Open Standard Proposal

Rootz is proposing a new industry standard to make every website readable and verifiable for AI. The AI Discovery Standard (/.well-known/ai) gives organizations a structured, cryptographically signed endpoint that tells AI agents who you are, what you do, and proves you said it — replacing the guesswork of web scraping with verified first-party data.

The standard is open (CC-BY-4.0), vendor-neutral, and free to implement. We're building the tools, gathering early adopters, and preparing the IANA registration. Join us.

⬇ Get the WordPress Plugin (v2.5.0) Scan Your Site Read the Spec (v1.3)

The AI Discovery Standard

/.well-known/ai

Help AI understand your website — accurately, verifiably, instantly. One JSON file tells every AI agent who you are, what you do, and proves you said it.

Scan Your Site
Read the Standard (v1.3)

The Problem

Your website speaks human. Nothing on it speaks AI.

The Answer Is the New Homepage

When Google shows an AI summary, people click through to a website in 8% of visits, against 15% without one — and click a link inside the summary in 1% (Pew Research Center, July 2025). The answer is the version of you most people meet.

No Proof of Who Said It

Text reaches an AI with no reliable mark of where it came from. Your own page and a stranger’s post about you look the same to the model, and the answer rarely shows its source.

Built for People, Read by Machines

AI crawlers already make more than 50 billion requests a day to Cloudflare’s network alone (Cloudflare, 2025). They read pages designed for human eyes and infer the rest.

AI Readability Scanner

Enter any URL to see how AI-readable your website is today.

We'll check for /.well-known/ai, JSON-LD, OpenGraph, meta tags, and more.

Scanning site...

F
AI-Invisible
Score: 0/100

    How It Works

    Three tiers of AI-readable data. Start with Discovery, add Knowledge and Feed as you grow.

    1

    Discovery

    /.well-known/ai
    "Who are you?"

    A compact JSON file with your organization's identity, core concepts, and capabilities. The AI equivalent of a business card — one request, and AI knows who you are.

    2

    Knowledge

    /ai/knowledge.json
    "Tell me everything."

    A comprehensive knowledge base: products, team, partnerships, glossary, technology. AI reads one file instead of crawling your whole site.

    3

    Feed

    /ai/feed.json
    "What's new?"

    An AI-optimized update stream. Not RSS — structured entries with key facts and semantic tags. AI stays current without re-crawling your entire site.

    The Signature Layer

    What makes this different from every other standard: cryptographic proof of origin. Each file includes a signature block: a content hash signed by a key your site controls, optionally bound to your Digital Name. AI can not only read what you say about yourself — it can check who signed it and that nothing changed since. Not a claim about you: a statement by you.

    Get Started

    Three steps to make your website AI-readable.

    1

    Scan Your Site

    Use the scanner above to see your current AI readability grade. Understand the gap before you fix it.

    2

    Create Your Files

    Use the AI Discovery Generator to create your files, or install the WordPress plugin for automatic setup. Read the full specification for details.

    3

    Deploy & Verify

    Serve your file at /.well-known/ai and re-scan to verify. Add a <link rel="ai-discovery"> tag to your HTML.

    Generate Your ai.json

    Fill in your organization details and we'll generate a ready-to-deploy file.

    Your ai.json

    Deploy in 3 steps:

    1. Save as ai.json in your website root under .well-known/
    2. Serve it at https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/ai with Content-Type: application/json
    3. Add <link rel="ai-discovery" href="/.well-known/ai"> to your HTML <head>

    Ask Your AI to Implement It

    Copy a prompt below and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or any AI assistant. Your AI knows your codebase — let it do the work.

    Basic Implementation

    Get a minimal ai.json file deployed in minutes.

    Quick Start
    I want to implement the AI Discovery Standard on my website. Create a file called ai.json with this structure and serve it at /.well-known/ai Required fields: - specVersion: "1.1" - organization.name: [our company name] - organization.domain: [our domain] - organization.description: one sentence about what we do - organization.sector: our industry - capabilities.discovery: true Also add this tag to our HTML <head>: <link rel="ai-discovery" type="application/json" href="/.well-known/ai"> The full spec is at: https://rootz.global/ai/standard.md

    Express / Node.js

    Add the route and file to an Express server.

    Platform
    Add the AI Discovery Standard to my Express/Node.js app. 1. Create a file at ./ai/ai.json with our organization info following spec v1.3 (see https://rootz.global/ai/standard.md) 2. Add this route to serve it: app.get('/.well-known/ai', (req, res) => { res.set('Content-Type', 'application/json'); res.set('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*'); res.set('Cache-Control', 'public, max-age=86400'); res.sendFile(resolve('./ai/ai.json')); }); 3. Add the <link rel="ai-discovery"> tag to our HTML templates. Fill in our actual company information in the JSON.

    Next.js / Vercel

    API route + static file for Next.js projects.

    Platform
    Add the AI Discovery Standard to my Next.js app. Option A (App Router): Create app/.well-known/ai/route.ts that returns our ai.json with proper headers (Content-Type: application/json, CORS). Option B (Static): Add the ai.json file to public/.well-known/ai (note: some hosts don't serve dotfiles from public/). The ai.json should follow spec v1.2 with our company info. See: https://rootz.global/ai/standard.md Also add <link rel="ai-discovery" href="/.well-known/ai"> to our layout.tsx head.

    WordPress

    Add AI Discovery via functions.php or a plugin.

