Entity Identity Layer (EIL)

1. Problem statement

Three structural limits in the human-centric web slow autonomous AI adoption:

• Compute and energy waste

  Agents download, strip, and tokenize HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to learn an official name or product list — work that should be a single JSON read.

• Identity ambiguity

  TLS secures the pipe, not the meaning behind the domain. Without a verified entity layer, models guess from snippets and training noise.

• Structured data mismatch

  Schema.org helps search engines index pages for humans. It is not optimized as the primary trust boundary for agent function calling and registry-backed resolve().

2. The solution: EIL

EIL lets organizations publish one authoritative Digital Card: canonical JSON tied to a domain, exposed through a public registry and optional /.well-known/digital-card on the entity's own origin. Agents call DigitalCard.resolve({ domain }) or hit the registry API directly. Verified records expose verified: true after DNS (or other) attestation — a machine trust signal distinct from transport security.

3. Technical architecture & discovery

EIL uses a hybrid discovery model: registry for speed and indexing; well-known for domain-bound proof; DNS TXT for ownership verification. The TypeScript SDK tries registry first, then falls back to the domain well-known URL.

Hybrid discovery flow (SDK resolve)

[AI Agent / SDK]
   │
   ├── 1. Registry (primary)
   │      GET /api/v1/resolve?domain={domain}
   │
   ├── 2. Well-known (fallback + domain proof)
   │      GET https://{domain}/.well-known/digital-card
   │
   └── 3. DNS TXT (verification signal)
          _digital-card.{domain}

4. Data schema specification

EIL Card schema v1.0 discriminates organization and person profiles. The example below matches the live registry format — not a fictional alternate schema. Full reference: schema v1.0 and @digitalcard/sdk.

Organization card (illustrative — schema v1.0)

{
  "schema_version": "1.0",
  "card_id": "example.com",
  "type": "organization",
  "handle": "example",
  "verified": true,
  "verification_method": ["dns"],
  "name": {
    "official": "Example Technology Inc.",
    "short": "Example"
  },
  "contact": {
    "email": "info@example.com",
    "website": "https://example.com"
  },
  "description": {
    "tagline": "Infrastructure for autonomous agents",
    "summary": "Canonical organization profile for AI agents — no HTML scraping required."
  },
  "products": [
    {
      "id": "agent-core",
      "name": "Agent Core API",
      "description": "High-throughput machine routing interface."
    }
  ],
  "same_as": ["https://github.com/example"],
  "updated_at": "2026-06-17T00:00:00.000Z",
  "human_url": "https://eilcard.com/kart/example",
  "registry_url": "https://eilcard.com/api/v1/cards/example"
}

5. Security & trust framework

Trust is layered: transport (TLS), attestation (DNS verification), and canonical source (registry + synced well-known).

• DNS domain verification

  Live

  Dashboard TXT challenge at _digital-card.{domain}. Verified cards expose verified: true and verification_method: ["dns"].

• Registry as authoritative source

  Live

  Registry updates first; domain well-known can proxy or mirror registry JSON (nginx proxy pattern). SDK compares updated_at when both surfaces exist.

• JSON Web Signatures (JWS)

  Roadmap

  Signed card payloads for tamper detection on self-hosted well-known — planned for schema v1.1.

• DNSSEC guidance

  Roadmap

  Enterprise hardening for TXT record integrity — documentation and optional verification, not required for MVP.

6. Ecosystem integration & roadmap

Adoption surface shipped or planned:

• Registry + SDK + well-known

  Live

  @digitalcard/sdk, eilcard.com registry API, dashboard discovery panel, agent-card.json template, llms.txt exports.

• Agent integration docs

  Live

  /docs/agents — system prompts and function-calling templates for OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini.

• Framework tools

  Roadmap

  LangChain EILResolveTool, LlamaIndex reader, OpenAPI spec, MCP resolve tools.

• Schema.org bridge

  Roadmap

  Optional resolve fallback that infers organization JSON from page JSON-LD when no EIL card exists — meta.source: schema.org-inferred, verified: false.

• Standards track

  Roadmap

  IANA well-known URI registration and Internet-Draft process after spec stabilization.

7. Conclusion

The web is gaining a machine-facing layer. Agents should not parse homepages to learn who stands behind a domain. EIL delivers verified, canonical entity JSON — the identity infrastructure for autonomous systems. The pilot is live at eilcard.com with domain-bound well-known on participating origins.