well-known

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Well-known refers to designating a common URL on domains for data to be located typically automatically by some software (like a browser or a search engine), and is generally an antipattern to be avoided, because it breaks the portability of content across directories and systems; see follow your nose instead.

"Well-known" are prescribed URLs/paths, whereas there are also emergent common page URLs published by IndieWeb sites like about, contact, etc. See:

• page

There are a couple of common patterns or categories of "well-known" URLs:

1. a root level file
2. stuff inside a root level "/.well-known/" directory, standardized by https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8615

Root Level

Historically there are several root level paths that are used by browser and search engines, and it's unlikely that we’ll ever be rid of them:

• robots.txt
• favicon.ico

However there has been a disturbing pattern of new proposals in form of something.txt over the years:

something.txt

(if this list gets too big, create a separate page)

• ads.txt
  • Criticism: 2019-05-10 Dr. Augustine Fou: How Ads.txt is Being Exploited by "Baddies" for Fun and Profit (archived)
• humans.txt
  • gRegor Morrill: Criticism: I set up one of these years ago then forgot about it. It was last updated 2011-05-08 and I rediscovered it 2023-05-25, demonstrating the sidefile-antipattern. I finally removed and redirected https://gregorlove.com/humans.txt to my about page.
• security.txt
• 2020 trust.txt

• ai.txt
  • Announced 2023-05-30 and used by their own API to "communicate the permissions set by ai.txt files to our growing network of AI researchers and partners, including Hugging Face and Stability AI." 2023-05-30 Cullen Miller: ai.txt: A new way for websites to set permissions for AI (archived) and on Twitter
  • Their site fails to implement it themselves, https://site.spawning.ai/ai.txt returns a 404

API endpoints

Apparently these root files are a convention on some sites:

• /code.json
• /data.json
• /sellers.json

Per:

• https://twitter.com/mistersql/status/1528833918245511171 (also yet another mislabeling of 'microformats' for something they are not)
  • "did you know many gov't sites have a code.json or data.json at the root of their domain to let you discover the opensource and open data they have available?
    
    https://www.dol.gov/code.json
    https://www.dol.gov/data.json
    
    I haven't found if there are any more of these microformats" @mistersql May 23, 2022

inside a root well-known directory

Main article: .well-known

• Let's_Encrypt (option)
• webfinger

See Also

• antipattern
• .well-known
• follow your nose