    Platform
    Add the AI Discovery Standard to my WordPress site. Add this to my theme's functions.php (or create a simple plugin): 1. Register a rewrite rule for /.well-known/ai 2. Hook into template_redirect to serve the JSON with proper Content-Type and CORS headers 3. Store the ai.json data as a PHP array with our company info 4. Add the <link rel="ai-discovery"> tag via wp_head action The JSON should follow the AI Discovery Standard v1.3 spec: https://rootz.global/ai/standard.md Fill in our actual site name, domain, and description.

    Apache / Nginx (Static)

    Serve ai.json from any static host or CDN.

    Platform
    Help me add the AI Discovery Standard to my static website. 1. Create a .well-known/ai file (or .well-known/ai/index.json) with our organization info per spec v1.2 2. For Apache, add to .htaccess: RewriteRule ^\.well-known/ai$ .well-known/ai.json [L] AddType application/json .json Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*" 3. For Nginx, add to server block: location = /.well-known/ai { alias /path/to/.well-known/ai.json; default_type application/json; add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin *; } Spec: https://rootz.global/ai/standard.md

    Add Knowledge Base

    Create a comprehensive knowledge.json for your org.

    Enhance
    I already have /.well-known/ai set up. Now I want to add Tier 2: a knowledge base at /ai/knowledge.json. Review our website content and create a knowledge.json file with: - products: array of our products/services with descriptions - team: key leadership with roles - partnerships: notable partners - glossary: terms specific to our domain - technology: our tech stack or key technologies This lets AI agents learn everything about our organization from one file instead of scraping our whole site. Spec: https://rootz.global/ai/standard.md Also update our ai.json to add "knowledge": true under capabilities and link to the knowledge file.

    Add AI Feed

    Create a structured update stream for AI agents.

    Enhance
    I already have /.well-known/ai set up. Now I want to add Tier 3: an AI-optimized feed at /ai/feed.json. Create a feed.json with our recent news, blog posts, or announcements. Each entry should have: - id: unique identifier - title: entry title - date: ISO 8601 date - summary: 2-3 sentence summary - keyFacts: array of key takeaways - tags: semantic tags for categorization - url: link to full content This is NOT RSS — it's structured for AI consumption with key facts extracted. AI agents can stay current on our news without re-crawling the site. Update our ai.json capabilities to include "feed": true.

    Verify Your Setup

    Check your AI Discovery score and fix any issues.

    Enhance
    I've set up the AI Discovery Standard on my site. Help me verify everything is working correctly. Check these items: 1. Visit /.well-known/ai and confirm it returns valid JSON with Content-Type: application/json 2. Check the HTML for a <link rel="ai-discovery"> tag in the <head> 3. Verify the JSON follows spec v1.3 (has specVersion, organization.name, organization.domain) 4. If I have knowledge.json and feed.json, verify they're linked in capabilities 5. Check that CORS headers allow cross-origin access (Access-Control-Allow-Origin) Then scan my site at https://rootz.global/ai-discovery to see my score. The scanner checks 13 items worth up to 100 points. A score of 70+ is grade B, 90+ is grade A. List any issues found and how to fix them.

    Who's Using It

    Be among the first on the AI-readable web.

    A

    discover.rootz.global

    AI Discovery Lab: WordPress with the plugin, manifest signed by the site’s own key. Score: 111/120.

    A

    19a.verity.one

    Verity One Ltd: first third-party implementation, with full identity, signed manifest and content hashes. Score: 110/120.

    A

    rootz.global

    Reference implementation, built by hand: three tiers, page signing, Digital Name signature. Score: 93/120.

    C

    unveiledmuse.studio

    Wedding inspiration platform: AI Discovery endpoint with organization data. Score: 45/120.

    Scanned 9 October 2026. Paste any of these into the scanner above and check us. Sites whose endpoint is currently offline are not listed.

    The standard is open (CC-BY-4.0). Any website can implement it today.

    Join the Standard

    Implement /.well-known/ai on your site. Optionally register on-chain to show your support and join the decentralized directory of AI-readable sites.

    Register Your Site On-Chain (Optional)

    The standard is free to implement — no registration required. But if you'd like to show your support, you can register on-chain by sending a small transaction to the AI Discovery registry. This creates a decentralized, permanent list of sites that support the standard.

    Why the fee? The nominal cost reduces spam in the registry and helps fund development of the standard, its tools, and community communications. Think of it as a show of support for an open, AI-readable web.

    0x86670C5C580BbCcf21eBA5EAAebcc3087bb37A19 Click to copy address
    $10
    in ETH or POL
    Polygon Network
    100
    WRvT
    Wrapped Rootz Verified Token

    Your registration is recorded on-chain as a permanent, verifiable commitment to the AI-readable web. Early adopters will be featured in the AI Discovery registry and recognized as founding members of the standard.

    How it works: Send a transaction on Polygon to the address above with your domain (e.g., yoursite.com) in the transaction input data. The registry will verify your /.well-known/ai endpoint is live and add you to the adopter directory.

    Don't have crypto? Contact us and we'll help you get listed.

    Resources

    Standard Specification (v1.3)

    The complete technical specification for implementing AI Discovery on your website.

    WordPress Plugin

    Install the Rootz AI Discovery plugin on any WordPress site. Auto-generates ai.json from your existing content, with signing, scoring, and AI-powered tools.

    AI Discovery Generator

    Generate ai.json files for any website. Enter your URL, review extracted data, enhance with AI, and download ready-to-deploy files.

    Live Example: rootz.global

    See the reference implementation in action. View the actual ai.json file served at /.well-known/ai.

    Blog: The AI-Readable Web

    Why we built this standard and how it works — the founding blog post.

    White Paper

    The full business case: market data, competitive landscape, ROI analysis, and go-to-market strategy.

    AI is already answering questions about you.

    Give it your own words, at an address every agent can find, signed so it can check.

    Scan Your Site Now