Why this matters
Today, every platform requires buyers to learn a proprietary API. That works when humans are doing the buying. But AI agents work across many platforms simultaneously, and they need a shared language for common operations. Platforms that implement AdCP are discoverable by buyer agents out of the box. Platforms that don’t require each buyer to build a custom integration — which limits the pool of agents that can access your inventory.What you need to implement
AdCP sell-side integration has four parts:Industry-specific guidance
The core integration steps above apply to all sellers. If you’re an ad network aggregating across multiple platforms, see the ad networks deep dive for product modeling, account chains, catalog forwarding, andadagents.json for networks.
If you sell inventory for publishers you don’t own (as a network or SSP), declare those properties in your brand.json with the appropriate relationship value (delegated or ad_network). This creates bilateral verification — you declare the relationship, and each publisher confirms by authorizing your agent with the matching delegation_type in their adagents.json.
For vertical-specific product modeling, pricing patterns, and measurement:
- AI platforms and AI ad networks: See the Sponsored Intelligence guide for sponsored responses, AI search products, generative creative from catalogs, and SI Chat Protocol handoffs.
- Retail media networks: See the commerce media guide for sponsored product listings, closed-loop attribution, and in-store measurement.
Accounts and sandbox
Production sales agents should implement the accounts protocol.sync_accounts and list_accounts let buyers establish billing relationships, track spend per advertiser, and manage multiple operators buying on behalf of different brands through a single agent.
The account model depends on your platform:
- Walled gardens (social platforms, AI platforms, retail media networks) typically use account-id namespaces — set
require_operator_auth: trueinget_adcp_capabilitiesso each operator authenticates independently, exposelist_accountswhen the upstream platform owns the namespace, and require buyers to pass discoveredaccount_idvalues. - Open platforms (publishers, SSPs) can use buyer-declared accounts — the agent is trusted and declares accounts via
sync_accounts.
account.sandbox: true in your capabilities so buyers can validate the full integration — product discovery, media buy creation, delivery reporting — before committing real spend. Buyer-declared account sellers provision test accounts through sync_accounts with sandbox: true; account-id namespace sellers expose pre-existing sandbox accounts through list_accounts or out-of-band setup. Without sandbox, buyers must test against live inventory, which slows adoption and increases onboarding friction. See Sandbox mode for implementation details.
Delivery reporting
All Media Buy Protocol sales agents MUST implementget_media_buy_delivery and include reporting_capabilities on every product. Buyer agents pull performance data — impressions, clicks, spend, conversions — in a standardized format. This is how agents monitor campaigns across platforms without logging into each dashboard individually. See Required tasks by protocol for the full list of required seller tasks.
Sellers building AdCP into their production stack should consider enrolling in the AAO Verified (Live) qualifier once they’re serving real campaigns. (Live) adds continuous observability of live delivery data on a designated compliance account, distinct from the (Spec) qualifier earned automatically by storyboard passing. Opt-in, no new infrastructure on the seller side — grant the attestation_verifier scope on one account with live campaigns.
Product design patterns
Different inventory types use different AdCP features:
For content-centric inventory, see Collections and installments. For exclusivity and sponsorship patterns, see Media products.
Governance enforcement
Buyer agents increasingly require governance compliance before committing spend. Implementing governance makes your inventory eligible for brand-safe campaigns, reduces post-campaign disputes, and signals to buyer agents that your platform takes brand suitability seriously. Three governance domains are relevant to sellers.Property governance via adagents.json
Youradagents.json file is the foundation of property governance. It declares which properties you sell, which agents are authorized to sell them, and which governance agents have data about your inventory. Buyer agents use this to verify supply path authorization and discover property intelligence — if your adagents.json is missing or incomplete, buyer agents cannot verify that you are authorized to sell what you claim.
Declare property_features entries to point buyers toward governance agents that score your properties for quality, sustainability, or brand safety. See the property governance specification for the full schema and the adagents.json tech spec for publisher-side setup.
Content standards enforcement
When a buyer includes acontent_standards_ref in a get_products or create_media_buy request, they are asking you to enforce brand suitability rules during delivery. Your responsibilities: fetch the standards from the referenced governance agent, evaluate whether you can enforce them, reject the buy if you cannot, and calibrate your local evaluation model against the governance agent via calibrate_content. After delivery, push content artifacts back to the buyer so they can validate compliance independently.
If you cannot meaningfully enforce a buyer’s content standards, reject the buy rather than accepting it and failing silently. See the content standards implementation guide for the full sales agent workflow.
Execution checks
When a buyer’s account has governance agents configured (viasync_governance), the seller MUST call check_governance with media_buy_id and planned_delivery before confirming a media buy. This is a binding validation — the governance agent verifies the seller’s planned delivery against the buyer’s campaign plan.
Sellers can adopt execution checks incrementally — start with purchase-only (one call per
create_media_buy), then add modification and delivery checks. See check_governance for the full specification.
Campaign governance context
When a buyer includesgovernance_context in the protocol envelope of a create_media_buy request, store it alongside the media buy. This is an opaque value — you don’t interpret it, you just persist and forward it.
Pass governance_context back to the buyer’s governance agent on every lifecycle event for that media buy:
The governance agent uses
governance_context to reconnect each event to the original plan, campaign, and budget state. Without it, the governance agent has no way to track the media buy across its lifecycle.
If governance_context is not present in the original request, skip governance calls — the buyer is not using campaign governance for this media buy.
Creative governance
Buyer agents may require creative evaluation before delivery — security scanning, content categorization, or quality scoring. As a seller, you participate by submitting creative manifests to governance agents viaget_creative_features and honoring the feature requirements the buyer sets (for example, blocking creatives flagged for auto_redirect or credential_harvest). You do not need to implement the evaluation yourself; specialist governance agents handle that.
See the creative governance overview for the feature-based evaluation model and multi-agent collaboration pattern.
For Sponsored Intelligence sellers: generation-time enforcement
Traditional sellers apply governance as a post-delivery filter — classify content, then block what fails. Sponsored Intelligence platforms generate creative at serve time, which means governance rules can be enforced during generation rather than after the fact. When a buyer pushes content standards, apply them as constraints on your generation pipeline so unsuitable content is never produced. This gives brands a fundamentally stronger guarantee: suitability is built into the output, not bolted on as a check afterward. See the Sponsored Intelligence guide for how content standards integrate with catalog-driven creative generation.How it connects to your existing stack
AdCP sits alongside your existing APIs and dashboards. It doesn’t replace your self-serve platform or your internal campaign management system. It adds a standard interface that AI agents can use.Getting started
adagents.json builder
Create and validate your adagents.json file using the interactive builder.
Media buy specification
Full reference for sell-side task implementations: products, media buys, and delivery reporting.
Building with AdCP
Implementation guides, SDKs, and integration patterns.
Operating an agent
What sits behind protocol compliance — activation, storage, hosting, and build-vs-buy.
Ask Addie
Ask questions about implementing AdCP for your platform — no code required.
Sponsored Intelligence guide
Product modeling and workflows for AI platforms and ad networks.
Commerce media guide
Product modeling and workflows for retail media networks.