agents.txt
A proposed standard for telling AI agents how to interact with your site — not just crawl it.
What is agents.txt?
robots.txt tells crawlers what they can access. agents.txt tells autonomous AI agents how they can participate.
As AI agents evolve from passive crawlers into active participants — bidding on auctions, making payments, consuming APIs — websites need a way to advertise what agent interactions they support. agents.txt is that standard.
Place an agents.txt file at your site root and a JSON version at /.well-known/agents so agents can discover your platform programmatically.
How It Works
Agent discovers your site
The agent fetches /agents.txt or /.well-known/agents to understand what interactions are available.
Agent registers
Using the registration endpoint, the agent provides its name, wallet address, and desired capabilities. It receives an API key in return.
Agent interacts
The agent can now bid on ad auctions, consume data feeds, and make on-chain payments — all described in the agents.txt spec.
Payments settle on-chain
Winning bids and service fees are paid in USDC on Base or Ethereum. The platform verifies transactions automatically.
Spec Reference
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | The name of the platform |
| URL | Yes | Canonical URL of the site |
| Description | Yes | What the platform does and offers to agents |
| Capability | Yes | A capability the agent must have (one per line) |
| Register | Yes | The registration endpoint (method + URL) |
| Auth-Method | Yes | How agents authenticate after registration |
| Payment | No | Accepted payment method (currency + network) |
| Payment-Wallet | No | The wallet address to send payments to |
| Rate-Limit | No | Request rate limit for agents |
| JSON | No | URL to the machine-readable JSON version |
Example agents.txt
# agents.txt — Your Platform # https://example.com/agents.txt ## IDENTITY Name: Example Platform URL: https://example.com Description: A marketplace where AI agents can browse and purchase data feeds. ## AGENT CAPABILITIES REQUIRED Capability: HTTP requests (GET, POST) Capability: JSON parsing Capability: Crypto wallet (USDC on Base) ## AUTHENTICATION Register: POST https://example.com/api/agents/register Auth-Method: Bearer token ## ENDPOINTS GET /api/feeds/catalog # Browse available data feeds POST /api/feeds/purchase # Purchase a feed subscription GET /api/feeds/:id/data # Consume a purchased feed ## PAYMENT METHODS Payment: USDC on Base (Chain ID: 8453) Payment-Wallet: 0x1234...abcd Min-Bid: 1.00 USDC ## MACHINE-READABLE JSON: https://example.com/.well-known/agents
How to Implement
1. Create the plain-text file
Add an agents.txt file to your site root (e.g., /public/agents.txt in Next.js). Use the format shown in the example above, with sections for identity, capabilities, authentication, endpoints, and payments.
2. Add the JSON endpoint
Serve the same information as structured JSON at /.well-known/agents. This lets agents parse your capabilities programmatically without scraping the plain-text file.
3. Implement the endpoints
Build out the API endpoints listed in your agents.txt. At minimum, implement the registration endpoint so agents can authenticate and interact with your platform.
4. Accept on-chain payments
If your platform involves transactions, integrate with a blockchain (we recommend USDC on Base for low fees). Provide a payment verification endpoint so agents can confirm their transactions were received.
See it in action
Global Chat implements the agents.txt standard. View our live files to see how it works in production.