Action
An action performed by a direct agent and indirect participants upon a direct object. Optionally happens at a location with the help of an inanimate instrument. The execution of the action may produce a result. Specific action sub-type documentation specifies the exact expectation of each argument/role.
See also blog post and Actions overview document.
Properties
13 of its own, and 14 it inherits. Each says what kind of value it takes.
| Property | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| action | Value: How | Description of the process by which the action was performed. |
| action | Value: Action | Indicates the current disposition of the Action. |
| agent | Value: Organization or Person | The direct performer or driver of the action (animate or inanimate). E.g. John wrote a book. |
| end | Value: Date | The endTime of something. For a reserved event or service (e.g. FoodEstablishmentReservation), the time that it is expected to end. For actions that span a period of time, when the action was performed. E.g. John wrote a book from January to December. For media, including audio and video, it's the time offset of the end of a clip within a larger file. Note that Event uses startDate/endDate instead of startTime/endTime, even when describing dates with times. This situation may be clarified in future revisions. |
| error | Value: Thing | For failed actions, more information on the cause of the failure. Consider using the Error type. |
| instrument | Value: Thing | The object that helped the agent perform the action. E.g. John wrote a book with a pen. |
| location | Value: Place, Postal | The location of, for example, where an event is happening, where an organization is located, or where an action takes place. |
| object | Value: Thing | The object upon which the action is carried out, whose state is kept intact or changed. Also known as the semantic roles patient, affected or undergoer (which change their state) or theme (which doesn't). E.g. John read a book. |
| participant | Value: Organization or Person | Other co-agents that participated in the action indirectly. E.g. John wrote a book with Steve. |
| provider | Value: Organization or Person | The service provider, service operator, or service performer; the goods producer. Another party (a seller) may offer those services or goods on behalf of the provider. A provider may also serve as the seller. |
| result | Value: Thing | The result produced in the action. E.g. John wrote a book. |
| start | Value: Date | The startTime of something. For a reserved event or service (e.g. FoodEstablishmentReservation), the time that it is expected to start. For actions that span a period of time, when the action was performed. E.g. John wrote a book from January to December. For media, including audio and video, it's the time offset of the start of a clip within a larger file. Note that Event uses startDate/endDate instead of startTime/endTime, even when describing dates with times. This situation may be clarified in future revisions. |
| target | Value: Entry | Indicates a target EntryPoint, or url, for an Action. |
| Property | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| additional | Value: Text or URL | An additional type for the item, typically used for adding more specific types from external vocabularies in microdata syntax. This is a relationship between something and a class that the thing is in. Typically the value is a URI-identified RDF class, and in this case corresponds to the use of rdf:type in RDF. Text values can be used sparingly, for cases where useful information can be added without their being an appropriate schema to reference. In the case of text values, the class label should follow the schema.org style guide. |
| alternate | Value: Text | An alias for the item. |
| description | Value: Text or Text | A description of the item. |
| digital.org.ai | Value: Number | Digital maturity score from 0.0 (fully analog/manual) to 1.0 (fully digital/autonomous). Indicates the degree to which an entity operates digitally. |
| disambiguating | Value: Text | A sub property of description. A short description of the item used to disambiguate from other, similar items. Information from other properties (in particular, name) may be necessary for the description to be useful for disambiguation. |
| identifier | Value: Property | The identifier property represents any kind of identifier for any kind of Thing, such as ISBNs, GTIN codes, UUIDs etc. Schema.org provides dedicated properties for representing many of these, either as textual strings or as URL (URI) links. See background notes for more details. |
| image | Value: Image | An image of the item. This can be a URL or a fully described ImageObject. |
| main | Value: Creative | Indicates a page (or other CreativeWork) for which this thing is the main entity being described. See background notes for details. |
| name | Value: Text | The name of the item. |
| owner | Value: Organization or Person | A person or organization who owns this Thing. |
| potential | Value: Action | Indicates a potential Action, which describes an idealized action in which this thing would play an 'object' role. |
| same | Value: URL | URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item's identity. E.g. the URL of the item's Wikipedia page, Wikidata entry, or official website. |
| subject | Value: Creative | A CreativeWork or Event about this Thing. |
| url | Value: URL | URL of the item. |
Subtypes
16 more specific kinds of Action, 115 counting their own subtypes.
- Achieve
Action3 subtypes The act of accomplishing something via previous efforts. - Assess
Action11 subtypes The act of forming one's opinion, reaction or sentiment. - Consume
Action10 subtypes The act of ingesting information/resources/food. - Control
Action7 subtypes An agent controls a device or application. - Create
Action6 subtypes The act of deliberately creating/producing/generating/building a result out of the agent. - Find
Action3 subtypes The act of finding an object. - Interact
Action19 subtypes The act of interacting with another person or organization. - Move
Action3 subtypes The act of an agent relocating to a place. - Organize
Action11 subtypes The act of manipulating/administering/supervising/controlling one or more objects. - Play
Action2 subtypes The act of playing/exercising/training/performing for enjoyment, leisure, recreation, competition or exercise. - Search
Action The act of searching for an object. - Seek
To This is the Action of navigating to a specific startOffset timestamp within a VideoObject, typically represented with a URL template structure.ActionPending - Solve
Math The action that takes in a math expression and directs users to a page potentially capable of solving/simplifying that expression.ActionPending - Trade
Action8 subtypes The act of participating in an exchange of goods and services for monetary compensation. - Transfer
Action10 subtypes The act of transferring/moving (abstract or concrete) animate or inanimate objects from one place to another. - Update
Action6 subtypes The act of managing by changing/editing the state of the object.
Where it is a value
2 properties take an Action as their value.
Where this comes from
Quoted from Schema.org, and credited. Nothing in this definition is written by us.
- Published bySchema.orgschema.org/Action
- ReleaseVersion 30.116 September 2026
- LicenseCC BY-SA 3.0Free to copy and adapt, with credit, under the same licence
- Changed by usNothing.
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