Linux Foundation launches Agentic AI open standards hub

The Linux Foundation has created a new Agentic AI Foundation that will act as a neutral home for three prominent open source projects focused on AI agents: Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, Block's goose framework and OpenAI's AGENTS.md convention.

The move brings together some of the largest commercial players in artificial intelligence under a common governance structure. Anthropic, Block and OpenAI are founding contributors. Major cloud and software providers including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and SAP have signed on as members.

The foundation will focus on standards and shared infrastructure for so-called agentic AI. This describes systems that move beyond conversational interfaces and carry out tasks autonomously, often in coordination with other agents and software tools.

Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, said the sector is at an inflection point. "We are seeing AI enter a new phase, as conversational systems shift to autonomous agents that can work together. Within just one year, MCP, AGENTS.md and goose have become essential tools for developers building this new class of agentic technologies," said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director, the Linux Foundation. "Bringing these projects together under the AAIF ensures they can grow with the transparency and stability that only open governance provides. The Linux Foundation is proud to serve as the neutral home where they will continue to build AI infrastructure the world will rely on."

MCP standardised

Model Context Protocol, created by Anthropic, has become a focal point of the new initiative. The protocol defines a standard way for AI models to connect to external tools, data sources and applications. It has seen rapid adoption across a range of products from multiple vendors.

Anthropic said more than 10,000 MCP servers are now published. These servers span use cases from developer tools to large corporate deployments. Products that support the protocol include Claude, Cursor, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, VS Code and ChatGPT.

Mike Krieger, Chief Product Officer at Anthropic, said the project began as an internal effort. "MCP started as an internal project to solve a problem our own teams were facing. When we open sourced it in November 2024, we hoped other developers would find it as useful as we did," said Mike Krieger, Chief Product Officer at Anthropic. "A year later, it's become the industry standard for connecting AI systems to data and tools, used by developers building with the most popular agentic coding tools and enterprises deploying on AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. Donating MCP to the Linux Foundation as part of the AAIF ensures it stays open, neutral, and community-driven as it becomes critical infrastructure for AI. We remain committed to supporting and advancing MCP, and with the Linux Foundation's decades of experience stewarding the projects that power the internet, this is just the beginning."

Supporters in the cloud sector presented MCP as a way to avoid fragmentation. Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of Agentic AI at Amazon Web Services, said an independent foundation gives developers confidence that the protocol will remain open and interoperable.

Goose framework

Block's contribution, goose, is an open source framework for building local-first AI agents. It combines language models with extensible tools. It uses MCP-based integration as a standard connection layer.

Block said goose offers a structured environment for running agentic workflows on user-controlled infrastructure. The company develops businesses including Square, Cash App, Afterpay and TIDAL, and has expanded into bitcoin-related projects.

Manik Surtani, Head of Open Source at Block, framed the launch as part of a broader debate about openness in AI. "We're at a critical moment for AI. The technology that will define the next decade, that promises to be the biggest engine of economic growth since the Internet, can either remain closed and proprietary for the benefit of few, or be driven by open standards, open protocols, and open access for the benefit of all," said Manik Surtani, Head of Open Source at Block. "By establishing the AAIF, Block and this group of industry leaders are taking a stand for openness. goose was our first step; establishing the AAIF and contributing goose to it ensures that agentic AI remains shaped by the community and driven by merit. Together, we're building the infrastructure for an AI future that benefits everyone."

AGENTS.md standard

OpenAI's AGENTS.md is the third pillar of the new organisation. It is a markdown-based convention that gives AI coding agents a consistent way to access project-specific instructions inside software repositories. It sets a common place for guidance on how agents should behave in a given codebase.

OpenAI released AGENTS.md in 2025. The standard has already been adopted by more than 60,000 open source projects and agent frameworks, including tools such as Amp, Cursor, Devin, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and VS Code.

Nick Cooper, Member of the Technical Staff at OpenAI, said shared practices are important for this type of automation. "For AI agents to reach their full potential, developers and enterprises need trustworthy infrastructure and accessible tools to build on. By co-founding the AAIF and donating AGENTS.md, we're helping establish open, transparent practices that make AI agent development more predictable, interoperable, and safe," said Nick Cooper, Member of the Technical Staff at OpenAI. "OpenAI has long believed that shared, community-driven protocols are essential to a healthy agentic ecosystem, which is why we've open sourced key building blocks like the Codex CLI, the Agents SDK, and now AGENTS.md. We're proud to work alongside our co-founders to advance a more open and trustworthy future for agentic AI."

Broad membership

The Agentic AI Foundation launches with a tiered membership structure. Platinum members include Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Block, Bloomberg, Cloudflare, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. Gold members include companies such as Cisco, Datadog, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, Shopify and Snowflake. Silver members include firms such as Hugging Face, SUSE, Uber and Zapier.

Financial services and infrastructure providers highlighted potential sector-specific uses. Shawn Edwards, Chief Technology Officer at Bloomberg, described MCP as a connective layer for agentic systems in finance. Dane Knecht, Chief Technology Officer at Cloudflare, said open standards such as MCP reduce the risk of vendor lock-in for developers.

Google and Microsoft executives said the foundation aligns with their public positions on open source. Richard Seroter, Chief Evangelist and Head of Open Source Programmes at Google Cloud, said common standards support interoperability across tools. Chris DiBona, Vice President in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, said the company remains committed to an open and reliable foundation for agents.

Events and roadmap

The new organisation will also host community events. Member company Obot.ai has donated its MCP Dev Summit conference series and podcast to the foundation. The next summit is scheduled for New York, with a European edition planned for 2026.

"For the agentic future to become a reality, we have to build it together, and we have to build it in the open. The AAIF will give industry and developers a shared and transparent path to evolve the agentic AI ecosystem. Microsoft remains committed to supporting this journey to create an open, interoperable and reliable foundation for everyone building and using agents," said DiBona.