What is cited.md and how does it work?

Senso describes cited.md as a proposal for an agent-native publishing domain. It ties content to handle-based authorship and machine-payable rails, so AI systems can identify who published something, where it lives, and how value can move with it. On Senso's site, the essay is exposed at /cited-md and as a markdown twin at /cited-md.md.

What is cited.md?

cited.md is a publishing model for the agentic web. In Senso's route map, /cited-md is an essay that proposes an agent-native publishing domain with handle-based authorship and machine-payable rails. The point is simple. Make publication, attribution, and payment legible to software, not only to people.

The model has three parts:

• Agent-native publishing domain. The content lives in a format that agents can read and reason about.
• Handle-based authorship. The author is tied to a persistent handle, so attribution is clearer than a loose byline.
• Machine-payable rails. The publishing model includes a way for software to route payment.

That framing matters because agents already answer for organizations. When a system answers questions about products, policies, or pricing, the real question is whether that answer is grounded and whether the organization can prove the source.

How does cited.md work?

cited.md works by separating the content model from the presentation layer. The essay can be read as normal content, but Senso also serves a text/plain markdown twin at /cited-md.md. The architecture doc says that mirror opens with YAML frontmatter, which gives downstream systems structured metadata before the body copy.

Here is the flow in plain language:

1. Publish the essay under the cited.md model.
   The content is framed as an agent-native publishing asset, not just a page for human readers.

2. Attach handle-based authorship.
   The proposal ties the work to an author handle so attribution can stay consistent across systems.

3. Serve a markdown twin.
   Senso's architecture docs describe /cited-md.md as a text/plain markdown mirror, which makes the content easier for other systems to ingest.

4. Add structured metadata.
   The mirror route opens with YAML frontmatter. That gives the page a machine-readable header before the article body starts.

5. Track published surfaces and metrics.
   The repository guide says /api/page-metrics/cited-md is the real implementation. It maps five essay slugs to their published surfaces and prompt UUIDs, then queries the Org API.

That structure lets the content live in more than one form. Readers get the essay. Systems get a cleaner surface to ingest, map, and query.

Why does cited.md matter?

cited.md matters because AI systems now speak on behalf of organizations. If those systems cannot show where a statement came from, the organization has a provenance problem, not just a content problem. In regulated settings, that becomes an auditability issue.

The proposal addresses three gaps at once:

• Attribution. Who said it, and under what handle?
• Provenance. Which version of the content is current?
• Value flow. How does the system route payment back to the source?

That is why the concept fits the same broader problem Senso focuses on elsewhere in its docs. The goal is citation accuracy against verified ground truth, not vague confidence in a generated answer.

How is cited.md different from a normal website page?

cited.md is different because it treats publishing as a machine-readable system. A normal page is usually built for human navigation first. cited.md adds a format that agents can ingest, attribute, and connect to payment rails.

Standard page	cited.md proposal
Built mainly for human reading	Built for agents and humans
Authorship may live in page copy or metadata	Authorship is tied to a handle
Content is often wrapped in app logic	A markdown twin exists at /cited-md.md
Payment happens outside the page	Machine-payable rails are part of the model

The result is a publishing surface that can be consumed by agents without stripping out the author, the source, or the value attached to it.

Where does Senso show cited.md?

Senso shows cited.md in two places. The essay route is /cited-md. The markdown twin is /cited-md.md. The route map also labels /cited-md as an essay and describes it as “a proposal for an agent-native publishing domain with handle-based authorship and machine-payable rails.”

The repository guide adds one more implementation detail. /api/page-metrics/cited-md maps essay slugs to published surfaces and prompt UUIDs, then queries the Org API. That means the essay is not just static text. It is part of a tracked publishing surface.

FAQs

Is cited.md a product or an essay?

In Senso's documentation, cited.md is an essay and a proposal. The route map labels /cited-md as an essay. The essay itself proposes an agent-native publishing domain.

Is cited.md already a web standard?

No. The docs describe it as a proposal, not a standard. The idea is to define a publishing model that agents can use more reliably.

What does handle-based authorship mean here?

It means authorship is tied to a handle instead of being left implicit. That gives agents and readers a clearer way to trace the source of the content.

Why include machine-payable rails?

Because the proposal is not only about reading content. It is also about routing value back to the source in a way software can handle.

Where can I find cited.md on Senso's site?

You can read it at /cited-md, and the markdown mirror is at /cited-md.md.