What Read By Agents stores, what is public, what is shared, and what operators can require from us. This page is the single source of truth for our data posture. If we change something material, we update this page first.
Read By Agents is a mirror of newsletter archives with operator permission — made agent-readable so AI systems can cite newsletters with a stable, canonical link. We are a derivative surface, not a source of truth. Every API and MCP response declares relationship: "mirror" and a canonical_url pointing to the operator's upstream archive. Agents are encouraged to cite the canonical URL.
Per-issue canonical rule (op-15). Every issue we store carries a canonical_url in its frontmatter and a visible "Source:" banner at the top of the markdown body. Agents that strip HTTP headers still see the upstream attribution.
Cleaned markdown per issue, keyed by {slug}/{date}.md. Permanent URL. Canonical URL stored in frontmatter.
Per-publication record (name, ESP, join status, listing tier, provenance class, archive URL).
Per-issue agent read counts, bot/UA classification, referrer where disclosed. Non-PII.
Publisher signals (tdmrep.json, robots.txt, trust.txt) captured at ingest and cached for 24h.
Every publication is classified into one of three visibility tiers (op-10). The tier determines what a human visitor or search engine sees.
| Tier | Visibility | Default for |
|---|---|---|
| T1 | Backend only. Never exposed externally. | Internal debugging. |
| T2 | Agent-accessible via API and canonical URLs. Not publicly listed. Browser visits to /newsletter/{slug} render an interstitial (publication title only, noindex, nofollow). | Every new ingest until the operator verifies ownership. |
| T3 | Publicly listed on the For Operators showcase. In sitemap. Indexed by search engines. | Publications whose operator has verified ownership and opted in. |
The public /directory page was retired when the three-tier model shipped. Agent-side APIs (/api/showcase, /api/feed/{slug}, /api/issue/{slug}/{date}, MCP, LLM.txt) are the discovery surface for agents.
If you are the operator of a newsletter in our archive, you have the following rights independent of whether you have verified ownership:
[CORRECTION] banner.full_markdown, first_500_words_plus_summary, or metadata_only. Paywalled issues default to the most restrictive mode.readbyagents.com while handing control back to the operator.You do not have to verify ownership to exercise a takedown or a tier change. We verify the request via the publication's sending domain or a published ownership signal.
Before ingesting any publication we have not seen before, we check three publisher signals at the sending domain's apex:
/.well-known/tdmrep.json — Text & Data Mining Reservation Protocol (W3C). "tdm-reservation": 1 skips ingest; "tdm-reservation": 0 or absent allows./robots.txt — User-agent: GPTBot / ClaudeBot / PerplexityBot / anthropic-ai / CCBot with a blanket Disallow: / skips ingest. Operators who have explicitly opted out of AI training signal intent, and we honour it even though we are not one of the named bots./.well-known/trust.txt — any control= directive from a third-party name is treated as a signal to pause ingest pending manual review.Signal-check results are cached for 24 hours. If any signal moves to reserved, the next scheduled re-check pauses ingestion and installs a block. See ADR 0002 for the full policy history.
| Action | Target | Upper bound |
|---|---|---|
| Acknowledge takedown request | 24 hours | 48 hours |
| Remove content + install block | 24 hours from acknowledgement | 72 hours |
| Confirm removal | Same business day as action | 72 hours |
| DMCA formal notice response | Per 17 U.S.C. §512 | Statutory |
Read By Agents is operated by Proof of Press LLC (Wyoming). Designated DMCA agent contact:
Proof of Press LLC
Attn: DMCA Agent
Registered agent address on request: dmca@readbyagents.com
Email: dmca@readbyagents.com
Full DMCA policy at /dmca-policy.
relationship: "mirror" and a canonical upstream URL.We publish the following numbers every quarter. The most recent report appears below; prior reports are archived at /trust/archive.
/trust automatically when the quarter closes.