# IAB Tech Lab

> IAB Technology Laboratory is the non-profit consortium that writes the technical standards of digital advertising — OpenRTB, AdCOM, OpenDirect, VAST/VMAP, TCF, GPP, ads.txt/sellers.json, Open Measurement — and, since 2025, an agentic-advertising stack (buyer-agent, seller-agent, Agentic RTB Framework) that ships OpenAPI 3.1, JSON Schema, protobuf, MCP and A2A contracts as open-source reference implementations. No /llms.txt is served by iabtechlab.com (404 on 2026-09-17); this file was generated by API Evangelist from the contracts in this profile.

## Hosting reality (read first)

- Nothing below is hosted by IAB Tech Lab except the Supply Chain API, which is gated behind the Tools Portal login (https://tools.iabtechlab.com/). Every other contract is a standard or a reference implementation you (or a seller) deploy.
- MCP servers exist (seller-agent: 46 tools; OpenDirect: 33 tools with inputSchemas) but run on the operator's host — install first, then connect at `<host>/mcp/` (trailing slash required).
- A2A agent cards are served by self-hosted agents at `/.well-known/agent.json`; none on an iabtechlab.com host.

## Contracts (machine-readable)

- [Ad Seller System API — OpenAPI 3.1, 87 operations](openapi/iab-tech-lab-seller-agent-openapi.json): products, avails, tiered pricing, quotes, deal booking (idempotency_key), negotiation, change requests, orders, packages, curators, SSP distribution, GAM sync, operator API keys. Docs: https://iabtechlab.github.io/seller-agent/
- [Ad Buyer Agent API — OpenAPI 3.1, 14 operations](openapi/iab-tech-lab-buyer-agent-openapi.json). Docs: https://iabtechlab.github.io/buyer-agent/
- [IAB Agentic Advertising API — OpenAPI 3.1, 13 operations](openapi/iab-tech-lab-agentic-advertising-api-openapi.yaml): the canonical buyer/seller wire protocol incl. POST /a2a/jsonrpc and GET /.well-known/agent.json. Source: https://github.com/IABTechLab/iab-agentic-primitives
- [OpenDirect 1.5.1 — Swagger 2.0, 51 operations](openapi/iab-tech-lab-opendirect-1-5-1-swagger.yaml): programmatic direct (organizations, accounts, orders, lines, creatives, assignments, change requests). OpenDirect 2.1 is prose + MCP tools.
- [OpenRTB 2.6-202606 — Protocol Buffers](grpc/iab-tech-lab-openrtb-v2.proto): package com.iabtechlab.openrtb.v2, BidRequest/BidResponse, 69 messages. Spec: https://github.com/InteractiveAdvertisingBureau/openrtb2.x
- [AdCOM 1.0 — Protocol Buffers](grpc/adcom/iab-tech-lab-adcom-adcom.proto): media, placement, context, enums. https://github.com/IABTechLab/adcom-proto
- [Agentic RTB Framework — gRPC](grpc/agentic-rtb-framework/iab-tech-lab-agenticrtbframeworkservices.proto): service RTBExtensionPoint / rpc GetMutations. https://github.com/IABTechLab/agentic-real-time-framework
- [VAST 4.4 XSD](xsd/iab-tech-lab-vast-4.4.xsd), [VAST 4.2](xsd/iab-tech-lab-vast-4.2.xsd), [VAST 4.1](xsd/iab-tech-lab-vast-4.1.xsd), [VMAP 1.0](xsd/iab-tech-lab-vmap-1.0.xsd)
- [Agentic primitives — 16 JSON Schemas](json-schema/): Deal, Order, Line, Product, Proposal, Negotiation, MediaKit, Agent, Account, Organization, Creative, CreativeApproval, Assignment, ChangeRequest, ConsentContext, DecisionRecord.

## Agent surfaces

- [MCP manifest](mcp/iab-tech-lab-mcp.yml): seller-agent (Streamable HTTP /mcp/, protocol 2025-06-18, or stdio; operator API key for admin tools), OpenDirect MCP (localhost:3000, SSE), ARTF "Extend RTB".
- [OpenDirect MCP tool catalog with inputSchemas](mcp/iab-tech-lab-opendirect-mcp-tools.json)
- [Tool crosswalk MCP <-> REST](mcp/iab-tech-lab-tool-crosswalk.yml)
- Skills: [quote-to-book a deal](skills/iab-tech-lab-quote-to-book-deal.md), [negotiate a deal](skills/iab-tech-lab-negotiate-deal.md), [book an OpenDirect line](skills/iab-tech-lab-opendirect-book-line.md)

## Runtime semantics

- [Conventions](conventions/iab-tech-lab-conventions.yml): Bearer/X-Api-Key auth with buyer/operator roles; idempotency partial (bookDeal, createQuote); reversibility verified for OpenDirect line cancel (Reserved/Booked/InFlight only); offset pagination; FastAPI 422 error envelope.
- [Authentication](authentication/iab-tech-lab-authentication.yml) · [Errors](errors/iab-tech-lab-problem-types.yml) · [Lifecycle](lifecycle/iab-tech-lab-lifecycle.yml) · [Changelog](changelog/iab-tech-lab-changelog.yml) · [Rate limits: none published](rate-limits/iab-tech-lab-rate-limits.yml) · [Plans](plans/iab-tech-lab-plans-pricing.yml)
- [Conformance](conformance/iab-tech-lab-conformance.yml): author of OpenRTB, AdCOM, OpenDirect, VAST, sellers.json, TCF, GPP; implements A2A, MCP, gRPC, JSON Schema; no RFC 9457, no OIDC.

## Libraries

- [Packages](packages/iab-tech-lab-packages.yml): @iabtechlabtcf/core|cmpapi|stub 1.5.22 (npm, 2026-09-01), @iabgpp/cmpapi 3.2.0 (npm, 2026-08-03), com.iabgpp:iabgpp-core 3.2.4 (Maven), com.iabtcf:iabtcf-core 2.0.10 (Maven, 2021); seller-agent/buyer-agent v2.4.2 and iab-agentic-primitives v0.5.1 from GitHub only.
- [CLI](cli/iab-tech-lab-cli.yml): ad-seller (create-operator-key, list-operator-keys, delete-operator-key, freewheel-login), ad-buyer.

## Hosted product

- Supply Chain API (ads.txt / app-ads.txt / sellers.json crawls, Transparency Center registries): https://iabtechlab.com/software/iab-tech-lab-supply-chain-api/ — $2,500/yr members, $4,500/yr non-members, API+ $2,500/yr more. Sign up via https://tools.iabtechlab.com/transparencycenter/apiAccess/all. Backing host https://api.iabtechlab.com (alias coreapi) answers /health; /docs and /openapi.json redirect to /login.

## Optional

- Standards index: https://iabtechlab.com/standards/
- GitHub: https://github.com/InteractiveAdvertisingBureau · https://github.com/IABTechLab
- Terms: https://iabtechlab.com/terms-of-use/ · Privacy: https://iabtechlab.com/privacy-policy/ · Contact: https://iabtechlab.com/contact-us/