The "$dynamicRef" keyword is an applicator that allows for deferring the full resolution until runtime, at which point it is resolved each time it is encountered while evaluating an instance.

Together with "$dynamicAnchor", "$dynamicRef" implements a cooperative extension mechanism that is primarily useful with recursive schemas (schemas that reference themselves). Both the extension point and the runtime-determined extension target are defined with "$dynamicAnchor", and only exhibit runtime dynamic behavior when referenced with "$dynamicRef".

The value of the "$dynamicRef" property MUST be a string which is a URI-Reference. Resolved against the current URI base, it produces the URI used as the starting point for runtime resolution. This initial resolution is safe to perform on schema load.

If the initially resolved starting point URI includes a fragment that was created by the "$dynamicAnchor" keyword, the initial URI MUST be replaced by the URI (including the fragment) for the outermost schema resource in the dynamic scope (Section 7.1) that defines an identically named fragment with "$dynamicAnchor".

Otherwise, its behavior is identical to "$ref", and no runtime resolution is needed.