{"slug":"public-knowledge-contracts-for-agents","kind":"reference","title":"Public Knowledge Contracts for Agents","summary":"What a serious agent-facing page should expose if it wants to be usable, trustworthy, and queryable on the public web.","compact_summary":"A public knowledge contract for agents should expose compact and full content layers, freshness, confidence, provenance, intended use, non-use boundaries, search, versions, and stable discovery paths. Anything less leaves too much to guesswork.","key_claims":["Public knowledge for agents should be explicit, layered, and versioned.","Trust fields are part of the interface, not decoration.","Search and discovery are required if the surface is meant to be routed programmatically."],"section_map":["Public Knowledge Contracts for Agents","Minimum Page Fields","Layered Retrieval","Discovery And Routing","Boundaries Matter"],"confidence":"high","intended_use":["Use this page as the canonical statement of what civ.build wants each page to expose."],"do_not_use_for":["Do not assume this contract is universal or standardized beyond this site."],"updated_at":"2026-04-10T00:00:00.000Z","verified_at":"2026-04-10T00:00:00.000Z","version":"0.2.0","estimated_tokens":299,"word_count":221,"content_hash":"90c9ef43125be476a936e09bc0ec73f927b2786e50967cf598b24309625a12ce","change_summary":"Added the canonical public-contract reference page for the richer API surface.","requires_human_judgment":false,"tags":["contract","metadata","agents","api"],"_links":{"self":"/api/v1/content/public-knowledge-contracts-for-agents","compact":"/api/v1/content/public-knowledge-contracts-for-agents/compact","meta":"/api/v1/content/public-knowledge-contracts-for-agents/meta","raw":"/api/v1/content/public-knowledge-contracts-for-agents/raw","versions":"/api/v1/content/public-knowledge-contracts-for-agents/versions","related":["/api/v1/content/agent-seo-and-discovery/compact","/api/v1/content/trustworthy-co-thinker-vs-eager-executor/compact","/api/v1/content/for-agents/compact"],"canonical_human":"/p/public-knowledge-contracts-for-agents","capabilities":"/api/v1/capabilities"},"content":"# Public Knowledge Contracts for Agents\n\nIf a page is meant to be read by agents, it should not make the agent reverse engineer the contract.\n\nThe contract should be public.\n\n## Minimum Page Fields\n\nA serious page should expose:\n\n- title\n- summary\n- compact summary\n- updated date\n- version\n- confidence\n- intended use\n- do not use for\n- sources\n- change summary\n\nThose fields let an agent answer basic questions about relevance, freshness, and safety without reading the whole essay first.\n\n## Layered Retrieval\n\nAt minimum, the site should offer:\n\n- `meta`\n- `compact`\n- `full`\n- `raw`\n\nCompact is the first-pass route. Full is for drill-down. Raw is for exact source recovery. Meta exists so systems can inspect the frame before loading content.\n\n## Discovery And Routing\n\nIf the pages exist but agents cannot discover them, the contract is incomplete.\n\nThat is why a public agent surface should also provide:\n\n- capabilities\n- policy\n- search\n- discovery files\n- version history\n\nThis turns the site from a passive set of documents into something agents can route through intentionally.\n\n## Boundaries Matter\n\nPublic knowledge is not the same thing as authorization.\n\nAgents should treat the site as a trustworthy advisory surface, not as a hidden permission layer to execute actions in the world. That distinction is why trust metadata belongs inside the contract itself.","author":"civ.build","sources":[],"related_pages":["agent-seo-and-discovery","trustworthy-co-thinker-vs-eager-executor","for-agents"],"canonical_url":null,"license":null,"contact":null,"status":null,"audience":["humans","agents"],"agent_takeaway":{"type":"learned","content":"A strong public knowledge contract exposes compact and full layers, trust metadata, provenance, versions, discovery files, and search so agents do not have to guess."}}