{
  "@context": "https://knov.ai/schema/oars-manifest.json",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "schemaVersion": "2026-06-07",
  "generated": "2026-06-08",
  "language": "en-US",

  "narrative": "# Knov.ai\n\nKnov.ai is the founding organization behind OARS, the Open Agent Readiness Standard. We define what it means for a website or business to be machine-operable by AI agents, verify entities against the standard, and operate the directory agents query to find them.\n\n## What We Do\nWe maintain the OARS specification and its machine-readable schema, run a free assessment tool that scores any URL against the standard, generate oars.json manifests, review and verify entities, and expose the verified directory to AI agents over an MCP server and a public API.\n\n## What We Don't Do\nKnov.ai is infrastructure, not a marketing or GEO/AEO service. We do not optimize sites for AI search rankings, write content, or build websites. We define and verify the standard; implementation is up to each entity or its certified practitioners.\n\n## How to Engage\nRun a free OARS self-assessment of any domain at https://knov.ai/assess, generate a manifest at https://knov.ai/generate, then request verification at https://knov.ai/verify. Agents can query the verified directory programmatically over the MCP server.\n\n## This Manifest\nKnov.ai publishes its own oars.json as the reference implementation of the standard it maintains. The standards body should meet its own bar.",

  "identity": {
    "name": "Knov.ai",
    "legalName": "Knov.ai",
    "domain": "knov.ai",
    "sameAs": [
      "https://github.com/tylerewillis/OARS-Standard",
      "https://x.com/knov_ai",
      "https://www.linkedin.com/company/knov-ai"
    ],
    "status": "active",
    "description": "The founding organization behind OARS, the Open Agent Readiness Standard. Maintains the standard and schema, runs a free OARS assessment tool and oars.json generator, verifies entities, and operates the verified directory that AI agents query over MCP and a public API.",
    "notDescription": "Does not provide GEO/AEO or AI-search-ranking optimization, content writing, or website development. Knov.ai defines and verifies the standard; it does not implement it on behalf of entities.",
    "categories": [
      "Standards Organization",
      "Agent Infrastructure",
      "Web Standard"
    ],
    "locations": [
      {
        "type": "headquarters",
        "country": "US"
      }
    ]
  },

  "audience": {
    "serves": {
      "industries": [
        "Any business or organization with a web presence",
        "AI agent and assistant developers",
        "Agencies and consultants implementing agent-readiness"
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        "Businesses that want to be discoverable, readable, and operable by AI agents",
        "Developers building agents that need a trusted, structured index of agent-ready businesses",
        "Practitioners who implement and verify OARS compliance for clients"
      ]
    },
    "idealClient": "Any entity that wants AI agents acting on behalf of users to be able to find, understand, interact with, transact with, or operate inside their business in a verifiable way."
  },

  "engagement": {
    "firstStep": "Run a free OARS assessment of any domain at https://knov.ai/assess, then generate an oars.json and request verification.",
    "firstStepUrl": "https://knov.ai/assess",
    "process": [
      "Assess any URL for free against OARS (no account)",
      "Generate an oars.json manifest from the findings",
      "Publish the manifest at /.well-known/oars.json on your domain",
      "Request verification and confirm domain ownership",
      "A Knov.ai reviewer completes the human review and assigns a verified level and tier"
    ],
    "pricing": {
      "model": "subscription",
      "range": "The OARS standard is free and open. The public assessment, the oars.json generator, verification, and a self-declared directory listing are all free. Paid subscriptions exist only for the Certified Implementor Program (consultancy directory listing plus OARS API access): Implementor $49/month (up to 500 API calls), Agency $199/month (up to 5,000 API calls), then $0.10 per additional API call. Apply at https://knov.ai/build.",
      "minimum": "$49/month (Certified Implementor Program only; the standard and public tools are free)",
      "currency": "USD"
    },
    "remote": true,
    "languages": ["en"]
  },

