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Semicola doesn’t own your identity. You publish it on your own domain and we read it. Three documents matter, each owned by a different party. Buyer-agent credentials and API keys identify an automation to Semicola. They don’t publish or replace any of these documents; see Buyer-agent credentials.

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Storefront operator versus publisher domains

A storefront has one brand domain (the operator running it) and any number of publisher domains (the sites and apps it sells). Publisher domains never replace the brand domain. See Which domain is which.

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How each document is used

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brand.json

When you add an advertiser or set a storefront’s brand domain, Semicola resolves the domain’s brand: first from its own brand registry, then by fetching /.well-known/brand.json over HTTPS. The brand card fills in the name and logo. An unknown domain isn’t an error: the card says no brand is registered yet and one is created from the domain when you save. authorized_operators and a shared house brand are the evidence that links a storefront’s brand domain to a different registered domain.

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adagents.json

The seller directory lists real companies. A publisher can be added through Semicola only when its adagents.json authorizes an agent this platform operates. A publisher whose sales agent hasn’t authorized us is listed but can’t transact; one with no agent at all hasn’t published supply here. A daily check re-reads each directory publisher’s adagents.json.

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Agent capabilities

Before an agent is used, Semicola probes it with read-only discovery calls (get_adcp_capabilities, list_creative_formats, get_products). A probe never creates, reserves or spends anything. Only agents the publisher operates itself are probed; an agent run by another platform is recorded, never called. Every fetch goes through an egress guard: HTTPS only, and never a private address.

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Gates and signals

  • Brand domain verification gates a storefront’s company identity step.
  • adagents.json authorization gates whether a real publisher in the directory can transact.
  • Agent capabilities inform what a connection can do; they don’t grant access.

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Not available yet

  • ads.txt managerdomain delegation and authoritative_location pointer files.
  • Compliance grades for agents (passing, degraded…), and community mirrors of adagents.json.
  • Brand hierarchy from an external registry; the house brand comes from Semicola’s own registry.
  • Publishing identity documents on your behalf.
  • Per-publisher-domain adagents.json checks for your own storefront (see Which domain is which).