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What is xAPI?

xAPI (Experience API) is an industry standard for tracking learning and experience data. It's been proven over 10+ years and is now the foundation for AI agent observability.

The core concept

At its heart, xAPI captures experiences as simple statements:

Actor→Verb→Object

“Finance Agent approved Loan Application #8921”

This simple structure can capture any action, from a student completing a course module to an AI agent processing a customer refund. The format is human-readable, machine-parseable, and universally understood.

The full statement

While the core is simple, xAPI statements can include rich context:

Actor
Who performed the action (agent identity, version, permissions)
Verb
What action was taken (approved, flagged, processed, etc.)
Object
What was acted upon (ticket, application, document)
Result
What was the outcome (success/failure, scores, effects)
Context
Why and how (reasoning, triggers, environment)
Timestamp
When exactly (ISO 8601, millisecond precision)
Complete xAPI Statement
{
  "actor": {
    "name": "Finance Agent v2.3",
    "account": {
      "name": "agent-finance-01",
      "homePage": "https://app.empress.eco"
    }
  },
  "verb": {
    "id": "https://empress.eco/verbs/approved",
    "display": { "en-US": "approved" }
  },
  "object": {
    "id": "https://app.example.com/loans/8921",
    "definition": {
      "name": { "en-US": "Loan Application #8921" },
      "description": { "en-US": "Business loan for $50,000" },
      "type": "https://empress.eco/activities/loan-application"
    }
  },
  "result": {
    "success": true,
    "completion": true,
    "duration": "PT0.847S",
    "extensions": {
      "https://empress.eco/extensions/confidence": 0.92,
      "https://empress.eco/extensions/cost": 0.12
    }
  },
  "context": {
    "extensions": {
      "https://empress.eco/extensions/customer-id": "cust-12847",
      "https://empress.eco/extensions/reasoning": [
        "Strong credit score: 720",
        "Positive revenue trend: +15%",
        "Low debt ratio: 0.3"
      ]
    }
  },
  "timestamp": "2026-02-17T14:32:01.234Z",
  "stored": "2026-02-17T14:32:01.456Z"
}

Why xAPI for AI agents?

10+ years proven

xAPI has been the standard in learning systems since 2013. Billions of statements processed. Battle-tested at scale.

Regulatory recognition

Compliance teams and auditors understand xAPI. It's a known format that meets documentation requirements for EU AI Act, GDPR, and more.

No vendor lock-in

xAPI is an open standard. Your data is portable. Export everything, anytime, in a format that works everywhere.

Human and machine readable

Statements are JSON. Humans can read them. Machines can parse them. Analytics tools can query them.

Rich context capture

Beyond just logging. Capture the full context: reasoning, triggers, outcomes, costs. Everything you need to understand why decisions were made.

Cross-system compatibility

xAPI works across tools, platforms, and vendors. One format for all your AI agents, regardless of framework.

A brief history

2013
xAPI 1.0 released
First stable version, developed by ADL Initiative
2017
IEEE standardization
Adopted as IEEE 9274.1.1 standard
2020
Enterprise adoption
Major enterprises adopt for L&D tracking at scale
2025
AI agent observability
Empress extends xAPI for autonomous AI operations

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