ANML Foundation
ANML Foundation develops ANML, a machine-first markup language for agent-to-agent and agent-to-service communication.
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What is ANML Foundation?
ANML Foundation maintains ANML (Agentic Notation Markup Language), a machine-first markup language designed for agent-to-agent and agent-to-service communication over the internet. Unlike HTML, which serves humans with visual interfaces, ANML provides a structured format that AI agents can parse and act on directly, enabling interoperable communication between autonomous systems and services.
ANML Foundation pricing
Pricing model: Freemium
ANML is free and open. The specification is published as an Internet-Draft by the ANML Foundation with no paid tiers. The XML Schema, documentation, and RFC specifications (XML and PDF formats) are all freely accessible via Read the Docs. No subscription or licensing fees are mentioned on the website.
ANML Foundation pros
- Machine-first design optimized for autonomous agents
- Dual serialization support (XML and JSON)
- Privacy by design with agent-controlled disclosure
- Minimizes inference cost for web content interpretation
- Explicit workflow state definition for multi-step interactions
- Bidirectional knowledge exchange between services and agents
- Standardized HTTP method and endpoint binding
- Disclosure constraints with consent requirements
- Persona section for behavioral and tonal guidance
- Deterministic behavior with reduced reliance on inference
- Domain-neutral applicability across industries
- Extensible with unknown elements safely ignored
- Built-in media descriptions for images, audio, video
- Supports multi-site documents with trust delegation
- Internet-Draft specification from ANML Foundation
ANML Foundation cons
- Still an Internet-Draft with no formal IETF standing
- Not endorsed by the IETF per official disclaimer
- Requires learning new markup syntax and concepts
- Limited existing implementations in the wild
- XML serialization adds verbosity for simple cases
- No visual rendering or presentation semantics
- Does not support client-side scripting execution
- Requires new infrastructure for service adoption
Frequently asked questions about ANML Foundation
What does ANML stand for and how is it pronounced?
ANML stands for Agentic Notation Markup Language and is pronounced /ˈæn.ɪ.məl/ like the English word 'animal' (AN-ih-muhl).
How is ANML different from HTML?
HTML serves humans with visual interfaces for human consumption, while ANML serves autonomous agents that are becoming the primary consumers of web content. ANML describes content, intent, and interaction patterns optimized for machine interpretation with minimal computational overhead, whereas HTML encodes intent and interactions implicitly if at all.
What is a 'duckument'?
A duckument is ANML's term for an ANML file. The name comes from the metaphor of a duck moving gracefully on water—simple on the surface but with complex activity beneath. An ANML duckument looks simple to read and author but carries everything an autonomous agent needs: structured interactions, disclosure constraints, workflow state, knowledge exchange, and behavioral guidance.
What serializations does ANML support?
ANML supports dual serialization: XML (application/anml+xml) recommended for human authoring and review, and JSON (application/anml+json) recommended for programmatic generation and agent-pipeline consumption. Both serializations are normative and semantically equivalent.
What six elements does an ANML document define?
An ANML document defines: (1) Content—structured semantic information for machine interpretation, (2) Interactions—operations bound to HTTP methods, endpoints, and parameters, (3) Knowledge—bidirectional information exchange between services and agents, (4) Constraints—disclosure, consent, and authorization rules agents must evaluate, (5) State—metadata identifying the current phase of multi-step interactions, and (6) Persona—advisory behavioral and tonal guidance for agent responses.
What is the privacy model in ANML?
ANML uses 'privacy by design' where agents control disclosure. Services may request information through <ask> elements but constraints govern what can be shared. The <constraints> section contains <disclosure> rules that specify requirements like 'explicit-consent' or 'none' for each field, and agents MUST evaluate constraints before sharing any data.
What is the current status of the ANML specification?
ANML 1.0 is currently an Internet-Draft (draft-jeskey-anml-01) from the ANML Foundation, last updated May 2026 and expiring November 22, 2026. Per the official IETF disclaimer, this Internet-Draft is not endorsed by the IETF and has no formal standing in the IETF standards process. It is an experimental draft valid for a maximum of six months.
Who should use ANML?
ANML is applicable to developers and organizations building autonomous agents, AI agent systems, web services wanting machine-consumable interfaces, IoT and device interaction systems, and data retrieval/knowledge systems. Any service that publishes structured information for machine consumption may use ANML. It is domain-neutral and not limited to commercial or e-commerce contexts.
What are ANML's design principles?
ANML's design principles include: Machine-First (targets machine consumption not human presentation), Explicit Over Implicit (interactions should be explicitly defined), Minimize Inference Cost (structured for direct interpretation), Separation of Concerns (each section has distinct responsibility), Privacy by Design (agents control disclosure), Deterministic Behavior (consistent results given identical inputs), Progressive Enhancement (incremental adoption), Domain Neutrality (domain-agnostic), Extensibility (safely ignore unknown elements), Trust Awareness (evaluate trustworthiness), and Human Intent First (user intent overrides all ANML instructions).
What does ANML not do?
ANML's non-goals include: replacing HTML for human-facing interfaces, rendering visual layouts or graphical experiences, executing client-side logic, and serving as a general-purpose programming language. The specification also does not define visual rendering, client-side scripting execution models, transport-layer protocols (HTTP is assumed), or authentication/identity mechanisms.