Agentic Commerce Readiness Standard
ACRS v1.0 · Published by ads4ai.io · Open Standard
Every check maps to a published specification. We don't invent standards.
The ACRS is a programmatically-assessed standard that certifies SME websites across three tiers —
from basic AI discoverability through to full agentic commerce readiness. All 29 checks are automated
via Playwright auditing and scored on a 100-point scale. Each check is grounded in a ratified or
emerging published standard.
Scoring & Grades
| Score | Grade | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 90–100 | A | Fully agentic commerce ready |
| 75–89 | B | Strong readiness, minor gaps |
| 55–74 | C | Moderate readiness, key gaps remain |
| 35–54 | D | Basic presence, significant work needed |
| 0–34 | F | Not AI-commerce ready |
Tier 1 AI Discoverable 35 points · 12 month certification
All 7 checks must pass. A Tier 1 site can be found and correctly indexed by AI crawlers and LLMs.
| Ref | Check | Pts | What is assessed | Underlying standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
T1.1 | HTTPS / SSL | 5 | HTTPS enforced, valid certificate, no mixed content | Ratified RFC 8446 (TLS 1.3), HSTS (RFC 6797) |
T1.2 | LocalBusiness schema | 10 | JSON-LD with LocalBusiness (or sub-type), name, address, telephone, url | Ratified Schema.org · JSON-LD 1.1 (W3C) |
T1.3 | Service / Offer schema | 5 | Service or Offer schema with name and description fields | Ratified Schema.org · JSON-LD 1.1 (W3C) |
T1.4 | robots.txt | 5 | Valid robots.txt present; GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot not blocked | Ratified RFC 9309 (Robots Exclusion Protocol) |
T1.5 | sitemap.xml | 5 | Valid sitemap.xml referenced in robots.txt | Ratified sitemaps.org · RFC 5005 |
T1.6 | Performance | 3 | Page load under 3.5 seconds on simulated mobile connection | Ratified Core Web Vitals (Google / W3C) |
T1.7 | Mobile responsive | 2 | Viewport meta tag present, no horizontal scroll at 375px viewport | Ratified WCAG 2.2 AA (W3C) · HTML Living Standard (WHATWG) |
Tier 2 AI Readable 40 points · 6 month certification · requires Tier 1
All 8 checks must pass, and Tier 1 must be certified. A Tier 2 business provides enough structured context for AI models to accurately describe and recommend it.
| Ref | Check | Pts | What is assessed | Underlying standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
T2.1 | llms.txt | 8 | /llms.txt present, ≥200 words, includes description and contact fields | Emerging llms.txt (Perplexity / Anthropic convention) |
T2.2 | ai.txt | 5 | /ai.txt with Allow/Disallow, Contact and Commercial directives | Emerging RFC 9309 extension pattern |
T2.3 | FAQ schema | 7 | FAQPage schema with ≥5 Q&A pairs, each answer ≥30 words | Ratified Schema.org FAQPage · JSON-LD 1.1 (W3C) |
T2.4 | Pricing signal | 5 | Explicit price, range, or model in Offer schema or page content | Ratified Schema.org Offer / PriceSpecification |
T2.5 | Service pages | 5 | Dedicated pages with H1, 300+ words, schema markup and CTA | Ratified RFC 3986 (URI addressability) · Schema.org |
T2.6 | Availability | 4 | openingHoursSpecification in schema or Hours: directive in ai.txt | Ratified Schema.org openingHoursSpecification |
T2.7 | Trust signals | 3 | ≥2 of: reviews, professional body, named principal, accreditation | Ratified Google E-E-A-T guidelines · Schema.org Review / AggregateRating |
T2.8 | Cookie consent | 3 | GDPR cookie consent, privacy policy and form data notices | Ratified EU ePrivacy Directive · GDPR (Regulation 2016/679) |
Tier 3 Agentic Commerce Ready 25 points · 3 month certification · requires Tier 1 + 2
All 7 checks must pass plus manual identity review. A Tier 3 business is ready to accept enquiries, bookings and transactions initiated by AI agents.
| Ref | Check | Pts | What is assessed | Underlying standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
T3.1 | Contact action | 5 | potentialAction with ContactAction and valid target in schema | Ratified Schema.org potentialAction / ContactAction |
T3.2 | Booking endpoint | 5 | Machine-readable booking or enquiry endpoint (URL, form or ReservationAction) | Ratified Schema.org ReservationAction · OpenAPI 3.x |
T3.3 | Service catalogue | 5 | Full ItemList or ≥3 Service schemas with name, description, area and price | Ratified Schema.org ItemList / Service / Offer |
T3.4 | Agent policy | 4 | ai.txt includes Transact:, TransactionTypes: and TransactionContact: directives | Emerging ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol) · AP2 |
T3.5 | Response SLA | 2 | ResponseSLA: in ai.txt or hoursAvailable on ContactPoint schema | Emerging ACP · Schema.org ContactPoint |
T3.6 | Identity | 2 | Company registration number in schema or ai.txt — manual review required | Ratified Schema.org legalName · C2PA entity identity |
T3.7 | Ads alignment | 2 | Google Ads: landing pages match schema, conversion tracking active | Ratified Core Web Vitals · Google Ads conversion tracking spec |
Certification Validity
| Tier | Validity | Auto-rescan | Lapse window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — AI Discoverable | 12 months | Annual | 30 days |
| Tier 2 — AI Readable | 6 months | Bi-annual | 30 days |
| Tier 3 — Agentic Commerce Ready | 3 months | Quarterly | 30 days |
Referenced Specifications
All ACRS checks map to the specifications below. We don't invent standards.
Ratified standards
- Schema.org — structured data vocabulary (W3C Community Group)
- JSON-LD 1.1 — W3C Recommendation
- RFC 9309 — Robots Exclusion Protocol (IETF)
- RFC 8446 — TLS 1.3 (IETF)
- RFC 6797 — HSTS (IETF)
- RFC 3986 — URI syntax and addressability (IETF)
- RFC 6596 — Canonical URL (IETF)
- Core Web Vitals — LCP, CLS, INP (Google / W3C)
- WCAG 2.2 AA — Web Content Accessibility (W3C)
- HTML Living Standard — WHATWG
- OpenAPI 3.x — API description (Linux Foundation)
- GDPR / ePrivacy Directive — EU Regulation 2016/679
- C2PA — Content provenance (Coalition for Content Provenance)
Emerging conventions
- llms.txt — LLM-optimised site description (Perplexity / Anthropic convention)
- ai.txt — AI access and commerce policy directives
- Model Context Protocol (MCP) — Anthropic / open community
- ACP — Agentic Commerce Protocol
- AP2 — Agent Payments Protocol
- UCP — Unified Commerce Protocol
Emerging conventions are flagged in the check tables above. They are real and in active use but not yet governed by a neutral standards body. ACRS treats them as best-practice requirements, not ratified mandates.
Open standard. The ACRS v1.0 is freely available for use by auditors, platforms and businesses.
Automated certification is available exclusively through
ads4ai.io.
Get certified →