# NLWeb

Category: [Agents & Protocols](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/agents-protocols/) › [Agent protocols](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/agents-protocols/agent-protocols/)

**NLWeb** (Natural Language Web) is an open project that gives websites a natural language interface for people and AI agents. Microsoft announced it on May 19, 2025, and the code now lives in the nlweb-ai organization on GitHub. R.V. Guha, who also created Schema.org and RSS, led its design.

## How does NLWeb work?

NLWeb builds on formats many sites already publish, mainly Schema.org markup and RSS. A site owner connects a language model and a vector store, and NLWeb answers questions in natural language from the site's own content. According to the GitHub project, supported models include OpenAI, Gemini and Anthropic models, and supported vector stores include Qdrant, Elasticsearch, Milvus and Postgres. The code is under the MIT license.

Every NLWeb instance also acts as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, as Microsoft puts it. Its core method is `ask`, which takes a natural language question. An AI agent can therefore query the site's content through MCP.

## Example

A recipe site publishes recipes with Schema.org markup and runs an NLWeb instance. A visitor asks for vegetarian dinners that take under 20 minutes and gets matching recipes from the site. An AI agent can send the same question to the instance through MCP.

## What it means for SEO

NLWeb depends on well-maintained structured data. Sites that already keep their Schema.org markup accurate have the input it uses (assessment, not a documented ranking effect).

## FAQ

**Is NLWeb a standard like robots.txt?**
It is an open source project with reference code from Microsoft. No standards body has adopted it.

**Which sites adopted it early?**
Microsoft's announcement names publishers such as Eventbrite, O'Reilly Media and Tripadvisor as early adopters.

## At a glance

- **Publisher:** Microsoft (announced 2025-05-19)
- **Connects:** websites (Schema.org and RSS content) with users and AI agents; every instance is an MCP server
- **Status:** open-source project without a published version number
- **License:** MIT
- **Specification:** [NLWeb (GitHub)](https://github.com/nlweb-ai/NLWeb)

Last checked: October 8, 2026

## AI agent protocols compared

| Protocol | Publisher | Connects | Status and version |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCP (Model Context Protocol) | by Anthropic, since 2025-12-09 at the Agentic AI Foundation (Linux Foundation) | AI applications with servers that provide data, tools and prompts | current version 2026-07-28 |
| A2A (Agent2Agent) | by Google, donated to the Linux Foundation; joining the Agentic AI Foundation announced on 2026-08-27 | AI agents from different vendors with each other | specification 1.0 (release v1.0.1 of 2026-05-28) |
| ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol) | OpenAI and Stripe | buyers and their AI agents with businesses and payment providers | beta, current version 2026-04-17 |
| AP2 (Agent Payments Protocol) | Google; standardisation continues in FIDO Alliance working groups | AI agents, merchants and payment providers for payments on behalf of users | v0.2 (release of 2026-04-28) |
| UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol) | Google with commerce partners (incl. Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, Walmart) | platforms and AI agents with businesses (profile at /.well-known/ucp) | stable, version 2026-08-25 |
| WebMCP | W3C Web Machine Learning Community Group (editors from Microsoft and Google) | websites with AI agents in the browser | draft (Draft Community Group Report of 2026-10-02), not a W3C standard; origin trial in Chrome from version 149 |
| NLWeb | Microsoft (announced 2025-05-19), open source under the MIT licence | websites (Schema.org and RSS content) with users and AI agents; every instance is an MCP server | open-source project without a published version number |

Sources: [Model Context Protocol: Specification 2026-07-28](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2026-07-28); [Model Context Protocol: Versioning](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/versioning); [Anthropic: Donating the Model Context Protocol and establishing the Agentic AI Foundation (2025-12-09)](https://www.anthropic.com/news/donating-the-model-context-protocol-and-establishing-of-the-agentic-ai-foundation); [A2A Protocol: Specification](https://a2a-protocol.org/latest/specification/); [A2A: A new chapter for A2A, joining the Agentic AI Foundation (2026-08-27)](https://a2a-protocol.org/latest/blog/2026/08/27/a-new-chapter-for-a2a-joining-the-agentic-ai-foundation/); [A2A releases (GitHub)](https://github.com/a2aproject/A2A/releases); [Agentic Commerce Protocol (GitHub)](https://github.com/agentic-commerce-protocol/agentic-commerce-protocol); [AP2: Agent Payments Protocol](https://ap2-protocol.org/); [AP2 releases (GitHub)](https://github.com/google-agentic-commerce/AP2/releases); [Universal Commerce Protocol: Specification overview (2026-08-25)](https://ucp.dev/latest/specification/overview/); [Universal Commerce Protocol](https://ucp.dev/); [WebMCP: Draft Community Group Report (W3C Web Machine Learning CG)](https://webmachinelearning.github.io/webmcp/); [Chrome for Developers: WebMCP (updated 2026-10-07)](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/webmcp); [Microsoft: Introducing NLWeb (2025-05-19)](https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/company-news/introducing-nlweb-bringing-conversational-interfaces-directly-to-the-web/); [NLWeb (GitHub)](https://github.com/nlweb-ai/NLWeb). Last checked: October 8, 2026

*Diagram: Which protocol covers what?.* Map of agent protocols as of 2026-10-08: which connection each protocol covers, who publishes it and what its status is. In commerce, ACP, UCP and AP2 overlap, and several protocols build on MCP or A2A. Versions change quickly.

## Related terms

- [MCP (Model Context Protocol)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mcp/index.md)
- [MCP server](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mcp-server/index.md)
- [Schema.org](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/schema-org/index.md)
- [Structured data](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/structured-data/index.md)
- [WebMCP](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/webmcp/index.md)

## Sources

- [Introducing NLWeb – Microsoft Source (May 19, 2025)](https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/company-news/introducing-nlweb-bringing-conversational-interfaces-directly-to-the-web/)
- [nlweb-ai/NLWeb – GitHub](https://github.com/nlweb-ai/NLWeb)

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Last updated: October 8, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/nlweb/