@techreport{morrison-mcp-dns-discovery-04,
    number =    {draft-morrison-mcp-dns-discovery-04},
    type =      {Internet-Draft},
    institution =   {Internet Engineering Task Force},
    publisher = {Internet Engineering Task Force},
    note =      {Work in Progress},
    url =       {https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-morrison-mcp-dns-discovery/04/},
    author =    {Blake Morrison},
    title =     {{Discovery of Model Context Protocol Servers via DNS TXT Records}},
    pagetotal = 29,
    year =      2026,
    month =     may,
    day =       17,
    abstract =  {This document defines a DNS-based mechanism for the discovery of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, the identity properties of the organisations that operate them, and (new in this revision) the cryptographic identity envelope bound to an individual Sovereign- tier \textasciitilde{}handle published under the same zone. Three TXT resource records are defined. The \_mcp.\textless{}domain\textgreater{} record (defined in v01) advertises the presence, endpoint URL, transport protocol, cryptographic identity, and capability profile of an MCP server associated with a domain name. The \_org-alter.\textless{}domain\textgreater{} record (introduced in v02) advertises the canonical organisational identity of the domain operator: legal entity name, registry identifier, founding date, primary regions of operation, and any regulatory frameworks under which the operator is bound to refuse external automated access. The \_alter.\textless{}domain\textgreater{} record (introduced in this revision) publishes an Ed25519-signed identity envelope binding a \textasciitilde{}handle to a public key, an IdentityLog Signed Tree Head root, and a revocation commitment. Taken together, the three records provide service discovery, organisational identity bootstrap, and individual identity recognition from a single canonical source: the domain's own DNS zone. This revision additionally requires DNSSEC {[}RFC4033{]} validation of envelope responses and a DANE TLSA {[}RFC6698{]} pin binding the MCP endpoint's leaf certificate to the published zone. A companion URI scheme (alter:) is registered provisionally with IANA per {[}RFC7595{]} for handle dispatch. The mechanism complements HTTPS- based discovery (.well-known/mcp/server-card.json and .well-known/ alter-envelope.json) by providing a lightweight, resolver-cached bootstrap that requires no HTTPS round-trip. The design follows the precedent established by DKIM {[}RFC6376{]}, SPF {[}RFC7208{]}, DMARC {[}RFC7489{]}, MTA-STS {[}RFC8461{]}, and the existing \_mcp. / \_org-alter. labels of v01-v02.},
}