# Agentic Ad Lab > Protocol-neutral reference for agentic advertising: AdCP, AAMP, and how machines buy media. Opinionated analysis of the two agentic advertising standards, written for people with budget authority. Every page takes a position on what to build, what to defer and what to put in a contract, and says where a standard is silent rather than filling the gap. ## Measured — Original data. Collected on the date below, by the method stated in each section. - [Agent Discovery Files: Six Live adagents.json Files, Zero Signing Keys](https://agenticadlab.com/measured/agent-discovery-files/): A publisher tells buying agents who may sell its inventory by serving /.well-known/adagents.json at its own apex and www, setting authorization_type on every entry, and pinning each agent signing key. Six production files exist; none pins a key. ## Traced — Every claim below opens a file at a named commit. The shas are in the citations. - [AAMP Status: What IAB Tech Lab Has Published, and What Pinning It Gets You](https://agenticadlab.com/traced/aamp-what-iab-has-published/): AAMP is a label over eight independently versioned IAB Tech Lab repositories. One holds a published specification, ARTF; the rest are reference code and drafts. The tag both reference agents pin installs a package that reports version 0.1.0. - [Agentic Advertising Standards: The Version You Can Put in a Contract](https://agenticadlab.com/traced/agentic-advertising-standards-landscape/): Agentic advertising has two standards. Write `adcp_version: "3.1"` into the agreement, never a patch number: AdCP publishes a version oracle and a 12-month support window. AAMP publishes neither, so pin an AAMP counterparty to a commit sha. - [How a Machine Buys Media: 13 Operations, and Which Rules Bind](https://agenticadlab.com/traced/how-a-machine-buys-media/): How a machine buys media: one CTV campaign runs 13 of the 64 operations AdCP publishes in 3.1.13, from get_adcp_capabilities to report_usage. Both stacks describe more rules than their schemas enforce, and every unenforced rule lands in your code. - [Five Gaps in the Agentic Ad Stacks, and the Two That Have Not Moved](https://agenticadlab.com/traced/what-agentic-ad-protocols-dont-standardize/): The five gaps neither agentic ad stack fully standardises are measurement, invalid traffic, settlement, cross-stack identity and disputes. Settlement is the one that moved: AdCP 3.1.13 put a named counting authority, invoices and a closed remedy menu on the wire. The two that have not moved are cross-stack identity and, underneath all five, the agent registry every other control hangs off. ## Argued — A judgement, signed. The evidence is checkable; the conclusion is mine to defend. - [Agentic Ad Lab: who writes it, who pays, what would reverse the call](https://agenticadlab.com/about/): Agentic Ad Lab is written by Constantine Mirin, CEO of Postindustria, which sells integration work on the stack the site recommends, and is affiliated with neither body. It argues AdCP is fundable now and AAMP is not, and names the release that would reverse that. - [AdCP vs AAMP: Which Standard to Implement](https://agenticadlab.com/argued/adcp-vs-aamp/): AdCP and AAMP are the two agentic advertising stacks: AdCP one versioned specification of 64 operations, AAMP an IAB Tech Lab umbrella over eight independently versioned repositories. Both have blanks. Implement AdCP first, because only its blanks carry dates. - [Protocol Integration and Agent Readiness Work](https://agenticadlab.com/services/): An agentic integration splits in two: the L0 to L3 protocol layer, which AAO prices at 14 to 18 weeks from scratch and the TypeScript SDK already ships, and L4 business logic, which no SDK ships and nobody has priced. - [Who Is Actually Running Agentic Buys: A Sourced Ledger](https://agenticadlab.com/argued/who-is-running-agentic-buys/): The companies who have transacted agentic media buys since December 2025 are Butler/Till, PubMatic, Magnite, NBCUniversal, Yahoo, Omnicom and Vox Media, mostly on AdCP. One advertiser is named, and every headline figure was published by a company selling agentic software. - [Will Agents Replace Media Buyers? Six Roles, Task by Task](https://agenticadlab.com/argued/will-agents-replace-media-buyers/): Agents will not replace media buyers. Each stack automates the tasks its own schema carries and decides: pacing writes on AdCP, counter-offers and IO paperwork on AAMP, creative sync on AdCP only, because no AAMP path moves a creative at all. Where a person still supplies the number, the floor or the policy, the task stays human. ## Instrument — A tool, not a read. Bring your own buy and work through it. - [The Autonomy Ladder for Agentic Media Buying: What a Counterparty Can Prove](https://agenticadlab.com/instrument/autonomy-ladder/): The autonomy ladder is the five rungs between an agent that only reads your delivery data and one that moves money unattended. Vendors sell rung placement as a buyer-set dial; it is set by whichever counterparty's implementation is loosest. - [Questions to Ask an Agentic Advertising Vendor, and the Answers That Disqualify](https://agenticadlab.com/instrument/questions-to-ask-an-agentic-vendor/): Questions to ask an agentic advertising vendor work only if the vendor can fail them on the wire. Three of the seven below converge on one artifact: the targeting dimensions your planning depends on, named from the nine that `get_adcp_capabilities` declares and a seller MUST honour, re-checkable by anyone. ## Optional - [Full text corpus](https://agenticadlab.com/llms-full.txt): every page as one markdown file - [Brief Gateway](https://briefgateway.com): Turn a campaign brief into a structured object a seller agent can actually consume. - [AdCP Explorer](https://adcpexplorer.com): Every Ad Context Protocol task, schema and discovery file, browsable and linkable. - [AAMP Explorer](https://aampexplorer.com): Reference for IAB Tech Lab's Agentic Advertising Management Protocols and their component repos. - [What Is Agentic Buying](https://whatisagenticbuying.com): A single, definitive, citable answer to one question. - [Ad Tech Glossary](https://adtechglossary.com): Plain-language definitions for the vocabulary of agentic and programmatic advertising.