Introducing the AAIF Annual Technical Excellence Awards — Nominations Now Open

* Agentic AI Foundation ---------------------------------------- When the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) was established as an open, neutral home for critical AI standards and open source projects under The Linux Foundation, the vision was simple but ambitious: build the foundational infrastructure for the agentic AI era — together. Projects like MCP (Model Context Protocol), Goose, AGENTS.md, and agentgateway didn’t emerge from a single company’s roadmap. They were shaped by contributors, community members, early adopters, and organizations willing to bet on open standards when it wasn’t obvious what “agentic AI infrastructure” would even look like. That community deserves to be recognized. Today, we’re thrilled to announce the inaugural AAIF Annual Technical Excellence Awards — a new program dedicated to honoring the individuals, teams, and organizations whose contributions have meaningfully advanced the mission of open, interoperable agentic AI. Winners will be celebrated at AGNTCon/MCPCon NA in October 2026. Nominations are open now until July 17. WHY THIS MATTERS Open source communities run on recognition — not just the informal kind, where someone leaves a thoughtful comment on a PR or shouts out a contributor in a Discord thread, but the kind that signals to the world: this work matters, and the people doing it matter. AAIF sits at an unusual and important moment in AI’s trajectory. The protocols and tools being standardized right now — the ways agents communicate, the frameworks they run on, the trust and safety mechanisms being baked in — will shape how agentic AI systems are built for years to come. The people writing those specs, educating new contributors, and deploying these standards in real production environments deserve more than a GitHub star. The Technical Excellence Awards are our way of saying: we see you, we’re grateful, and we want the broader world to know what you’ve done. There are no cash prizes. That’s intentional, and consistent with AAIF’s non-profit mission. What winners receive is something more durable: a custom-engraved AAIF plaque, a formal stage moment at AGNTCon/MCPCon NA, and the permanent recognition of the community they helped build. THE AWARDS 🏆 OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION AWARD For individuals who moved the technical needle on an AAIF project. This award recognizes a person who made an exceptional, concrete technical contribution to one of AAIF’s core projects — MCP, Goose, AGENTS.md, or agentgateway. We’re talking about the kind of contribution that changed what was possible: a critical spec addition, a foundational architectural decision, a thorny implementation problem solved in a way others couldn’t figure out, or a sustained body of work that quietly elevated everything around it. Up to 2 recipients will be named each year. Great nominations for this award are specific. What did they build? What problem did it solve? What would the project look like without their work? 🌱 COMMUNITY BUILDER AWARD For the people (or small teams) who grew something bigger than the code. Open source is only as strong as its community. This award recognizes an individual or small team (up to 3 people) who went out of their way to grow, educate, and energize the AAIF community. That might look like building onboarding resources that lowered the barrier for new contributors, organizing meetups or working groups, creating tutorials and content that reached a wide audience, mentoring contributors from underrepresented backgrounds, or simply showing up — consistently, generously, and with genuine care for the people around them. Up to 2 recipients or teams will be recognized each year. If someone’s name keeps coming up when you ask “who should I talk to about getting involved?” — nominate them. 🚀 OPEN AGENTIC AI INNOVATION AWARD For organizations putting open standards to work in the real world. This award recognizes an organization — AAIF member or not — that deployed or meaningfully advanced AAIF’s open standards in production, at scale, or in a way that demonstrated real-world impact. This is about closing the loop between open standards development and actual adoption: showing what becomes possible when organizations commit to building on shared, open infrastructure instead of proprietary lock-in. Up to 2 organizations will be recognized each year. Nominations should speak to outcomes: What did the organization build or deploy? Which AAIF standards or projects did they use? What was the impact — for their users, their industry, or the broader ecosystem? HOW TO NOMINATE Nominations are open to everyone — AAIF members, contributors, community members, and the general public. You can nominate someone else, nominate your own organization, or nominate a team you’ve collaborated with. Self-nominations are welcome. When filling out a nomination, focus on specifics. The selection committee will be looking for nominations that clearly articulate what was done and why it matters. Enthusiasm is great, but concrete detail is better. Don’t assume the committee knows everything about a project or contributor. Help them see what you see. NOMINATE SOMEONE TODAY The open agentic AI ecosystem has grown faster than anyone expected, and it’s grown because of people who chose to build in the open — who wrote the spec when no spec existed, who answered the beginner question for the hundredth time with the same patience as the first, who convinced their organization to bet on open standards when proprietary options were easier. This is the first year of what we hope becomes a long-standing tradition. Let’s start it right — by making sure the people and organizations who showed up early and gave generously are the first ones we celebrate. Nominations will be open until July 17. Nominate Now