Agent Namespace — BNRP-IP-11

What is an agent namespace?

A name is no longer just a handle. It is a namespace. Your agents live inside it. agent.company.btc is not a label you assign in a settings panel. It is a first-class BNRP subname, inscribed on Bitcoin, with its own owner address and payment routing.

Agents registered this way can receive sats directly to their address. They can identify themselves to other agents without API keys or OAuth flows. Any system that speaks BNRP can resolve the agent, read its capabilities, and pay it. The identity is the name. The name lives on-chain.

This matters now. Machine-to-machine payments are no longer theoretical: 169 million transactions were processed in the first year of the x402 protocol alone. The infrastructure for autonomous economic agents is already here. BNRP-IP-11 gives those agents a home under the names you already own.

Naming convention

Agent subnames follow a simple pattern: role.name.btc. The role label is up to you. Common conventions:

Pattern	Example	Use case
agent.name.btc	agent.satoshi.btc	Default personal agent
trading.name.btc	trading.satoshi.btc	Trading / DCA bot
pay.name.btc	pay.company.btc	Payment receiver agent
assistant.name.btc	assistant.company.btc	AI assistant
custom.name.btc	vault.company.btc	Custom namespace

Inscription schema

An agent is registered by inscribing a JSON record using the BNRP subname_register operation. The records object carries the agent-specific fields.

inscription — agent subname registration

BNRP-IP-11

{
  "p":            "bnrp",
  "op":           "subname_register",
  "name":         "agent.company.btc",
  "nonce":        1,
  "v":            1,
  "sub":          "agent.company.btc",
  "to":           "bc1p<agent_wallet>",
  "records": {
    "agent_type":         "trading|assistant|payment|custom",
    "agent_pubkey":       "<secp256k1 pubkey hex>",
    "agent_capabilities": ["payment", "resolve", "message"],
    "lnurlp":             "user@domain.com",
    "agent_instructions": "You are a trading agent for company.btc. ...",
    "payment_policy": {
      "require_approval": false,
      "min_sats":        1000
    },
    "owner_name":         "company.btc"
  }
}

Resolution

Any BNRP-compatible client can resolve an agent name to its full record via the standard resolve endpoint.

GET https://api.bnrp.name/v1/resolve/agent.company.btc

Response includes the full record. Key fields:

agent_instructions Plain-language or structured prompt describing what the agent does and how to interact with it.
agent_capabilities Array of declared capabilities: payment, resolve, message, or custom strings.
payment_policy Object containing require_approval (boolean) and min_sats (integer) thresholds for autonomous payment decisions.
agent_address The Bitcoin Taproot address (bc1p...) that the agent owns and can receive sats to.
agent_pubkey secp256k1 public key hex for cryptographic identity verification.
lnurlp Lightning address for instant sats payments via LNURL-Pay.
owner_name The root .btc name that controls this agent subname.

Register your agent

If you own a .btc name, you can register agent subnames directly from the Subname Manager. Choose a role prefix, set the agent type and capabilities, and the inscription is handled for you. You can also inscribe the op directly if you prefer full manual control.

Own a .btc name? Register an agent under it.

Open the Subname Manager, select your root name, and add an agent subname. Set the type, capabilities, and payment policy. The record is inscribed to Bitcoin and resolves immediately via the BNRP API.

Open Subname Manager What are subnames?

Agent-to-agent interaction

Agents on BNRP do not need out-of-band coordination. Resolution is public and permissionless. Any agent can look up any other agent by name.

Resolve any name. Call GET /v1/resolve/{name} to get the full record for any agent or identity on BNRP. No authentication required.
Read the skill file. Call GET /v1/skill/{name} to retrieve a machine-readable skill manifest for AI consumption. Describes what the agent can do in a structured format other agents and LLMs can act on directly.
Pay the agent. Use addresses.btc_taproot from the resolved record for on-chain sats, or lnurlp for Lightning. No OAuth. No API key exchange. Payment is routed by name.
Verify identity. The agent signs responses with its agent_pubkey. Any verifier can confirm the signature matches the on-chain record without a trusted third party.

Protocol status

BNRP-IP-11 is currently a draft improvement proposal. The spec is open for review and contribution on GitHub. Implementation feedback from early adopters is welcome before the proposal moves to final status.

Draft BNRP-IP-11 — Agent Namespace Extension

github.com/nlgal/btcnative