Oracles in æternity serve as a bridge between the blockchain and external data sources, enabling smart contracts to access real-world information in a decentralized manner. As native protocol-level entities, rather than smart contract implementations, oracles in æternity offer an efficient and reliable way to bring outside data onto the blockchain.
The [Oracles documentation](/developer-documentation/protocol/oracles.md) covers the complete oracle lifecycle, from registration and operation to querying and response handling, including technical specifications for oracle APIs, type systems, and time-to-live (TTL) mechanisms.
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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.
Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:
```
GET https://docs.aeternity.com/aeternity-developer-tools/protocol/core-protocol-components/oracles.md?ask=
```
The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.
Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.