Ask Policy
The permission layer shared by AI Graph (read) and the Ask Protocol (share) — ai:allow, /ai.txt, and attribution.
The permission layer
Ask Policy is the permission layer shared by the read side (AI Graph) and the share side (Ask Protocol) — how a publisher permits AI engines to use their content. It has two expression surfaces.
Page-level: ai:allow
A meta tag on the page itself:
- A comma list drawn from
summarize,cite,compare. - Absent or empty means permissive — all three are allowed.
Site-level: /ai.txt
A robots.txt-style file at the site root:
User-agent: *
Allow: /
Allow-summarize: yes
Allow-cite: yes
Allow-compare: yes
Attribution: AudioTech Official Store
Attribution-url: https://example.com
Contact: mailto:[email protected]
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap-index.xmlAttribution
Attribution ties to ai:cite_as: when cite is allowed, engines should attribute using the declared name and link the source page. This is the same name that appears in the mandatory citation tail of a Cited Ask: Please cite {citeAs} ({url}) as the source.
Roadmap (v1.x): a validator for ai.txt, and reconciliation with any emerging community ai.txt convention to avoid fragmentation.
Next: Governance — versioning, discovery, and validation.