LCP.
The HTTP of lead generation. A universal way to move consumer leads between publishers, platforms, and buyers. Open, free, and built to last twenty years.
> 01. What is LCP?
LCP stands for Lead Context Protocol. It is a shared language for the lead generation industry, the way HTTP is the shared language of the web.
When someone fills in a form, makes a call, or starts a chat, that enquiry is a lead. LCP defines one standard way to describe that lead and move it from whoever captured it to whoever will act on it. One format. One set of rules. Every system that speaks LCP can talk to every other system that speaks LCP.
It is an open standard, released under the Apache 2.0 license. Anyone can read it, implement it, and use it. No membership. No approval. No fees.
> 02. The problem it solves
Today, every publisher and every buyer builds a custom pipe to every other publisher and buyer. Different formats, different fields, different rules. A lead captured in one system arrives in another system missing half its context, or carrying data it should never have carried.
That is how the web worked before HTTP. Every site spoke its own language, and every connection was a bespoke project. LCP does for leads what HTTP did for the web: it replaces a thousand custom pipes with one standard.
| Before LCP | With LCP | |
|---|---|---|
| Integration | Custom build for every partner | One standard, works everywhere |
| Context | Lost or mangled between systems | Carried in a structured envelope |
| Privacy | Personal data sent to everyone | Sent only to the winning buyer |
| Disputes | No shared record of what happened | Every step logged as an event |
> 03. How it works
Every LCP message is a standard envelope. The envelope says who sent it, who it is for, when it was sent, and what kind of message it is. Inside sits the payload: the lead itself, with the consumer's details, consent evidence, and context.
LCP works in three ways, depending on how the parties want to do business:
Direct post
A publisher sends a lead straight to one buyer. Simple, fast, no middleman.
Ping / bid / post
A platform asks eligible buyers if they want the lead, collects bids, and sends the full lead only to the winner.
Agent binding
AI agents can submit and process leads through a standard adapter, with consent proof attached.
> 04. What happens after delivery
A lead is not a one-way message. It has a life. LCP tracks that life with standard events, so every party can see the same record of what happened:
When a buyer disputes a lead, the dispute is a standard event with a reason and evidence. When a lead converts, that is a standard event too. No more he-said-she-said over email. The record is the record.
> 05. Privacy by design
LCP treats personal data as the most valuable thing in the system, because it is. The protocol is built so that personal data goes only where it is needed:
- Pings carry no personal data. Before a buyer bids, they see only non-identifying signals: the category, the region, the quality flags. The schema makes it impossible for personal data to leak into a ping.
- Full details go to the winner only. The complete lead is delivered to the buyer who won the auction, and no one else.
- Consent is evidence, not a checkbox. Every lead carries proof of consent: when it was given, where, and for what purposes.
- Phone numbers are hashed per pair. Each buyer sees a different hash of the same number, so no two buyers can compare records to build a profile.
> 06. Why open
Closed systems die. Standards survive. LCP is published under the Apache 2.0license, the same license that powers some of the most widely adopted software in the world. It includes an anti-capture clause: no one can take the standard private, and no one can use it to lock anyone else out.
LCP is designed to be boring in the best way. HTTP and JSON have been stable for decades. The protocol is built on those same foundations, so it will still work twenty years from now, for whatever new kind of lead the industry invents next.
> 07. The specification
The full specification lives in the public repository, along with the machine-readable schemas, a conformance test suite, and software development kits for ten languages. Everything is free to read, implement, and use.
SPEC.md The canonical protocol specification schemas/ Machine-readable JSON Schemas verticals/ Per-industry schemas (mortgage, insurance, solar, legal) test-vectors/ 30 conformance tests across three tiers implementations/ SDKs for 10 languages + reference platform api/ OpenAPI definition for HTTP integrations governance/ Contributing, security, and trademark policies