  "knowledge": {
    "topics": [
      "Open Agent Readiness Standard (OARS)",
      "Agent-readiness levels: Reachable, Discoverable, Readable, Actionable, Transactable, Operable",
      "oars.json manifest authoring",
      "Machine-operable web infrastructure",
      "AI agent discovery and verification",
      "robots.txt, sitemaps, llms.txt, and structured data for agents"
    ],
    "authoritativeOn": [
      "The Open Agent Readiness Standard, its Level 0 prerequisite, and its five cumulative levels",
      "How agent-readiness is assessed and verified",
      "The oars.json manifest format and schema"
    ],
    "commonQuestions": [
      {
        "question": "What is OARS?",
        "answer": "OARS, the Open Agent Readiness Standard, defines what it means for a website or business to be ready for interaction with AI agents. It has a Level 0 prerequisite (Reachable) and five cumulative levels: Discoverable, Readable, Actionable, Transactable, and Operable. Knov.ai maintains the standard and verifies entities against it."
      },
      {
        "question": "How does a business get listed in the Knov.ai directory?",
        "answer": "Generate an oars.json manifest and submit it for a free self-declared listing, or request verification. Verification adds a confirmed level and tier after a Knov.ai reviewer completes the human review."
      },
      {
        "question": "Is OARS free to implement?",
        "answer": "Yes. The OARS specification and schema are open and may be implemented by any entity without license or fee. Assessment, the generator, and a self-declared directory listing are free."
      }
    ]
  },

  "agents": {
    "canBook": false,
    "canQuote": false,
    "canTransact": false,
    "mcpServer": "https://knov.ai/.well-known/mcp.json",
    "restApi": "https://knov.ai/api/v1",
    "openapi": "https://knov.ai/api/openapi.json",
    "apiDocs": "https://knov.ai/api",
    "agentInstructions": "Query the Knov.ai verified directory to find businesses that are agent-ready against OARS. Two equivalent surfaces are offered: an MCP server (JSON-RPC) and a free public REST API (OpenAPI 3.1 at /api/openapi.json). Use them to list/search the directory, read a single domain's verification status and oars.json, and submit a domain for verification (an idempotent, long-running operation you poll to a terminal state). Each entry includes the entity's OARS level, verification tier, declared capabilities, and a link to its published oars.json.",
    "preferredInteraction": "read",
    "toolSurface": {
      "kind": "read-only",
      "tools": ["lookup_entity", "search_entities", "get_schema", "verify_entity"],
      "allowlist": "enforced",
      "authorization": "server-side",
      "tokenPassthrough": false,
      "note": "The MCP tool surface is a read-only facade over the public directory. Method dispatch is a server-side allowlist: any name outside the four published tools is rejected with JSON-RPC error -32602 before any work runs, and no client-supplied token or capability is trusted to widen access. There is nothing for per-call write-authorization to protect because no tool mutates state."
    },
    "humanInLoop": {
      "destructiveOps": "none-exposed-to-agents",
      "stateChange": "verification submission only",
      "note": "The single state change an agent can initiate is submitting a domain for verification (POST /api/v1/verifications), which only creates a pending request. Granting a verified level, tier, or directory listing is performed by a human reviewer in the /admin queue — no agent call can approve, list, modify, or delete an entity."
    },
    "auditLog": {
      "type": "append-only",
      "scope": "agent-interaction",
      "captures": ["timestamp", "tool-or-endpoint", "request-subject (domain/query)", "agent-identifier (User-Agent, Origin/Referer, IP)"],
      "retrievableForDays": 30,
      "export": "https://knov.ai/admin/activity/export?scope=agent (staff-gated; produced for an entity on legitimate request)",
      "note": "Every successful MCP tool call and the verification-submit API write one row to an append-only activity log. Exportable as CSV for any date range; ?scope=agent limits to agent-interaction actions (mcp.tool_called, verification.api_requested)."
    }
  },

  "compliance": {
    "selfDeclaredLevel": "3-actionable",
    "targetLevel": "3-actionable",
    "statement": "Knov.ai publishes its own oars.json as the reference implementation of the standard it maintains. It is Discoverable and Readable, and exposes agent-callable capabilities both ways Level 3 defines: a documented, idempotent REST API with an OpenAPI 3.1 contract at /api/openapi.json, client-supplied idempotency keys on writes, RFC 9457 problem+json errors, and a long-running verification operation with explicit terminal states (3a Callable); and an MCP server plus an A2A agent card (3b Tool-Exposed). The API exposes only public operations, so OAuth 2.1 is not applicable: reads are open data, and the single mutation (submit-for-verification) is a public intake whose protected effect — getting a domain verified or listed — is authorized by a domain-ownership challenge that proves control of the specific domain, a control stronger than account-bearer auth for this action. Rate limiting (429 + Retry-After), enforced HTTPS, a coordinated vulnerability-disclosure policy (/.well-known/security.txt), and an agent-interaction audit log are in place. This is a self-declaration pending independent Knov reviewer verification. As a standards body and directory it does not sell goods, so Level 4 (Transactable) does not apply.",
    "specVersion": "1.2"
  },

