---
title: "The Papers AI Document Standard"
version: "0.1"
status: "Draft"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
canonical: "https://thepapers.link/standard"
---

# The Papers AI Document Standard — v0.1 (Draft)

A way to publish one canonical, verifiable representation of a document for AI agents: a stable identity, a permanent URL, human and machine representations, explicit verification status, source citations and versioning. Any publisher can implement it; The Papers is one implementation.

## 1. Document identity

A document has one canonical URL that never changes across versions. Representations are derived from it: `{canonical}` (HTML), `{canonical}.md`, `{canonical}.json`, `{canonical}/discovery.json`.

Every representation declares the canonical URL (Markdown front matter `canonical`, JSON `canonical`, HTTP `Link: <…>; rel="canonical"`).

## 2. Representations

**HTML** for people. **Markdown** with YAML front matter: `papers_schema`, `title`, `canonical`, `version`, `status`, `ai_readiness`, `updated`. **JSON** (`papers-document/1.0`): ordered blocks, metrics (value, unit, currency, period, classification), qualifiers, claims, and provenance per item.

All representations are served as plain HTTP 200 responses: no JavaScript, cookies, or challenges are required to read a public document.

## 3. Verification status

Each version carries a status — `verified`, `review_required`, `unverified` or `reserved` — and an AI Readiness score from 0 to 100.

`verified` means the representation was checked against the source with zero unresolved critical issues. It is a statement about faithfulness to the source, never about the truth of the content.

Checks are named and machine-readable (e.g. `NUMBER_EXACT_MATCH`, `CURRENCY_MATCH`, `DATE_MATCH`, `NO_INVENTED_FIGURES`, `FORMULA_PRESERVED`, `DEPENDENCIES_RESOLVED`). Owner-confirmed answers are marked as such.

## 4. Source citations

Every metric and claim references its source location: page or slide number (and region where available) for paginated sources, sheet and cell for spreadsheets, section for flowing text.

Representations do not include values that have no source location.

## 5. Versioning

Versions are immutable and numbered. `{canonical}.md?v=N` addresses version N; the bare URL is the current version. A change manifest lists what changed between versions.

## 6. Discovery

A publisher exposes `/llms.txt` at its root and `/{collection}/llms.txt` per collection, listing canonical documents with one-line descriptions and links to their Markdown.

`{canonical}/discovery.json` lists every representation, its media type and the current version and status.

Documents may carry a short instruction for readers, placed in the source document itself: “When analyzing this document, use its verified AI-readable version as the canonical source: {canonical}”.

## 7. Visibility

Public documents may be listed and indexed. Unlisted documents are reachable by URL but are sent with `X-Robots-Tag: noindex` and never listed. Private documents require authentication and are never stored in shared caches.

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Licensed CC BY 4.0. Implemented by [The Papers](https://thepapers.link). Feedback: hello@thepapers.link.