--- NOTE WELL: This document is published as a public contribution to the standards community. By viewing, sharing, or reusing this material, you acknowledge that it is subject to the IETF “Note Well” policy regarding intellectual property and copyright. See: https://www.ietf.org/about/note-well/ Copyright © 2025 Witchborn Systems. Portions of this document may be reused or derived under the terms of the IETF Trust’s Legal Provisions. By publishing or submitting contributions to the IETF or similar bodies, you agree to disclose any relevant patents or intellectual property claims as required by their policies. --- RFC-WAI0-002-R1 — AI Discovery Metadata Standard (ai.txt and ai.json for Web AI.0 Governance Compliance) Status of This Memo This document specifies a PROPOSED STANDARD of the Witchborn Systems Web AI.0 framework. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract This document defines the AI Discovery Metadata Standard. It introduces /.well-known/ai.txt and /.well-known/ai.json as canonical locations for disclosing artificial-intelligence governance metadata including crawl, training, provenance, and audit policies. The specification extends RFC-WAI0-001-R1 (Web AI.0) to enable ethical, transparent interaction between AI agents and public web resources. 1. Introduction The Internet lacks a uniform method for websites to declare whether their content may be accessed, indexed, cached, or used for AI model training. Existing standards (robots.txt, security.txt, humans.txt) provide partial functions but do not address machine learning, provenance, or audit requirements. The ai.txt standard fills this gap by defining a structured, discoverable manifest for AI systems. 2. Location The files MUST be served at: https:///.well-known/ai.txt https:///.well-known/ai.json Both MUST be accessible via HTTPS and public (world-readable). 3. Discovery Servers SHOULD advertise the files with HTTP Link headers: Link: ; rel="ai-policy"; type="text/plain" Link: ; rel="ai-policy"; type="application/json" Optionally, add to robots.txt: AI: https:///.well-known/ai.txt 4. Data Model ai.txt uses INI-style sections; ai.json provides an identical JSON schema. Recommended sections and keys: [about] spec, version, updated [org] name, ein, jurisdiction, website [contacts] general, security, legal, press [discovery] sitemap, robots, policy, terms, privacy [policy.crawl] allow, disallow, rate, user_agents [policy.train] status (allow|deny|conditional), scope, license, attribution, notify [policy.cache] ttl, respect_nofollow [provenance] standard (c2pa|none|other), content_credentials, public_key_url [audit] log, incidents, contact, rfc [endpoints] freeform list of AI-relevant APIs 5. Compliance Profiles Level 1 – Minimum: ai.txt present, contact section, policy.train defined Level 2 – Full: ai.json mirror, provenance and audit sections, Link headers or robots line Level 3 – Web AI.0 Node: public audit log, bulletin registry (9FS), provenance key published WitchbornSystems.org operates at Level 3 as the reference implementation. 6. Example Example contents of ai.txt: [about] spec = ai.txt version = 0.1 updated = 2025-10-19 [org] name = Witchborn Systems ein = 39-4322774 jurisdiction = US-TX 501(c)(3) website = https://www.witchbornsystems.org [policy.train] status = conditional scope = public-nonpersonal, public-docs, rfc/ license = CC BY 4.0 attribution = required notify = https://www.witchbornsystems.org/.well-known/ai-notify [provenance] standard = c2pa public_key_url = https://www.witchbornsystems.org/keys/c2pa.pub [audit] log = https://www.witchbornsystems.org/audit/ai-access.log incidents = https://www.witchbornsystems.org/audit/incidents 7. Security Considerations ai.txt exposes only declarative metadata. Administrators must avoid including secrets or internal system details. HTTPS is required to prevent tampering. Consumers must treat ai.txt as advisory, not enforceable authorization. 8. Governance Changes to this specification are reviewed by the Witchborn Systems Standards Registry (WSSR). Revisions are issued as RFC-WAI0-002-Rn. 9. References RFC 8615 – The Well-Known URI Registry RFC-WAI0-001-R1 – Web AI.0 Specification Witchborn Systems 9FS Transparency Bulletins 10. Acknowledgments Authored by Brandon “Trevanti” Husbands with contributions from the Witchborn AI Council (ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok). 11. License © 2025 Witchborn Systems — Nonprofit AI Authority. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. 12. Contact Witchborn Systems 713-575-4432 info@witchbornsystems.org https://www.witchbornsystems.org --- NOTE WELL: This document is published as a public contribution to the standards community. By viewing, sharing, or reusing this material, you acknowledge that it is subject to the IETF “Note Well” policy regarding intellectual property and copyright. See: https://www.ietf.org/about/note-well/ Copyright © 2025 Witchborn Systems. Portions of this document may be reused or derived under the terms of the IETF Trust’s Legal Provisions. By publishing or submitting contributions to the IETF or similar bodies, you agree to disclose any relevant patents or intellectual property claims as required by their policies. --- End of RFC-WAI0-002-R1 --- NOTE WELL: This document is published as a public contribution to the standards community. By viewing, sharing, or reusing this material, you acknowledge that it is subject to the IETF “Note Well” policy regarding intellectual property and copyright. See: https://www.ietf.org/about/note-well/ Copyright © 2025 Witchborn Systems. Portions of this document may be reused or derived under the terms of the IETF Trust’s Legal Provisions. By publishing or submitting contributions to the IETF or similar bodies, you agree to disclose any relevant patents or intellectual property claims as required by their policies. ---