Agent Compatibility Platform

Is your website readable by agents?

BotVisibility runs 58 checks across discoverability, usability, optimization, indexability, and agent-native readiness — then hands you a prioritized fix list. Free audit, no signup.

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No data retained Results in ~12 seconds Also available as CLI and API
58
Individual checks
5
Readiness levels
124k
Sites scanned
97%
Avg. tokens wasted on HTML
The Other Token Budget
COMMENTARY · Latest

The Other Token Budget

Gartner says your AI token bill per developer could rival their salary — and the analyst's own caveat is the part everyone misses: spend and productivity aren't coupled. The waste you can govern is your own prompts. The waste you can't is the bloated, unstructured content your agents are forced to read. That's the Agent Tax, and it's the half of your token budget nobody's measuring.

Jun 30, 2026·6 min readRead

Overview

What is BotVisibility?

BotVisibility is an AI agent readiness scanner — "Lighthouse for AI agents." It scans any URL across 58 checks in five levels and returns a prioritized report of what AI agents like Claude and ChatGPT can and can't do with the site.

Every check runs externally — the same way Claude, ChatGPT, or an autonomous agent framework would actually encounter your site — so the score reflects reality, not a self-report. We look for the signals agents depend on: an llms.txt guide, an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server, agent cards, CORS and rate-limit headers, structured data, machine-readable pricing, and agent-native payment rails.

By the numbers

What a full scan covers

Every scan runs the same fixed rubric, so results are comparable across sites and over time.

58
total checks
5
readiness levels
51
automated web checks
7
Level-5 agent-native checks
18 Discoverable11 Usable7 Optimized15 Indexable7 Agent-Native

All 58 checks are verified externally over HTTP — Levels 1–4 (51 checks) by inspecting the live site, Level 5 (7 checks) by probing the agent-native capabilities it declares. No source access, no install.

The ladder

The five levels of agent readiness

Readiness is a ladder, not a checkbox. Each level builds on the one below it — a site has to be findable before it can be usable, and usable before an agent can work with it efficiently.

  1. Level 1 · Discoverable

    18 checks

    Bots can find you. Your site exposes the metadata and machine-readable files that let AI agents know you exist.

  2. Level 2 · Usable

    11 checks

    Your API works for agents. Authentication, error handling, and core operations are agent-compatible.

  3. Level 3 · Optimized

    7 checks

    Agents can work efficiently. Pagination, filtering, and caching reduce token waste and round-trips.

  4. Level 4 · Indexable

    15 checks

    AI search systems can find, index, and ground answers in this site. Crawl access, page experience, structured data, and content quality are in place.

  5. Level 5 · Agent-Native

    7 checks

    First-class agent support. Intent endpoints, sessions, scoped tokens, and tool schemas treat agents as primary consumers.

Reference

BotVisibility key facts

What it is
An AI agent readiness scanner — Lighthouse for AI agents.
Checks
58 checks across 5 levels.
Coverage
51 checks map to Levels 1–4, 7 to Level 5 (Agent-Native) — all verified externally.
Levels
Discoverable, Usable, Optimized, Indexable, Agent-Native.
Verification
100% external — no source access, no install, no agent on your servers.
Human price
Free — unlimited scans in the browser.
Agent price
Free daily API allowance, then $0.10 USDC per scan (Solana, via x402).
MCP tools
11 tools on the live MCP server (Streamable HTTP).
SDKs
npm (CLI) + PyPI (Python); MCP server; REST API.

Search era vs. agent era

Agent readiness vs. traditional SEO

Search-era optimization and agent-era readiness measure different things. BotVisibility scores the agent column.

DimensionTraditional SEOAgent readiness
AudienceHuman searchers via a results pageAI agents acting on the user's behalf
Primary artifactKeywords, backlinks, meta tagsllms.txt, OpenAPI, MCP server, agent cards
AccessCrawlable HTMLReachable API + CORS + auth discovery
Success signalRanking positionCan an agent complete the task end-to-end
PaymentsNot applicablex402 / machine-readable pricing for agents
Measured byLighthouse, Search ConsoleBotVisibility — 58 checks, 5 levels

Methodology

How BotVisibility scores a site

A scan fetches your public surface the way an agent would, runs each of the 58 checks, and marks every one pass, fail, partial, or not-applicable. Your level is the highest tier where the underlying requirements are met — you have to be Discoverable before you can be Usable, and Usable before Optimized. Your grade — perfect, good, fair, or needs-work — reflects the share of applicable checks you pass, so a small site isn't penalised for checks that don't apply to it.

Everything is verified externally

No agent runs on your servers and no source access is required. The score reflects exactly what Claude, ChatGPT, or an autonomous framework encounters when it meets your site cold — the same llms.txt, OpenAPI spec, MCP handshake, headers, and structured data an agent would read.

Results are reproducible and citable

The rubric is fixed and public, so two scans of the same URL are comparable, and today's scan can be compared against last month's. Each result includes a per-check breakdown with a concrete recommendation — a ranked, actionable list rather than a vague goal.

Who it's for

Built for teams, engineers, and agents

Product & growth teams

Agents are the next wave of traffic, and most sites are invisible or unusable to them. Get a concrete score, a benchmark against peers, and a ranked fix list so agent-readiness becomes measurable instead of guesswork.

API & platform engineers

See exactly which agent-facing standards your API is missing — OpenAPI, MCP, OAuth discovery (RFC 8414 / 9728), API catalogs (RFC 9727), typed errors, idempotency, and rate-limit headers — with links to the fix for each.

Autonomous agents

Call the scanner directly to decide whether a target is worth integrating. One request returns a structured readiness report you can branch on. See the developer docs.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How do agents call the BotVisibility API?

Send a GET request to /api/scan?url=https://example.com&format=json, or POST the same endpoint with a JSON body. It's free up to a daily per-caller allowance; beyond that it returns HTTP 402 with x402 payment requirements. There is also an MCP server at /api/mcp and a CLI (npx botvisibility).

Is BotVisibility free?

Humans scan for free in the browser. Agents get a daily free allowance on the JSON API, then pay per scan in USDC on Solana via x402 through the pay.sh gateway. See pricing.

What does BotVisibility check for?

llms.txt, agent cards, OpenAPI specs, MCP servers, CORS and rate-limit headers, structured data, Content-Signals, API catalogs (RFC 9727), OAuth Protected Resource metadata (RFC 9728), x402 payments, AI search indexability, and more — 58 checks across the five levels above.

How is the scan run?

Entirely externally. BotVisibility fetches your public surface the way a real agent would — no source access, no install, no agent on your servers. That's why the score is trustworthy: it's what agents actually see.

What are the five levels?

Discoverable (can agents find you), Usable (does your API work for them), Optimized (can they work efficiently without wasting tokens), Indexable (can AI search ground answers in your site), and Agent-Native (audit logs, intent endpoints, scoped tokens, and consequence labels). The 58 checks are spread across all five.

Is there an SDK or CLI?

Yes — a Node CLI (npx botvisibility example.com) and a Python SDK (pip install botvisibility), plus a live MCP server and a REST API. See the developer docs.