IAB Tech Lab and the Agentic Task Force are excited to announce the finalized v1.0 release of the Agentic Real Time Framework (ARTF), the real-time agentic layer for OpenRTB. This release includes the first stable version of the protocol, which is now being used in production by various companies, including several of the organizations that helped design it.
This release marks the point at which ARTF moves from a proof of concept into a stable, production-ready foundation that implementers can build on.
What Are the ARTF Use Cases?
ARTF is a container and MCP-based standard that can be deployed by companies within the programmatic bidstream. For example, a buyer may deploy their own specialized bidder to an SSP as a container with an agentic interface.
Security is built into this container model: each deployed agent runs in an isolated, locked-down environment on the host’s own infrastructure, with no external network access by default — so a partner’s code can run inside your network without your data ever having to leave it.
The standard is built on proven, production-ready infrastructure primitives — Kubernetes, Docker, Protobuf, and gRPC — paired with MCP as the interface layer for agentic interactions.
Because the standard is flexible and designed on top of powerful primitives, it unlocks many real-time use cases including, but not limited to, the following:
- Verification and enforcement of privacy and consent signals
- Fraud detection
- Specialized bidding
- Bid modification
- Audience augmentation
- Deal activation
- Metrics computation
- Viewability and other signal computation
- Vector embedding processing and generation (as standardized through the Agentic Audiences initiative)
We look forward to seeing what other innovative use cases the industry will come up with.
What v1.0 Adds to the Framework
ARTF was originally released for public comment in February 2026. The Task Force received many valuable comments from the community that were addressed in this release. IAB Tech Lab thanks everyone who commented and, especially, the core contributors who helped implement the feedback.
Other notable additions to what was part of the original version in the public comment release include:
- An orchestration layer that allows one ARTF node to call other ARTF nodes (potentially from other organizations) and merge their responses to a single bid request mutation
- A Rust reference implementation
- Alignment with OpenRTB gRPC and the latest fields
- Clarity on required health and other endpoints
Who is ARTF For?
As you can see from the variety of use cases outlined for ARTF, there are a number of company types that may find value in the framework.
- Buy-side and sell-side platforms that operate on top of the bidstream and want to allow their partners to deploy functionality to their network in a secure manner.
- Measurement partners that can deploy their measurement mechanisms locally to a DSP, an SSP, or both. Examples include viewability and fraud detection providers.
- Data companies that can inspect the bidstream and augment audience information locally without private information leaving the DSP/SSP network.
- Agent developers who want to deploy their agents locally to a DSP or an SSP or to other companies that operate on the bidstream.
- Innovators that want to develop entirely new solutions that weren’t possible before.
What’s Next for ARTF?
ARTF v1.0 has already been deployed and is being used in production by a number of companies, and the final version of the Agentic Real Time Framework (ARTF) v1.0, following extensive public comment, is available now on the IAB Tech Lab GitHub.
During the public comment period, we received feedback from the community that the Task Force deemed to be out of scope for v1.0. The learnings from those operating in production, proposed features needed for more innovative use cases, and feature requests from the advertising technology community will be incorporated into the development of the next version, which has already begun within the Agentic Task Force.
The Task Force is actively looking for proposals for what should be included in v2 of ARTF. Submit proposals today by emailing techlab@iabtechlab.com or using the Members Slack channel. If you have a proposal, we encourage you to join the Task Force and help shape the future of real-time agentic advertising use cases.
Miguel Morales
Director, Agentic Advertising
IAB Tech Lab