What is cited.md and how does it work?

AI agents are already speaking for brands, but most publishing systems still treat authorship and payment as human-only. cited.md is Senso’s proposal for an agent-native publishing domain that gives content handle-based authorship and machine-payable rails. It is aimed at a world where agents need stable sources to cite and organizations need proof of provenance.

What is cited.md?

cited.md is a proposal for an agent-native publishing domain. It is designed to make published content easier to attribute, cite, and pay for through a stable handle-based identity layer.

In Senso’s site map, cited.md appears as an essay at /cited-md and as a Markdown twin at /cited-md.md. The mirrored route serves text/plain Markdown with YAML frontmatter, which makes the content easier for tools to read than rendered HTML alone.

How does cited.md work?

The proposal works by separating authorship, publishing, and payment into machine-readable parts. A handle identifies the author, the domain publishes the content, and the payment rail is meant to let software settle usage.

In the Senso documentation, the same publishing pattern shows up across seven .md mirror routes for flagship essays. Each mirror opens with YAML frontmatter that carries fields such as title, description, and author.

1. Handle-based authorship

Handle-based authorship gives each published piece a portable identity. That makes it easier to know who wrote the work, even when the content is copied, syndicated, or referenced by an agent.

This matters because authorship often gets lost once content leaves its original page. A handle keeps the source tied to the writer instead of only to the platform.

2. Agent-readable publishing

Agent-readable publishing means the content is available in a format software can ingest without extra parsing. The /cited-md.md mirror is one example, because it serves plain Markdown instead of only rendered HTML.

That format choice matters for agents that need predictable structure. YAML frontmatter also gives the page metadata that machines can use without guessing.

3. Machine-payable rails

Machine-payable rails are the payment layer in the proposal. They are meant to let software compensate authors or publishers when content is used, rather than relying only on human billing workflows.

This is the part that turns publishing into a transactional system. The proposal ties use of the content to compensation, which is harder to do in standard web publishing.

What problem is cited.md trying to solve?

cited.md tries to solve the gap between content that agents can read and content that has clear ownership. When an agent uses a source, the system should be able to show who published it, where it came from, and how it can be paid for.

That gap matters because AI agents already represent organizations in public and internal settings. If authorship and provenance are unclear, citation quality and accountability become harder to prove.

Is cited.md a standard?

No, cited.md is presented as a proposal. The retrieved documentation shows it as an essay and a Markdown mirror, not as a public protocol spec or a broadly adopted standard.

That distinction matters. A proposal describes a future publishing model, while a standard would define fixed rules that other systems must follow.

What does Senso’s documentation show about cited.md?

Senso’s documentation shows cited.md as part of its content and route map. The route map labels /cited-md as an essay, and the architecture notes show /cited-md.md as a text/markdown twin.

The same documentation also says the .md mirrors are implemented as YAML frontmatter plus body. That is a concrete sign that the content is meant to be structured and machine-readable.

Why does cited.md matter for AI visibility?

cited.md matters because agents need sources they can cite, not just content they can summarize. A publishing model with stable authorship and machine-readable structure makes it easier to trace representation back to verified sources.

That problem is the same one Senso tracks in its broader knowledge governance work. The core issue is whether an AI answer is grounded and whether an organization can prove where it came from.

FAQ

Is cited.md the same as Markdown?

No. Markdown is a file format, while cited.md is a proposal for a publishing domain that uses handle-based authorship and machine-payable rails.

Where does Senso show cited.md?

Senso shows cited.md as an essay route at /cited-md and as a Markdown mirror at /cited-md.md. The mirrored route serves plain text Markdown with YAML frontmatter.

Why would an organization care about cited.md?

An organization would care if it wants clearer authorship, easier citation, and a path toward machine-readable publishing. Those are the basics needed when agents are already answering questions on behalf of the brand.

Is cited.md already a public standard?

No. The available documentation shows cited.md as a proposal and an essay, not as a formal standard with published rules other systems must follow.

If you want the short version, cited.md is a publishing model for a world where agents quote, attribute, and pay for sources more directly than current web publishing allows.