# Agent Ready — AI agent readability checker > Score any website against the Vercel Agent Readability Spec, the llmstxt.org specification, and agent-protocol specs (MCP, A2A, agents.json, agent-permissions.json, UCP, x402, NLWeb). 60 checks with actionable fix guidance for every failing check. Free, no sign-up, instant scan. ## What is agent readability? Agent readability is how easily AI agents — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google Gemini, coding assistants, MCP clients — can discover, parse, and act on a website. It spans three surfaces: - **Discovery files** — `llms.txt`, `robots.txt`, `sitemap.xml`, `sitemap.md`, `AGENTS.md` - **Structural signals** — semantic headings, canonical links, structured data, markdown mirrors, content negotiation - **Protocol manifests** — MCP Server Cards, A2A Agent Cards, Wildcard agents.json, agent-permissions.json, UCP, x402, NLWeb ## Why does AI agent readability matter for SEO? AI agents crawl what loads cleanly and cite what parses correctly. A [July 2025 Pew Research study](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/) found users who encounter a Google AI Overview click on a source link only about 8% of the time — roughly half the rate of searches without an AI summary. Princeton's [GEO study (KDD 2024)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735) measured that adding source citations to a page lifted its inclusion in AI answers by roughly 40%, with statistics and quotations close behind. Sites that score well get summarised accurately and referred qualified traffic; sites that score poorly get paraphrased badly or skipped entirely. Unlike traditional SEO, you don't need to rank on page 1 — structured, citable content gets pulled even when organic rank is low. ## What does the agent readability scanner check? 60 checks across four categories: - **Vercel Agent Readability Spec** — 15 site-wide checks (llms.txt, robots.txt, sitemap.xml, sitemap.md, AGENTS.md, HTTPS, OpenAPI) plus 23 per-page checks (meta tags, JSON-LD, headings, markdown mirrors, content negotiation, code-block language tags, JS-rendering dependency). - **llmstxt.org** — 10 checks against the llms.txt format (H1 present, blockquote summary, H2 sections, link format, content-type, llms-full.txt). - **Agent protocols** — 12 checks covering MCP Server Cards (SEP-1649 / [RFC 9728](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9728) OAuth Protected Resource metadata), A2A Agent Cards (a2a.proto v1.0.0), Wildcard agents.json, agent-permissions.json, UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol), x402 (HTTP 402 Payment Required), and NLWeb (natural-language /ask endpoint). See the [full methodology](https://agent-ready.dev/methodology) for every check, weight, and rating band. ## How is the agent readability score calculated? `score = round((passed checks / total checks) × 100)`. The denominator compounds: 15 site-wide + (23 per-page × number of pages scanned). A systemic issue like a missing canonical link on every page compounds significantly. Rating bands: - **90-100** — Excellent - **70-89** — Good - **50-69** — Fair - **0-49** — Needs Improvement ## Validators (per-protocol) - [Agent Readability Score](https://agent-ready.dev/agent-readability-score) — full Vercel Spec scan - [llms.txt Checker](https://agent-ready.dev/llms-txt-checker) — 10 checks against llmstxt.org - [AGENTS.md Validator](https://agent-ready.dev/agents-md-validator) — skill-file structure - [MCP Server Card Validator](https://agent-ready.dev/mcp-card-validator) — /.well-known/mcp.json - [A2A Agent Card Validator](https://agent-ready.dev/agent-card-validator) — /.well-known/agent-card.json - [agents.json Validator](https://agent-ready.dev/agents-json-validator) — Wildcard manifest - [agent-permissions.json Validator](https://agent-ready.dev/agent-permissions-validator) — action-scope permissions - [UCP Validator](https://agent-ready.dev/ucp-validator) — Universal Commerce Protocol - [x402 Checker](https://agent-ready.dev/x402-checker) — HTTP 402 Payment Required ## Guides - [The complete guide to agent readability](https://agent-ready.dev/complete-guide-to-agent-readability) — definitive hub: discovery, extraction, and protocol layers explained - [llms.txt vs sitemap.xml: when to use which](https://agent-ready.dev/llms-txt-vs-sitemap-xml) - [MCP vs A2A vs agents.json](https://agent-ready.dev/mcp-vs-a2a-vs-agents-json) - [AGENTS.md vs CLAUDE.md vs .cursorrules](https://agent-ready.dev/agents-md-vs-claude-md-vs-cursorrules) - [How to add an llms.txt file to a Next.js site](https://agent-ready.dev/how-to-add-llms-txt-to-nextjs) - [How to publish an MCP server card](https://agent-ready.dev/how-to-publish-an-mcp-server-card) - [How to write an effective AGENTS.md](https://agent-ready.dev/how-to-write-an-effective-agents-md) ## Developers - [Methodology](https://agent-ready.dev/methodology) — every check, every weight - [API & integrations](https://agent-ready.dev/docs/api) — REST, MCP server, GitHub Action - [REST API reference](https://agent-ready.dev/docs/api/reference) — OpenAPI 3.1 interactive console - [Pricing](https://agent-ready.dev/pricing) — Free and Pro plans --- Run a scan: ## Sitemap See the full [sitemap](https://agent-ready.dev/sitemap.md) for all pages on agent-ready.dev.