Agent Vocabulary

A simple vocabulary for describing Agents and agency relationships.

Overview

This vocabulary defines:

• The concept of an Agent - an entity that has agency and can act independently.
• A property to link any Thing to an Agent that has agency over it.

Namespace

The namespace for this vocabulary is https://w3id.org/agent#.

Classes

Agent

An entity that has agency - the capacity to act independently and make free choices.

Properties

agent

Links a Thing to an Agent.

• Domain: owl:Thing
• Range: agent:Agent

Example Usage in JSON-LD

Here is an example of a JSON document using this vocabulary:

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://w3id.org/agent#"
  },
  "@type": "Person",
  "@id": "https://example.org/people#jane_smith",
  "agent": [
    {
      "@type": "Agent",
      "@id": "https://example.org/agents#robot1",
      "name": "Kitchen Assistant"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Agent",
      "@id": "https://example.org/agents#robot2",
      "name": "Garden Helper"
    }
  ]
}

Explanation:

• The @context specifies the vocabulary (https://w3id.org/agent#) and additional namespaces.
• The @id is used to define the identifier of the entity (https://example.org/people#jane_smith).
• The @type is used to define the type of entity (Person).
• The agent property is used to link the person to the agents they own.

This makes JSON-LD highly flexible and suitable for building interoperable data models while maintaining backward compatibility.

Status

This document is a draft vocabulary specification.

License

This vocabulary is available under the MIT License.