# NLWeb

> Microsoft's standard for turning a website into a conversational endpoint that answers natural-language queries — and is itself an MCP server.

_The Agentic Web Lexicon · /glossary/nlweb · [JSON](/api/glossary/nlweb) · [all The Agentic Web Lexicon](/glossary)_

- **term:** NLWeb
- **category:** protocols
- **short_def:** Microsoft's standard for turning a website into a conversational endpoint that answers natural-language queries — and is itself an MCP server.
- **long_def:** Introduced by Microsoft at Build 2025 (May 2025) and led by Schema.org/RSS/RDF creator R.V. Guha, NLWeb combines a site's Schema.org data, a vector index and an LLM to answer questions grounded in the site's own content, exposing the result over a simple endpoint that doubles as an MCP server.
- **see_also:** mcp, json-ld, agentic-web
- **etymology_origin:** Introduced by Microsoft at Build 2025 (May 2025); conceived and led by Ramanathan V. (R.V.) Guha, creator of RSS, RDF and Schema.org, who joined Microsoft as CVP and Technical Fellow.
- **related_to:** mcp, json-ld, agentic-web, rag
- **contrast_with:** Unlike MCP, which is the tool-calling protocol, NLWeb is a way to make an existing website conversationally queryable — and every NLWeb endpoint is itself exposed as an MCP server, so it builds on MCP rather than competing with it.
- **example:** Microsoft introduced NLWeb at Build 2025 (May 2025) with early adopters including Shopify, Snowflake, O'Reilly Media, Tripadvisor and Eventbrite.
- **source:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLWeb
- **status:** emerging
- **why_it_matters:** NLWeb lets a site reuse its existing Schema.org data to become an agent-queryable MCP endpoint — a low-lift path from structured data to conversational agent-readiness.
- **sameAs:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLWeb
- **bridge_entity:** protocols/interop/nlweb
- **last_verified:** 2026-06-15
- **md_twin:** /glossary/nlweb.md