Curator Trust

The discovery and trust layer for agentic booking.

What is Curator?

Curator defines how authorities express their knowledge about collections of venues. Where Venue defines what venues say about themselves, Curator defines what authorities say about them.

Venue      →  "This is who I am" (venue self-knowledge)
Curator    →  "This is what I know about them" (third-party observation)

Individual venue claims lack regional context and third-party validation. Curators provide this context.

Curator is a namespace extension to A2A Agent Cards. Curators are agents that can answer questions, recommend venues, and verify claims.

Curator Types

Curator (base)
├── Curator:DMO        Regional destination authority
├── Curator:Portfolio  Curated collection
└── Curator:Editorial  Critics, guides, awards

Type	Examples	Authority basis
DMO	Visit Norfolk, Visit Cornwall	Geographic scope, official recognition
Portfolio	Cottages.com, Great British Hotels	Curated selection, booking relationships
Editorial	Michelin, AA Rosettes, Good Food Guide	Reputation, editorial judgment

Core Concepts

Stories

Narratives that reveal place through people. Not marketing copy—real voices, specific details.

Verification

Certification levels and editorial badges that create evidence for venue claims.

Coverage

What the Curator knows about—venue counts, geographic bounds, narrative density.

Actions

What agents can ask: recommend, answer, getStory, listVenues, verify.

Transparency

Required disclosure of economic relationships and ranking methodology.

The Chorus Principle

"The destination doesn't describe itself. Its people do. The Curator's job is to listen and amplify."

Stories create evidence that venues can't create for themselves:

{
  "story": {
    "type": "venue-interview",
    "about": { "venueId": "white-lion-blakeney", "venueName": "The White Lion" },
    "content": {
      "headline": "Where the sailors drink",
      "quotes": [{
        "text": "The harbour's been here longer than the building. We're just caretakers.",
        "attribution": "James Morton",
        "role": "Publican"
      }],
      "insiderTip": "The crab comes off the boat at 6am. Be at breakfast by 8 if you want it."
    }
  }
}

The Curator Index

Agents need to discover which Curators exist. The Curator Index is the discovery layer above individual Curators.

The specs define what Curators publish. They do not define who operates the index.

However, the index layer SHOULD be:

Principle	Why
Open	Queryable by any agent without gatekeeping
Plural	Multiple indexes can exist and compete
Transparent	Index operators publish inclusion criteria
Accountable	Index operators are subject to the same principles as Curators

Whoever operates an index has power over discovery. That power should be legible, contestable, and distributed.

Mutual Validation

Curators and venues validate each other:

Venue validates Curator:
  847 venues certified by Visit Norfolk
  → "This DMO has comprehensive coverage"

Curator validates Venue:
  Visit Norfolk certified The White Lion
  → Evidence on the venue's record
  → Third-party credibility

This creates natural resistance to spam and fake authorities.

Learn More

Specification

Full technical specification with schema definitions.

Examples

Working JSON examples for Curator Agent Cards and stories.

Principles

Public commitments on power, accountability, and disputes.