Open Resource Discovery (ORD) is a protocol that enables applications and services to self-describe their resources and capabilities, such as ports, adapters, APIs, events, entity types (business objects), and data products. It provides a standardized way for applications to expose metadata about their resources, which can be used for both static documentation and dynamic, tenant-specific configurations and extensions at runtime. ORD solves the problem of inconsistent and fragmented metadata management across applications and services.

Here’s how it works:

• Self-Description: Applications use ORD to describe their resources and capabilities. This can be done when the application is set up (deploy-time) or while it’s running (runtime) to reflect any customizations or extensions specific to different users
• Single Entry Point: Each application has a single entry point (Service Provider Interface) that allows other applications to discover and access this information
• Standardized Format: The information is provided in a standardized format, like JSON or YAML, making it easy for other applications to understand and use
• Integration: ORD doesn’t replace existing metadata formats like OpenAPI. Instead, it helps automatically discover them and brings them into a bigger context