Draft 1.0, proposed

Agent-Ready Video (ARV)

An open standard that lets AI agents find, cite and play the exact moment in a video, with rights and credit attached.

For video publishers and creators, the builders of AI assistants, and the teams that run players and video platforms.

Read the spec Quick start

Status: Draft 1.0, proposed
Implementations: 1 origin live, self-declared
Example objects: 7, served as JSON
Open licenses: W3C CLA (spec text), Apache-2.0, CC-BY-4.0
Last change: 2026-09-24

How it works #

One moment, named by its time range, travels through three steps. The same rights and credit go with it each time.

Crawl time
Crawlers read your manifest at /.well-known/arv, your catalog and the JSON-LD Clips on each video page. Every moment has a stable id anyone can recompute.
Inference time
An agent searches moments and checks rights through fixed MCP tools. Search results carry the moment, the evidence and the rights, and never a stream URL.
Playback
A play call returns a short-lived descriptor. Any player starts at the right second and keeps playing. A signed receipt records what was served.

A real example #

These are the actual example objects from Schema 1.0, served as JSON at /examples/1.0/. Fetch them from a browser or a test.

/examples/1.0/manifest.json

{
  "arv": "1.0",
  "conformance_level": "L2",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Example Garage",
    "contact": "agents@example.com"
  },
  "license_url": "https://example.com/license.xml",
  "jwks_url": "https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json",
  "catalogs": [
    "https://example.com/arv.json"
  ],
  "tool_profiles": {
    "mcp_origin": {
      "url": "https://example.com/mcp",
      "version": "1.0"
    },
    "webmcp_page": {
      "adapter": "https://example.com/webmcp/v1/adapter.js",
      "version": "1.0"
    },
    "nlweb": {
      "ask": "https://example.com/ask"
    },
    "a2a": {
      "card": "https://example.com/.well-known/agent-card.json"
    }
  },
  "validator_report": "https://agentreadyvideo.org/validator/r/example.com/2026-09-23",
  "schema": "https://agentreadyvideo.org/schema/1.0/manifest.schema.json",
  "entitlement_url": "https://example.com/account/link",
  "payment_terms_url": "https://example.com/terms/payment"
}

/examples/1.0/moment.json

{
  "arv": "1.0",
  "id": "mom_rg2e4kdenkmkzilboihacumshn",
  "moment_uri": "arv:vid_8f2c#t=12400,31000",
  "moment_url": "https://example.com/videos/carb#t=12.4,31",
  "asset_id": "vid_8f2c",
  "start_ms": 12400,
  "end_ms": 31000,
  "snap": "sentence",
  "title": "Setting the idle mixture screw",
  "evidence": [
    {
      "type": "transcript",
      "start_ms": 12900,
      "end_ms": 18200,
      "text": "Turn the mixture screw a quarter turn out",
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "type": "shot_caption",
      "start_ms": 14000,
      "end_ms": 22000,
      "text": "Close-up of a screwdriver on the idle screw",
      "confidence": 0.81
    }
  ],
  "evidence_grade": "C",
  "confidence": {
    "score": 0.84,
    "band": "high"
  },
  "aliases": [
    "amt_2b7c..."
  ]
}

/examples/1.0/playback-descriptor.json

{
  "arv": "1.0",
  "moment_uri": "arv:vid_8f2c#t=12400,31000",
  "start_ms": 12400,
  "end_ms": 31000,
  "cue_points": [
    22000
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "kind": "hls",
      "provider": "mux",
      "token_ref": "ptk_91",
      "start_ms": 12400
    },
    {
      "kind": "embed",
      "provider": "youtube",
      "embed_url": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/abc",
      "start_param": "start=12"
    }
  ],
  "poster": "https://example.com/poster/vid_8f2c.jpg",
  "captions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "url": "https://example.com/cc/vid_8f2c.vtt"
    }
  ],
  "token": {
    "ref": "ptk_91",
    "jws_kid": "k-2026-09",
    "expires_at": "2026-09-23T12:10:00Z",
    "scope": "segment"
  },
  "entitlement": {
    "required": false,
    "kind": "none"
  },
  "payment": {
    "required": false,
    "model": "free"
  }
}

/examples/1.0/usage-receipt.json

{
  "arv": "1.0",
  "receipt_id": "rcp_5x",
  "moment_uri": "arv:vid_8f2c#t=12400,31000",
  "moment_id": "mom_rg2e4kdenkmkzilboihacumshn",
  "action": "segment_display",
  "served_to": {
    "agent": "chatgpt",
    "surface": "chat"
  },
  "policy_version": 7,
  "served_at": "2026-09-23T12:00:04Z",
  "citation": "Example Garage, Tuning a carburettor, 0:12",
  "jws": "eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6ImstMjAyNi0wOSJ9...",
  "entitlement_ref": "ent_free_public"
}

Who it is for #

Publish

Publishers and creators

You own video and want AI assistants to find it, play the right second and credit you. Start at L1 with JSON files on the site you already run.

