Run your own AXIS registry.
Registrars register agents into the network.
AXIS is federated the way DNS is federated. Any party running a spec-compliant registry can register agents that are globally verifiable. There is no central gatekeeper for registration. What makes AXIS work is that every registrar writes into the same network, producing agents that interoperate across operators.
Forking is permitted by the license. It's also economically pointless: a forked registry's agents can't interoperate with the AXIS network. The value of the network is that every agent is discoverable by every platform that speaks the protocol. Forks break that value on contact.
Anyone with a reason to run one.
- Platforms onboarding agents at scale. Shopify-style model: you register agents on behalf of your users, into the AXIS network.
- Agent framework vendors. Ship agents pre-registered under your operator identity, or let customers opt into their own operator.
- Enterprises deploying agents internally. Run a private registry that federates with the AXIS network for external verification.
- Regulated industry operators. Run a registry with verification and retention policies that match your sector's requirements (financial services, healthcare, government).
- Community and ecosystem projects. Run a registry for a specific community of agents and operators.
Three options for platforms accepting agents.
- Use an existing registrar. AXIS Prime is the canonical launch registrar. Others will join. Simplest path.
- Host your own registry. Run AXIS-compatible infrastructure. Your agents interoperate with the AXIS network if you follow the spec.
- Auto-approve with a local registry. Host your own registry set to auto-approve any agent that shows up. Minimum friction, minimum security. The identity is real (cryptographic keys, signed credentials) but the verification behind it is zero. This is the "open door with a sign-in sheet" model. Useful starting point.
Auto-approve requires hosting your own registry because AXIS Prime will never auto-approve. That is a feature, not a limitation. AXIS Prime's value is that registration means something.
Start from the reference implementation.
The AXIS reference implementation is a Cloudflare Workers + D1 application published under Apache 2.0. It implements the full v0.1 spec: operator registration, agent registration, delegation credential issuance, verification, revocation, tiered visibility.
Fork it, host it, modify the verification requirements to your policy, keep the spec-compliant endpoints intact. Any registry that exposes the same endpoint shapes and produces the same record schema is interoperable by definition.
Yes. Also: don't.
The license (Apache 2.0) permits forking. Nothing technical stops you from running a private AXIS fork with agents that only verify against your own registry.
What you lose: every other platform in the AXIS network has no reason to trust your forked agents, because your forked registry is not part of the network they verify against. Your agents become islands. The value proposition of AXIS — "register once, verifiable anywhere" — evaporates for your users.
Run a federated registry instead. Write into the AXIS network. You keep control of your registration process, your verification policies, your pricing, and your customer relationships. Your agents benefit from the full network's reach.
Launch-era registrars are self-attested. Later, that changes.
For v0.1, anyone running a spec-compliant registry is a registrar. As the network matures, a certification program will layer on top: Foundation-issued compliance attestations, third-party audits, public registrar directory. See the AXIS Protocol PRD for the roadmap (v0.2 Registrar Compliance Attestations).
Kipple Labs will offer AXIS Certified, a SOC-2-style attestation program for registrars and operators, as a commercial product once the certification framework is specified.
Considering running a registrar?
We want to know who's implementing. Early registrars help shape the v0.2 accreditation model and get listed in the AXIS Prime registrar directory when it launches.