product"
  }]
}

​
Brief Processing

​
Q: What if buyers provide incomplete briefs?

A: Publishers should request clarification when critical information is missing: 
{
  "message": "I'd be happy to help find the right products for your campaign. To provide the best recommendations, could you share:\n\n• What's your campaign budget?\n• When do you want the campaign to run?\n• Which geographic markets are you targeting?",
  "products": []
}
This maintains a conversational, helpful approach while gathering needed context.

​
Q: Should we always ask for clarification or just return products?

A: It depends on your publisher strategy:
  • High-touch approach: Request clarification for incomplete briefs, engage conversationally
  • Self-service approach: Return best-guess products based on available information
Both are valid. Consider your target buyer personas and automation level.

​
Workflow and Integration

​
Q: When should brand be required vs optional?

A: According to the current spec:
  • Required in both get_products AND create_media_buy
Best practice: Always require it. Policy checking should happen during discovery, not at purchase time.

​
Q: Can buyers cache product responses?

A: Products represent inventory availability which changes over time. Recommendations:
  • Brief-based discovery: Don’t cache—products are contextually matched to the brief
  • Standard catalog: Can cache for short periods (5-15 minutes) if your catalog is stable
  • Product details: Cache product_id mappings but revalidate availability before purchase

​
Q: How do we handle large product catalogs (1000+ products)?

A: Use property_tags instead of full properties arrays: 
{
  "product_id": "local_radio_midwest",
  "property_tags": ["local_radio", "midwest"],
  "format_ids": [...]
}
Buyers can discover the agent’s portfolio via get_adcp_capabilities, which returns the publisher domains and primary channels the agent represents. This keeps responses lightweight while maintaining full validation capability.

​
Testing and Validation

​
Q: How do we test policy compliance?

A: Create test cases with known restricted categories: 
// Test blocked category
const response = await get_products({
  brand: {
    domain: "test-alcohol.example.com"
  },
  brief: "Promote our new craft beer"
});

assert(response.products.length === 0);
assert(response.message.includes("policy"));

​
Q: What should we test in integration testing?

A: Key scenarios to cover:
  1. No brief + filters → Standard catalog
  2. Brief provided → AI-matched products with brief_relevance
  3. Blocked advertiser → Policy error
  4. Incomplete brief → Clarification request
  5. No products match → Helpful alternative suggestions
  6. Format filtering → Only matching formats returned

​
Common Pitfalls

​
Q: Why aren’t my format filters working?

A: Check that you’re using structured format_ids, not strings: Wrong: 
{
  "filters": {
    "format_ids": ["video_30s"]  // ❌ Strings don't work
  }
}
Correct: 
{
  "filters": {
    "format_ids": [
      {
        "agent_url": "https://creative.adcontextprotocol.org",
        "id": "video_30s_hosted"
      }
    ]
  }
}

​
Q: Why do my products not include brief_relevance?

A: brief_relevance is only included when a brief parameter is provided. Standard catalog requests (no brief) don’t include this field since products aren’t contextually matched.

​
Q: Should I validate authorization in get_products?

A: Yes! Buyer agents must validate sales agent authorization before purchasing:
  1. Get properties from products (or resolve property_tags)
  2. Fetch /.well-known/adagents.json from each publisher_domain
  3. Verify the sales agent URL appears in authorized_agents
  4. Reject products from unauthorized agents
See Authorization Validation for complete requirements.

​
Terminology

​
Q: What’s the difference between “product” and “package”?

A:
  • Product: A sellable unit of inventory from the publisher (returned by get_products)
  • Package: A buyer’s selection from available products, sent in create_media_buy
Products describe what’s available. Packages describe what you’re buying.

​
Q: What’s the difference between “delivery” and “distribution”?

A:
  • Delivery type: "guaranteed" vs "non_guaranteed" (whether impressions are guaranteed)
  • Distribution: How creatives are distributed to ad servers (covered by creative agents, not media buying)

​
Q: What’s “TMP” / “Trusted Match Protocol”?

A: The Trusted Match Protocol (TMP) is AdCP’s real-time execution layer. It determines which pre-negotiated packages activate at impression time using two structurally separated operations: Context Match (content relevance, no user identity) and Identity Match (user eligibility, no page context). The publisher joins both responses locally. TMP enables cross-publisher frequency capping, brand suitability, and audience targeting across web, mobile, CTV, AI assistants, and retail media. You may also see references to AXE (Agentic eXecution Engine) — that was TMP’s predecessor. Existing AXE integrations still work, but new implementations should use TMP. See AXE documentation for legacy reference.

​
Need More Help?

If your question isn’t answered here:
  1. Check the Task Reference for detailed API documentation
  2. Review Brief Expectations for discovery guidance
  3. See Media Products for product model details
  4. Open a GitHub issue for specification clarifications
This FAQ is updated regularly based on implementer feedback.