Five-minute quick start

Build

Agent and assistant builders

You want to cite and play video moments without guessing at URLs or rights. Call one tool profile on any ARV origin.

Read the tool profile

Play

Player and platform vendors

You run a player or a video platform. One descriptor tells your player where to start. An adapter is under 100 lines.

Read the playback rules

The five things ARV adds #

ARV reuses thirteen standards as they are, including schema.org, Media Fragments, RSL, AIPREF and MCP. It adds only what video needs and nobody else defines.

Moments

A time range on a video, named by its range: arv:vid_8f2c#t=12400,31000. Anyone can recompute its id.

Per-moment rights

What an agent may do with each moment: show it, quote up to N seconds, embed the source, and whether credit is required.

Evidence

Typed spans (transcript, on-screen text, shot caption, visual) inside the moment that show why it answers the question.

Player-neutral playback

One descriptor any player can use to start at the right second. Start time is the rule; the end is advisory.

Usage receipts

A signed record of which moment an agent served, under which rights policy, with the citation it showed.

The thirteen standards it binds #

ARV reuses each of these as it is. The third column is all ARV adds.

Standard	What it covers	What ARV adds	When it applies
schema.org `VideoObject`, `Clip`, `SeekToAction`	Video and chapter metadata for search engines	Clip `@id` equals the moment URI; a Clip appears only when the rights allow segment display	Crawl time
W3C Media Fragments (`#t=start,end`)	Addressing a time range in a media URL	The snapped range is the identity, with millisecond precision in the URI	Crawl, inference, playback
Video sitemaps, MRSS	Listing videos for crawlers and feeds	Per-moment entries and a link to the manifest	Crawl time
llms.txt	A plain guide for language models	Fixed section order that points at the manifest and tools	Crawl time
IndexNow	Push notice of changed URLs	Push when a moment or its rights change, not only when a page changes	Crawl time
RSL 1.0	Machine-readable license and payment terms	Per-moment video terms (clip, segment display, source embed, quote limits)	Crawl time, inference time
IETF AIPREF (`Content-Usage`)	Train, AI-use and search preferences	Header derived from the same rights record as RSL, so they never disagree	Crawl time
MCP and MCP Apps	Agent tool calls and in-chat UI	Origin tool profile with fixed names and shapes; forbidden-field rule	Inference time
WebMCP (`document.modelContext`)	Tools a page exposes to an in-browser agent	Page profile: three tools plus an optional ask tool	Inference time
NLWeb	`/ask` returning schema.org items	Items are Clips with moment URIs	Inference time
A2A agent card	Agent-to-agent discovery	Card skills map to the MCP origin profile	Inference time
JSON Schema, JWS, JWKS	Shape validation, signatures, key sets	Versioned `$id` URLs; signed playback tokens and receipts	All
HLS, DASH, MP4, iframe players	Delivery and players	Player-neutral descriptor with a start for each source	Playback

Status and roadmap #

Item	State
Specification	Draft 1.0, proposed. Published 2026-09-23 at /spec/1.0. It may change before 1.0 is final. See the changelog.
Quick start and examples	Live now. Reach L1 on a static site with seven example objects.
JSON Schemas	Live. Seven schemas at fixed, versioned URLs.
Validator and badge	Coming. One command checks L1, L2 and L3.
Starters	Coming: reference producer, player adapter, MCP origin profile.
URI scheme	Provisional registration of `arv:` requested from IANA on 2026-09-24.
W3C Community Group	Announced for support. Support the proposal at W3C.
Implementations	None yet. The draft says "proposed" until an outside implementation passes the validator. Implementations.

Common questions #

Why not just use schema.org or MCP?

ARV does use them, as they are. Neither says how to name a moment so two systems agree on it, what an agent may do with it, or how to prove what was served. Full answer.

Does the player stop at the end of the moment?

No. ARV sets the start only. The player keeps playing so the viewer stays with the video. The end still governs rights and receipts. Full answer.

Who implements ARV today?

No implementations yet. ARV is Draft 1.0, proposed, and we do not list supporters we do not have. Full answer.

All sixteen questions

How to cite #

Agent-Ready Video (ARV) Specification, Draft 1.0 (proposed). AgentCDN, 2026. https://agentreadyvideo.org/spec/1.0

Link to a section with its anchor, for example https://agentreadyvideo.org/spec/1.0#moment.