The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, has announced the launch of the DNS-AID project, an open source project enabling AI agents to discover and communicate with one another in a standard way. By leveraging the internet’s existing Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure, DNS-AID provides a robust, decentralized alternative to the centralized registries and hardcoded URLs currently limiting AI interoperability.
As the AI ecosystem expands, the ability for autonomous agents to locate and verify each other across disparate platforms has become a critical bottleneck. The DNS-AID project, initially developed by Infoblox, enables agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers to use DNS as a global, vendor-neutral directory. This approach ensures that agent discovery remains scalable, secure, and compatible with the foundational protocols of the internet.
“AI agents are quickly becoming the connective tissue of the modern internet, but without secure, open discovery infrastructure, that connectivity becomes a liability,” said Jim Zemlin, CEO at the Linux Foundation. “DNS-AID helps anchor agent discovery in the DNS infrastructure the internet already trusts. The Linux Foundation provides the neutral home where this work can grow with the open governance, community collaboration, and long-term stability the emerging agentic web requires.”
The DNS-AID project provides a reference implementation including a Python SDK, a command-line interface (CLI), and an MCP server, allowing developers to integrate agent discovery into their existing workflows immediately. Because the protocol is implementation-agnostic, it functions across any DNS provider, ensuring that organizations maintain control over their agent infrastructure without relying on proprietary, centralized services.
“Current approaches to agent connectivity are fragmented and often rely on fragile, hardcoded configurations,” said Ingmar Van Glabbeek, project maintainer for DNS-AID. “With DNS-AID, we are moving toward a ‘web-native’ model for AI. By utilizing the existing DNS hierarchy, we enable developers to publish and discover agents with the same reliability and ubiquity that we’ve used to navigate the internet for decades. We look forward to building this community under the Linux Foundation to ensure the protocol evolves to meet the needs of the global AI developer community.”
Under Linux Foundation governance, DNS-AID will remain vendor neutral, fostering transparent, community-driven growth, ensuring accessibility, and supporting sustainability.
The project is now open for contributions and community participation. To review the documentation, explore the reference implementation, and join the conversation, visit: https://github.com/dns-aid.
