Capability Discovery
The process by which one agent learns what another agent or service is able to do, without that knowledge having been configured in advance.
Why it matters
Discovery is the feature that makes agent ecosystems composable and is also the feature that makes them hard to govern: a system whose reach is discovered at runtime has a reach that no static policy document describes.
What it is not
These are routinely confused with Capability Discovery. The distinctions are not pedantic — each one has consequences for how a system is governed.
Discovery is learning what exists. Negotiation is agreeing which subset will be used in this interaction. They are frequently conflated and are sequential.
Relationships
Typed edges into the rest of the ontology. These are what make the canon traversable rather than merely readable.
| Verb | Target | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
relatedTo | Agent Card | An association too weak or too general for a stronger verb. |
dependsOn | A2A | The subject cannot function correctly without the object. |
Record
| Canonical identifier | QIS-TERM-00005 |
| Status | Canonical industry term |
| Adoption | Emerging |
| Domain · Layer | Capability · Intelligence |
| Origin | A2A protocol; parallel mechanisms in MCP. |
| Semantic aliases | Capability negotiation |
| First published | 2026-08-02 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-08-02 · 180-day cycle |
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