v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0Help AI understand your products: preparing for agent shopping with SKU.md v1.0.0
Follow a travel-mug example through discovery, evidence review, and condition checks to prepare your store for shopping agents.
SKU.md guides and practical notes
Learn how to prepare product details, publish a catalog entry point and check the results. Historical articles keep their original version context.
The platform series explores merchant-owned product knowledge using SKU.md 1.0.0. Articles labeled v0.8, v0.9, v0.10, or beta preserve their historical context.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0SKU.md v1.0.0 is here: from product descriptions to AI-readable knowledge
Explore the decisions behind SKU.md v1.0.0, its source-backed product knowledge, merchant tools, and ways to participate.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0Start with one product: a SKU.md guide for Shopify, SHOPLINE, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce merchants
Compare publishing constraints across Shopify, SHOPLINE, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, then generate, review, and verify a small SKU.md pilot.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaFrom “Help Me Choose” to a Product Recommendation: How AI Agents Interpret Purchase Intent
A step-by-step model of how an agent turns an underspecified shopping request into constraints, evidence-backed candidates, and a qualified recommendation.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaHow SHOPLINE Merchants Can Prepare Product Knowledge for AI Agents
A platform-aware preparation guide that separates merchant-controlled content, discovery hints, hosted-route constraints, strict validation, and compatibility reporting.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaHow to Publish /sku.md on Your Own Domain with WooCommerce
A controlled WooCommerce publishing workflow from Store API evidence through WordPress routing, human review, atomic release, monitoring, and rollback.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaHow to Run Your First SKU.md Validation on Shopify
A proof-oriented Shopify validation path covering route ownership, discovery, HTTP evidence, document validation, and the limits of an unverified App Proxy proposal.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaHow We Test Whether SKU.md Helps AI Find Better-Matched Products
A preregistered A/B benchmark design for comparing ordinary product pages with SKU.md under matched retrieval budgets, blind review, and reproducible artifacts.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaSKU.md Is Not a Product Feed: Why Live Inventory and Transaction State Stay Out
A responsibility map for product knowledge, commerce feeds, and transaction systems, with rules for keeping changing offers out of static Markdown.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaSKU.md v1.0.0: An Open Product Knowledge Contract for Independent Stores and AI Agents
A release-preparation account of the stable product-knowledge boundary, discovery contract, identifiers, AST, tools, evidence, known limits, and ways to participate.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaWhat GEO and AEO Mean for Independent Stores: What You Can Measure and What You Cannot Promise
A measurement framework that separates observable discovery and answer quality from unsupported promises about rankings, citations, or recommendations.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaWhat llms.txt Can Teach SKU.md About Open Standard Adoption
An ecosystem analysis of why a small convention needs a predictable default, standard discovery, useful tools, independent implementations, and restrained claims.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaWhat Should a Good SKU.md Tell an AI Agent?
An annotated product-knowledge anatomy covering facts, guidance, limitations, compatibility, identifiers, and evidence without turning Markdown into a feed.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaWhy “Who This Product Is Not For” Can Matter More Than Selling Points
Paired recommendation cases showing how explicit limitations protect customers, improve qualification, and make an agent’s refusal explainable.
v1.0.0 features
v1.0.0-betaWhy Independent Stores Need a Product Knowledge File for AI Shopping
A practical explanation of why an independent store needs a small, source-aware knowledge entry point alongside product pages, feeds, and checkout systems.
Platform perspectives
v1.0.0-betaBigCommerce and SKU.md: Source-Backed Product Knowledge Across Channels
How BigCommerce merchants can preserve product conditions and public sources across channels, then test SKU.md with one well-documented product.
Platform perspectives
v1.0.0-betaShopify and SKU.md: A Merchant-Owned Knowledge Layer for AI Shopping
How Shopify merchants can connect materials, care, and suitability guidance to public sources while keeping live shopping in Shopify.
Platform perspectives
v1.0.0-betaWooCommerce and SKU.md: Turning Product Details into Source-Backed Knowledge
How WooCommerce merchants can connect product pages, care articles, and manuals as source-backed knowledge, then publish a focused SKU.md pilot through WordPress.
BLOG / sku-md-adoption-flywheel.mdx
v0.10The SKU.md adoption flywheel: evidence before ecosystem claims
A realistic publisher–validator–consumer path using generators, platform defaults, conformance, reference consumers, cases, and governance.
BLOG / does-llms-txt-or-sku-md-help-seo.mdx
v0.10Does llms.txt or SKU.md help SEO? Measure the right claims
Separate crawlability, content quality, agent readability, platform adoption, and ranking—and define honest 30/60/90-day measurements.