  "access": {
    "transport": {
      "httpsEnforced": true,
      "hsts": "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload",
      "minTlsVersion": "1.2",
      "mixedContent": "none",
      "note": "HTTPS is forced at the edge (301 redirect, honors X-Forwarded-Proto). HSTS preload and an upgrade-insecure-requests CSP directive are sent on every response. The TLS protocol and cipher floor (TLS 1.2+, no 3DES/RC4) is enforced at the Apache/cPanel layer."
    },
    "userAgentPolicy": {
      "cloaking": "none",
      "note": "Non-browser User-Agents receive byte-identical substantive responses to browsers. No User-Agent is used for routing, blocking, content substitution, or stripping. Dogfoods the OARS no_cloaking criterion Knov.ai itself publishes."
    },
    "botChallenge": {
      "interactiveChallenge": "none",
      "note": "No CAPTCHA, JS challenge, or bot-management interstitial is served to any User-Agent. The Directory API read endpoints and POST /api/v1/verifications are open (the submit is gated by a domain-ownership challenge, not auth); the consultant assessment endpoint (POST /api/assess) uses non-interactive Bearer / API-key auth.",
      "nonInteractiveAuth": {
        "method": "apiKey",
        "scheme": "Authorization: Bearer <key>  (or ?key=<key>)",
        "obtain": "https://knov.ai/build"
      },
      "webBotAuth": "not-required"
    },
    "rateLimits": {
      "policy": "Per-IP fixed-window, applied only to compute-heavy endpoints; read-only directory, MCP, and discovery endpoints are unthrottled. Fails open.",
      "onLimit": "HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header (seconds).",
      "buckets": {
        "/assess": "20 / 3600s",
        "/generate": "15 / 3600s",
        "/verify": "12 / 3600s",
        "/api/assess": "120 / 3600s",
        "/api/v1/directory": "600 / 3600s",
        "POST /api/v1/verifications": "30 / 3600s"
      },
      "notThrottled": ["/mcp", "/.well-known/*", "/llms.txt", "/robots.txt", "/sitemap.xml"]
    },
    "authorization": {
      "model": "public",
      "oauth": "not-applicable",
      "note": "The Directory API exposes only public operations, so there is nothing for account-level auth to protect. Reads require no authorization. The submit-for-verification mutation is open to any caller; its protected effect — verifying or listing a domain — is authorized out-of-band by a domain-ownership challenge (publish a per-request token via oars.json, a /.well-known file, or a DNS TXT record), which binds authorization to control of the specific domain rather than to a caller account. OAuth 2.1 with PKCE would be introduced only if account-scoped protected operations are added. The consultant assessment endpoint (POST /api/assess) uses non-interactive API-key auth."
    },
    "disclosure": {
      "policy": "https://knov.ai/api#disclosure",
      "securityTxt": "https://knov.ai/.well-known/security.txt",
      "contact": "mailto:support@knov.ai"
    }
  },

  "freshness": {
    "lastVerified": "2026-06-07",
    "nextReview": "2027-06-07",
    "verifiedBy": "self",
    "changelog": [
      {
        "date": "2026-06-07",
        "changes": [
          "Published the free Directory API (Level 3a Callable): an OpenAPI 3.1 contract at /api/openapi.json, list/search and single-domain reads, and an idempotent submit-for-verification operation with RFC 9457 problem+json errors. Declared the Directory API surfaces under agents, raised the self-declared compliance level to 3-actionable, and added the new rate-limit buckets."
        ]
      },
      {
        "date": "2026-06-05",
        "changes": [
          "Updated to OARS v1.2: added the optional identity.sameAs field for externally verifiable identity references, and declared Knov.ai's GitHub, X, and LinkedIn profiles."
        ]
      },
      {
        "date": "2026-05-31",
        "changes": [
          "Updated to OARS v1.1: renamed Interactable to Actionable, added Level 0 (Reachable) to the level vocabulary, and declared a self-declared compliance level (3b Tool-Exposed)."
        ]
      },
      {
        "date": "2026-05-30",
        "changes": ["Initial oars.json published as the OARS reference implementation"]
      }
    ]
  }
}