Public methodology · checked August 23, 2026
How the AgentReady score works—and where it stops
AgentReady is a best-effort diagnostic, not a certification, security audit, accessibility conformance determination, search-indexing guarantee, or universal measure of whether every agent can use a site.
Six evidence-gathering phases
The public URL scan gathers observations in six phases. The previous phase score was normalized to 100; it remains in metadata.readiness.legacyScore as an auditable migration reference. Phase totals still appear in the report as evidence, but they no longer determine the headline score.
Protocol Files
20 pointsrobots.txt, sitemap, emerging agent files, OpenAPI discovery, redirects, and response truth.
DOM & Accessibility
20 pointslandmarks, headings, labels, native semantics, accessible names, forms, and automation hints when browser evidence is available.
Content Intelligence
15 pointsstructured data, useful content structure, dates, schema validity, and form-information signals.
Browser Agent Compatibility
20 pointsserver/no-JavaScript content, navigation and CTA findability, stability, console behavior, and optional browser evidence.
Security & Safety
15 pointspublic security headers, secret-exposure patterns, bot handling, consequence hints, and guardrail signals.
Legal & Trust
5 pointssubstantive public privacy and terms pages, validated content, and links that make both policies discoverable from the homepage.
The 34-check applicability-aware score
The 2026-08-23-v2 model emits 34 stable check records. Essential checks contribute 80 points, recommended checks contribute 20, and positive bonus signals can add up to 5 points without taking the headline above 100.
Each check has one of five distinct states: pass, partial, fail, not applicable, or unobservable. Not-applicable checks are excluded from score and coverage denominators. Unobservable checks do not reduce the target score, but they do lower the separate coverage percentage. A high score with low coverage is incomplete evidence, not proof of readiness.
Optional surfaces such as an API, authentication, MCP, and commerce are classified as observed, advertised, suspected, or absent. Only positive observed evidence activates scoring; marketing text alone stays suspected and unscored.
The applicability-aware score is the public headline. The prior phase-normalized score remains available only for migration comparisons; compare two reports only when their methodology version and observation coverage match.
Observation methods and missing evidence
Direct fetches inspect public protocol files, headers, redirect behavior, and HTML. When configured and available, a Playwright browser pass adds rendered DOM, accessibility heuristics, discoverability, console, form, click-target, and no-JavaScript observations. Optional GitHub access examines only the connected repository signals permitted by the approved integration. Public scan results may be retained as a read-only report history for the scanned URL.
Some checks are conditional on browser or repository evidence. Network errors, bot protection, authentication, geographic behavior, JavaScript failures, rate limits, and provider availability can produce missing or partial observations. A recommendation should be confirmed against the returned evidence and the live product before implementation.
The scan uses heuristics for many UI and security signals. Legal & Trust verifies that substantive public policy pages exist and are discoverable; it does not judge whether those policies are legally sufficient. The score does not prove WCAG conformance, vulnerability absence, correct authorization, legal compliance, API correctness, or successful completion by every model and browser tool.
Benchmark limitations
No public benchmark dataset exists today. AgentReady does not currently publish framework rankings, market averages, percentile claims, or pass-rate comparisons. A future benchmark would require a versioned scoring rule, collection window, inclusion criteria, sample size, missing-data treatment, framework and site-type slices, privacy controls, correction route, and explicit limitations before any comparison is presented.
Individual scores can change when the site, scanner, browser availability, or scoring rules change. Compare before and after results only when the task, environment, and methodology version are recorded.
The Agentic Customer Journey Index is independent editorial research, not the verified benchmark. Its company profiles publish task contracts, timestamps, coverage, observable evidence, strengths, gaps, and corrections without publishing an unconsented numeric ranking. Verified participant status and company-specific before-and-after claims remain owner-approved.
How to use a result responsibly
- Save the scan date, URL, phase evidence, and scanner behavior.
- Reproduce important findings with official specifications and repository or browser tests.
- Prioritize unsafe consequence, exposed secrets, blocked core tasks, accessibility, and crawl truth before optional conventions.
- Write a failing test for deterministic behavior, implement the fix, and rerun the same task.
- Repeat the production check after deployment; local green does not prove production state.