What is Open Service Directory (OSD)?
Personal AI assistants can understand a customer’s request, but to get help from a business they must find its support agent and check that the agent is legitimate.
Open Service Directory (OSD) uses Agentic Resource Discovery (ARD) to help compatible assistants find a brand’s support agents and check that the business endorses them.
For example, a customer might ask:
My flight to Singapore tomorrow was cancelled. Rebook me on the earliest available flight and keep my aisle seat.
In response, OSD helps the assistant find the airline’s support agent. If the agent supports rebooking, the assistant uses it to retrieve options and submit the change, while respecting the agent’s authentication, permissions, and customer confirmation requirements.
What OSD adds to ARD
Section titled “What OSD adds to ARD”ARD defines how agents and other resources are described and discovered. OSD adds the represented business’s brand name and domain through osd:brandName and osd:brandDomain. These say which business a brand listing represents and where its endorsement can be checked. The assistant still has to confirm that the domain belongs to the business the customer meant.
An assistant that knows the business’ brand domain reads its published ARD manifest directly. An assistant that knows only a business’ brand name or the customer’s problem searches an OSD registry, which indexes support listings behind ARD’s standard search interface and decides with the user which candidate to use.
The assistant checks the business’ endorsement before using an agent, then connects through the agent’s native protocol, such as MCP or A2A.
From discovery to customer service
Section titled “From discovery to customer service”A business can make its support agents discoverable whether it operates them itself or uses an authorized support platform.
After discovery, the assistant talks to the agent directly. Depending on what the agent offers, that may reach support knowledge, workflows, ticketing, or a human team. The customer keeps using their chosen assistant, and the agent applies the business’s permissions and policies.