WAREHOUSES.md

Universal Warehouse Discovery & Capacity Coordination — where agents locate available storage, negotiate terms, and orchestrate fulfillment operations globally.

Part of the protocols.md network

📦 Draft v0.1 - Universal warehouse coordination layer. This is exploratory speculation about how autonomous agents might discover and book warehouse capacity. RFC stage

Today's Warehouse Bottlenecks

The current logistics infrastructure is buckling under modern demands, creating critical pain points across the industry:

FBA overflow chaos: Sellers face costly storage fees and stockouts during peak seasons
Cold chain crisis: 30% of food spoils in transit while temperature-controlled space sits underutilized
Labor volatility: 73% of operators cite labor shortages as their top challenge (MWPVL International)
Dock door deadlocks: 40% of warehouse time is spent waiting for trucks (Prologis Research)

These aren't just inefficiencies—they're systemic failures in how we coordinate physical logistics in a digital-first world.

Why Now?

The warehouse is and will be the atomic unit that shines as we enter the physical/ai world — the anchor in an economy increasingly run by AI agents. With warehouses.md, capacity becomes liquid, programmable, and globally discoverable — unlocking exponential value as agents coordinate the movement of the physical world.

One Endpoint

GET https://warehouses.md/discover

The Warehouse Layer

1. Discovery & Booking

POST /book
{
  "location": "within_50km_of_LAX",
  "sqft_needed": 25000,
  "duration": "3_months"
}

Find and secure warehouse space in real-time.

2. Cross-Docking

{
  "cross_dock": {
    "inbound": "40ft_container",
    "arrival": "2025-09-12T14:00:00Z",
    "outbound": ["Chicago", "Dallas", "Atlanta"]
  },
  "facility": "Memphis_CrossDock_7"
}

3. Capacity Matching

{
  "facility_id": "wh_789xyz",
  "available_capacity": "62,000 sqft",
  "type": "cold_storage",
  "utilization_gain": "58%"
}

Protocol Integration

warehouses.md connects with:
├── shipping.md      → inbound container coordination
├── trucking.md      → last-mile pickup scheduling  
├── sensors.md       → temperature/humidity monitoring
├── workforce.md     → labor allocation for pick/pack
├── contracts.md     → automated lease agreements
└── settle.md        → usage-based payment settlement

Why This Matters

The global warehouse industry is entering the age of autonomous coordination. As AI agents begin orchestrating supply chains, they need programmatic access to the 2 billion square feet of warehouse capacity worldwide — yet this $200 billion market still runs on phone calls and spreadsheets.

For warehouse operators and institutional owners

→Revenue optimization through AI-driven dynamic pricing that captures peak demand while filling off-season capacity
→Automated tenant acquisition as agents book space directly, eliminating broker fees and vacancy periods
→Portfolio-wide coordination allowing REITs and large operators to synchronize pricing and availability across hundreds of facilities
→Predictive capacity planning as agent demand patterns provide forward-looking utilization insights

For the autonomous economy

→Instant discovery across global warehouse inventory from 10 sqft lockers to million-sqft distribution centers
→Real-time orchestration of complex operations like cross-docking and cold chain without human intervention
→Elastic capacity that scales with demand, turning fixed assets into fluid resources
→Seamless integration with shipping.md, trucking.md, and rail.md for end-to-end logistics automation

When agents handle millions of daily transactions, warehouse operators using traditional methods will be invisible to the autonomous economy. warehouses.md ensures every square foot of capacity is discoverable, bookable, and monetizable by the machines coordinating tomorrow's supply chains.

published: 2025-01-09T10:30:00-07:00

content_hash: sha256:w4r3h0u53c0d3f7g8h9j0k1l2m3n4o5p6q7r8s9t0u1v2w3x4y5z6

status: brainstorming

contact: proofmdorg@gmail.com

Timestamped for prior art protection

warehouses.md

2025 The Open Logistics Foundation · MIT License · Industry Specification

Part of the protocols.md agentic infrastructure suite — neutral, open protocols for autonomous supply chain coordination

warehouses.md is not an app or marketplace — it is the neutral coordination layer that lets any agent, 3PL, or operator transact warehouse capacity in real-time.