IETF logoI’ve updated the Simple Web Discovery (SWD) specification to incorporate a means of performing discovery on domains for which it may not be possible to create a .well-known endpoint. This can often be the case for hosted domains, where it is common for e-mail to be provided but no web server. This solution was developed in discussions by the OpenID Connect working group.

This draft is being published now to facilitate discussions of the need to enable discovery for hosted domains and possible solutions for doing so at the IETF Applications Area working group meeting at IETF 85 in Atlanta.

The updated specification is available at:

Changes made were:

  • Specified that the SWD server for a domain may be located at the simple-web-discovery subdomain of the domain and that SWD clients must first try the endpoint at the domain and then the endpoint at the subdomain.
  • Removed the SWD_service_redirect response, since redirection can be accomplished by pointing the simple-web-discovery subdomain to a different location than the domain’s host.
  • Removed mailto: from examples in favor of bare e-mail address syntax.
  • Specified that SWD servers may also be run on ports other than 443, provided they use TLS on those ports.

An HTML formatted version is available at: