GoDaddy partnered with cloud network player Infoblox on domain name system (DNS)-based standards for agentic identity and trust.

The venture will see Infoblox advance on DNS for AI discovery (DNS-AID), an open, interoperable approach for AI agent discovery formed on existing DNS infrastructure.

GoDaddy will complement these efforts by developing agent name service (ANS), an open standard focused on AI agent identification, naming, and verification using DNS and public key infrastructure (PKI).

Currently advancing as an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) draft and open-source software, DNS-AID specifies how agents can publish discoverable metadata using existing DNS record types, including RFC 9460 service bindings (SVCB), DNS-SD service discovery, domain name system security extensions (DNSSEC), and DNS-based authentication of named entities (DANE).

ANS is centered on agentic identity, enabling agent operators to use their existing domain names, removing the need for new registries or proprietary naming schemes. Agents are provided with their own unique identifiers along with cryptographic mechanisms to verify their authenticity.

“Agents will only reach their full potential on the open web if people and systems can verify who they are interacting with,” GoDaddy Chief Strategy and Legal Officer Jared Sine noted. “Adopters of the agent name service open standard leverages the only infrastructure that exists today that operates at the scale and speed of the global internet – domain name service. We support Infoblox’s work on DNS-AID and believe open standards for identity, discovery and verification will be critical as agents become part of everyday digital experiences.”

“The lesson we learned from the 1970s to 1980s is simple: no single entity could or should run the phonebook of the internet for everyone,” Infoblox Chief Legal Officer Wei Chen added. “DNS replaced it, not with another centralized list, but with an open, federated protocol that anyone could participate in. Forty years later, DNS remains the gold standard for digital trust and a scalable foundation where agents, model context protocols, services, and endpoints can be discovered and trusted through the same architecture that already powers the global economy.”

The scheme expands on GoDaddy's work in the agentic realm. The domain firm recently partnered with Cloudflare on integrating AI crawler controls and support ANS for identifying AI agents on the web.

The agreement centered on bringing Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control into GoDaddy’s hosting platform, giving website owners visibility into and control over how AI-driven crawlers access their content. The feature allows users to allow, block, or set conditions, including potential payment requirements, for AI data collection.