BLOG / ai-commerce-authority-handoffs.mdx
v0.10AI commerce authority handoffs: from product knowledge to an order
Map four explicit handoffs from SKU.md to live Catalog, MCP or UCP, page WebMCP actions, Checkout, and order systems.
Specification notes
v1.0.0-betaRFC 0001: Declared Discovery, Structured Identifiers, and Reference Price for SKU.md
A draft proposal to let hosted stores declare a catalog outside /sku.md, give GTIN, MPN, brand, and SKU a parseable form, and add a dated reference price that is never an offer.
Specification notes
v1.0.0-betaWhat SKU.md Does for Independent Stores Today, and How to Link It from llms.txt, agents.md, and Sitemaps
An honest look at the role SKU.md can play in AI shopping conversations, followed by the recommended way to point to /sku.md from llms.txt, agents.md, sitemap.xml, robots.txt, and the home page.
BLOG / product-facts-claims-disclosures-evidence.mdx
v0.10Product Facts, Claims, Disclosures, and Limitations: govern the evidence
Separate product knowledge classes, source_url, verified_at, body consistency, review decisions, and untrusted free text.
BLOG / productgroup-variant-sku-gtin.mdx
v0.10ProductGroup, Variant, SKU, and GTIN: a fail-closed identity guide
Model product families, option combinations, market and language documents, stable URLs, SKU, and GTIN without guessing missing identity.
BLOG / schema-valid-but-not-published-ready.mdx
v0.10Schema valid but not publication-ready: 10 SKU.md delivery errors
Diagnose ten exact failures between local Schema success and a publicly valid SKU.md resource, with a deterministic repair flow.
BLOG / sku-md-platform-publishing-guide.mdx
v0.10SKU.md platform publishing guide: Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, SHOPLINE
Compare strict root publication and compatibility paths across four commerce platforms, with official sources and recheck boundaries.
BLOG / publish-your-first-sku-md.mdx
v0.10Publish your first SKU.md: an exact, platform-neutral tutorial
Prepare, generate, publish, and verify a root /sku.md with direct HTTP 200, text/markdown, canonical identity, and online checks.
BLOG / stable-product-knowledge-vs-live-commerce-data.mdx
v0.10Stable product knowledge vs live commerce data: draw the authority line
Classify durable facts, historical observations, dynamic offers, personalized conditions, and binding transaction state.
BLOG / llms-txt-vs-agents-md-vs-sku-md.mdx
v0.10llms.txt vs agents.md vs SKU.md: choose the right responsibility
A practical matrix for Sitemap, Product JSON-LD, llms.txt, agents.md, SKU.md, live catalogs, MCP, UCP, and Checkout.
BLOG / what-is-sku-md.mdx
v0.10What is SKU.md? Merchant-hosted product knowledge for agents
Define SKU.md, its document family, the Readable–Queryable–Executable Web, and the authority boundaries it does not cross.
BLOG / llms-txt-history-agent-readable-web.mdx
v0.10From llms.txt to an agent-readable web: the useful lesson for commerce
A dated history of llms.txt, Markdown access, AGENTS.md, and what SKU.md should learn without overstating adoption.
BLOG / introducing-sku-md-webmcp-readiness.mdx
v0.10From product knowledge to reliable page action: introducing SKU.md WebMCP Readiness
A merchant guide to using SKU.md WebMCP Readiness to separate static discovery, runtime evidence, visible page action, and live commercial authority.
BLOG / sku-md-v0-10-ucp-product-knowledge.mdx
v0.10SKU.md v0.10 × UCP: a product knowledge layer for live commerce
How SKU.md v0.10 complements UCP with merchant-hosted, auditable product knowledge while Catalog and Checkout remain authoritative for live commerce.
BLOG / sku-md-v0-10-webmcp-product-knowledge-and-page-actions.mdx
v0.10SKU.md v0.10 × WebMCP: product knowledge before the visit, structured action on the page
How SKU.md v0.10 gives agents durable, auditable product knowledge before a visit while WebMCP exposes current, user-visible actions after the page is open.
BLOG / sku-md-v0-9-interoperability-conformance.mdx
v0.9SKU.md v0.9: interoperability, scoped conformance, and safe consumption
What changes in v0.9, how to migrate without changing the wire format, and how validators, consumers, and publishers share an evidence-based contract.
BLOG / sku-md-v0-8-layered-architecture.mdx
v0.8Reading the SKU.md v0.8 layered architecture: self-hosted information, platform-gated transactions
From discovery and product truth to capability declarations and checkout, this guide explains how SKU.md v0.8 separates merchant-hosted control from platform-gated authority.
BLOG / introducing-sku-md-v0-8.mdx
v0.8Introducing SKU.md v0.8 draft
A practical overview of the publisher-owned product context layer, its document family, and its trust boundaries.