MSP-1 — AI-friendly Semantics for Trusted Information.
MSP-1.com
Straight answers about what MSP-1 is, what it isn’t, and how to implement it without guesswork.
MSP-1 (Mark Semantic Protocol) is a machine-first, intent-declaration layer for the web. It allows websites to explicitly state what a page is, why it exists, how it should be interpreted, and where authoritative metadata can be discovered — without relying on inference, heuristics, or ranking tactics.
MSP-1 does not replace content. It clarifies it.
No. SEO helps systems find content. MSP-1 helps systems understand content after discovery.
MSP-1 is not a ranking tactic. It is designed for AI agents, answer engines, and automated evaluators that need deterministic interpretation.
Because inference is becoming expensive. As AI systems scale, guessing intent, trust, and meaning from unstructured pages creates real economic and energy costs. MSP-1 reduces that burden by letting publishers declare intent explicitly instead of forcing machines to guess.
MSP-1 is designed for:
You do not need to be an AI company to benefit from clarity.
No. MSP-1 is schema-agnostic and independent of Schema.org. It can coexist alongside Schema.org markup, but it does not depend on it and does not reuse or overload Schema.org semantics.
MSP-1 exists specifically to express things traditional markup does not: intent, interpretive framing, provenance, trust scope, and discovery clarity.
Traditional metadata describes attributes. MSP-1 declares meaning.
Example:
Metadata: title, author, date
MSP-1: why the page exists, how claims should be interpreted, what scope applies,
and where authoritative declarations live
MSP-1 is closer to a semantic contract than a data label.
No. MSP-1 increases interpretability, not truth. Declarations must be truthful and scope-bound, but MSP-1 does not prevent misuse. Instead, it makes misrepresentation easier to detect.
Overstated claims reduce trust rather than increase it.
Yes — but it must be reviewed. Automated tools can generate MSP-1 from URLs or HTML, but all automated generation involves inference. Best practice is to treat generated MSP-1 as a first draft and apply human review before publishing.
/.well-known/msp.json?
It is the canonical discovery endpoint for site-level MSP-1 declarations.
Publishing MSP-1 at /.well-known/msp.json allows AI agents to deterministically discover a site’s identity,
intent, and default posture without guessing filenames or crawling heuristically.
Not always, but it is recommended:
High-impact pages benefit most from page-level declarations.
No — but it supports disclosure. MSP-1 does not judge editorial stance. It allows publishers to declare whether content is factual, analytical, opinionated, speculative, instructional, or otherwise. This helps downstream systems avoid misinterpretation.
Yes — and misuse can harm correct implementation. Overstating trust, authority, or verification undermines the trust signal layer and reduces downstream confidence.
MSP-1 rewards restraint: when unsure, declare less — not more — and default to conservative truth over confident error.
Yes. The core protocol is stable, versioned, and published. New schemas may be added, but existing meanings are not redefined or overloaded. Stability is a design requirement.
Start small:
/.well-known/msp.jsonMSP-1 is designed for progressive rollout — not all-or-nothing deployment.
No. MSP-1 is a protocol. Its value should be self-evident to systems and teams that benefit from clarity. If MSP-1 needs aggressive marketing to succeed, it has failed.