OJCP — Open Job Context Protocol

OJCP (Open Job Context Protocol) is an open standard that defines how AI agents interact with job opportunities — from discovery through application. Proposed by Austin Anderson, CTO of Recruitics, and governed by an independent steering committee, the protocol is currently at Draft v0.1 and published under the Apache 2.0 license.

What It Is

OJCP is a protocol specification, not a SaaS product. It defines a shared vocabulary and set of MCP-compatible tools so that AI agents and job providers — employers, ATS vendors, job boards, staffing agencies — can communicate in a structured, interoperable way. The spec composes with the Model Context Protocol (MCP), WebMCP (Chrome 146+), and schema.org/JobPosting, meaning existing structured data and MCP clients can adopt it without wholesale replacement of existing infrastructure.

Core Architecture

The protocol is organized around seven JSON schemas and six standard MCP tools:

• Manifest — Every OJCP provider exposes /.well-known/ojcp.json declaring tools, endpoints, apply paths, and auth requirements. Agents probe this to discover capabilities automatically.
• MCP Tools — search_jobs (required), get_job_detail, get_employer_context, begin_application, submit_application, and check_application_status. Any MCP client can call these directly.
• Apply Path Taxonomy — Normalizes fragmented application mechanisms (ats_direct, provider_hosted, platform_native, email, external_redirect, custom) so agents know exactly how to apply and whether agent submission is supported.
• CandidateContext — A minimal, consent-scoped candidate profile passed by agents for personalized search and fit scoring. Designed to minimize PII transmission; resume embeddings enable fit-scoring without sending raw personal data.
• AgentDeclaration — Agents self-identify on every application initiation, enabling employer audit trails, rate limiting, and abuse prevention.
• Identity Verification — For roles requiring verified human identity (finance, government, healthcare), OJCP integrates with third-party verifiers like ID.me and Clear using cryptographic JWS proofs. No PII flows through the protocol itself.

WebMCP Integration

OJCP supports browser-native agents via WebMCP (Chrome 146+) through two complementary APIs. The imperative API lets careers pages register OJCP tools directly via document.modelContext.registerTool(). The declarative API lets developers annotate HTML apply forms with toolname and tooldescription attributes so agents can submit applications natively. This means the same schemas and tools work across both server-side MCP transports and browser-embedded agent surfaces.

Governance and Coalition Model

The spec is governed by an independent steering committee where each member organization holds one seat and none holds a veto. The homepage lists founding members including Workday, CrossCountry Healthcare, Recruitics, LoopCV, Hiring.cafe, aiApply, scale.jobs, and Tink. The spec text, schemas, and examples are all published in the open GitHub repository under Apache 2.0 (code) and CC BY 4.0 (spec text).

Current Status: Draft v0.1

The GitHub repository shows the project was created in April 2026 and last updated in August 2026. The published roadmap targets:

• v0.1 — Draft spec + Recruitics reference implementation (Q1 2026)
• v0.2 — First external partner integration (Q2 2026)
• v0.3 — Registry MVP + browser agent pilot (Q3 2026)
• v1.0 — Stable spec; 10+ verified providers (Q4 2026)

The live site at ojcp.dev hosts a working playground against mock data, a provider registry, and the full specification at spec.ojcp.dev. The project is actively seeking co-contributors from job boards, ATS vendors, agent platform developers, and enterprise employers.