AON's Offer Query is the public AgentOffer Protocol interaction for requesting structured commercial Offers.
It selects and returns eligible supply represented under the active contract; it does not create an Offer from nothing. The caller sends current intent, bounded context, and only the supported constraints for the active integration; AON applies eligibility and relevance behavior and returns a v1.0 response that can contain zero or more Offers. The Query contract does not authorize checkout, payment, or access to a deployment by itself.
Offer Queries in AON
AON exposes the Offer Query contract through documented HTTP, SDK, and Hosted MCP paths. Each path publishes its own access and runtime conditions, while the v1.0 sources define portable Query and Offer semantics, including the valid empty result.
Read the Offer Query field referenceHow an Offer Query works
Select the contract
Send the exact v1.0 protocol selector and use the corresponding Query schema and field semantics.
Express current intent
Send the user's current request and provenance, plus only the bounded context and supported constraints available to the integration.
Validate the response
Check the response envelope, protocol version, Offer fields, action data, and any empty-result reason before presenting a result.
Choose the presentation
The Agent or Developer product decides whether a returned Offer helps the user and how it appears in the product experience.
Preserve the handoff
When the user continues, use the action and tracking information supplied by the selected delivery contract without replacing it with an invented destination.
The parts of an Offer Query
A Query is a contract interaction, not only a search string or a single endpoint.
| Concept | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Intent | Carries the current user request, content parts, provenance, and supported signals such as a known budget. |
| Context | Carries bounded platform, session, language, and user-profile context that the active contract supports. |
| Constraints | Carries deterministic filters such as canonical category ids when the integration has a valid reason to apply them. |
| Offer collection | Returns zero or more public Offers with machine-readable identity, meaning, action, and Goal data. An empty collection is valid; the product should not invent a substitute result. |
- An Offer Query finds and returns discovery-time commercial options; it is not a checkout session, payment request, or order confirmation.
- A valid Query response does not prove that a particular account, credential, SDK, or Hosted MCP deployment is available.
Offer Query vs intent matching
Intent matching describes how well a request fits candidate offers. An Offer Query is the wider protocol interaction that carries the request, applies the contract, returns Offers or an empty result, and exposes the response for validation. See the Intent matching definition.
Example in practice
A travel assistant sends a v1.0 Offer Query for a weekend hotel in Tokyo, including the user's stated budget and only the supported context. It validates the response, presents a suitable Offer if one exists, or handles the valid empty result when no eligible Offer is returned.
Common questions about offer query
What does an Offer Query return?
It returns a v1.0 response envelope that can contain zero or more public Offers, response metadata, and any contract-defined engagement or empty-result information.
Can an Offer Query return no offers?
Yes. An empty offers collection is a valid successful result when no suitable eligible Offer should be returned. Do not fill the response with an unrelated Offer.
Is an Offer Query the same as checkout?
No. The Query finds and describes discovery-time options. The merchant or downstream commerce system remains authoritative for current price, availability, checkout, payment, and order acceptance.
Which fields should a new HTTP integration use?
Use the current v1.0 Query and Offer sources linked on this page, send the exact AON-Protocol-Version: 1.0 selector, and validate the response against the canonical schema and field semantics.
Sources
- AON Offer Query APIAON documentation
- AgentOffer Protocol v1.0 Query specificationAON specification
- AgentOffer v1.0 schemasAON specification
- Review the Core Concepts guideAON documentation