Open Intent Layer
The open standard for what agent actions are intended to do
The Open Intent Layer provides a common language for defining intent across agents — digital, physical, or hybrid — and the connectors, gateways, and enterprise systems they reach. v2.0: 29 domains, 173 categories, spanning enterprise digital operations and embodied / physical processes. Open source. Apache 2.0 licensed.
This page is about the standard itself. Intended operationalizes that standard with interpretation, verification, authority, and evidence.
The Open Intent Layer is one part of our open source effort. See the full open source ecosystem →
Open standard, operational platform
The standard is open. Verification is the system built on top of it.
The Open Intent Layer is meant to be portable and shared. Intended makes that standard operational at enterprise scale.
What the Open Intent Layer is
- An open standard for describing what agent actions are intended to do
- A portable language across runtimes, connectors, gateways, and enterprise systems
- Apache 2.0 licensed, vendor-neutral, and designed to spread
What the platform adds on top
- Large Intent Model interpretation across domains and systems
- Intent Objects, Enterprise Capability Engine verification, and Authority Tokens
- Operational workflows for escalation, replay, evidence, and enterprise controls
Why a shared intent layer matters
Without a common language, intent stays ambiguous.
Without a shared intent layer
Every system names actions differently. Intent is ambiguous, evidence is fragmented, and controls do not travel cleanly across systems.
With the Open Intent Layer
One shared intent language. Portable controls. Clearer verification. Consistent evidence across platforms, frameworks, and integrations.
How Intended uses the standard
Open intent language, enterprise verification operations.
Operational interpretation
The platform interprets raw actions with the Large Intent Model and structures them into Intent Objects that can be verified, replayed, and audited.
Authority and enforcement
Intended turns the standard into an operational system with Authority Tokens, fail-closed execution boundaries, and managed decision workflows.
Evidence and governance
Teams need audit replay, evidence exports, approvals, compliance mappings, and shared governance workflows that go beyond adopting a taxonomy alone.
The taxonomy
29 domains, 173 categories
14 digital-operations domains and 15 physical / embodied-process domains. Search or browse the full Open Intent Layer taxonomy.
Get started
Clone the taxonomy repository
The Open Intent Layer is distributed as source from the public GitHub repository. Clone it, reference the oil-taxonomy.json file, and adopt the stable OIL- codes in your logging, monitoring, policy, and audit surfaces. Apache 2.0 — free for any use, commercial or otherwise.
git clone https://github.com/intended-so/open-intent-layer.gitOpen source
Apache 2.0
The Open Intent Layer is free to use, modify, and distribute. Use it in commercial products. Contribute back to the community.
A shared language for what agent actions are intended to do.
Open to adopt. Designed to spread.