# ARD Check FAQ

### How do I know if my brand is ARD compliant?

The fastest way is to run [our completely free check](/) – we inspect your site against the current ARD spec and tell you exactly what passes and what doesn't. ARD is a technical specification with strict requirements for data structures, endpoints, and behavior, so it's genuinely hard to self-assess manually. For ongoing assurance – knowing you're still compliant after the next spec release – [CorgiMaps](https://www.corgimaps.com) continuously generates and maintains a compliant ARD surface for you.

### How do I fix my site if it isn't ARD compliant?

You have two paths. The DIY route is to build and host ARD-compliant endpoints yourself, mapping your product, pricing, and inventory data from all your source systems and files into the exact schema the spec requires and then keep that build current as the spec evolves. The more straightforward path is using [CorgiMaps](https://www.corgimaps.com), which connects to your existing data sources and generates compliant ARD endpoints for you, with no custom build necessary.

### Why does my brand need to show up in AI?

Shopping behavior is moving into AI assistants. Already, [73% of consumers are using AI in their shopping journey](https://commercetools.com/blog/ai-trends-shaping-agentic-commerce), and Accenture estimates that by 2030 [more than 30% of online commerce – close to $3.1 trillion – will run through AI agents](https://www.accenture.com/au-en/blogs/banking/agentic-commerce-payments). If an AI can't see your products, it will recommend a competitor who is visible. Showing up isn't optional marketing. This is where the next purchase decision happens.

### If my brand supports one commerce protocol, is it compliant with the others?

No. Each agentic-commerce protocol defines its own data structures, endpoints, tools, and transport. So supporting one does not make you compliant with another. They overlap in spirit but differ in the details, so each requires its own compliant surface. [CorgiMaps](https://www.corgimaps.com) covers the major protocols at once from a single connection to your data, instead of building and maintaining a separate integration for each.

### Why do I need to support more than one agentic commerce protocol?

Different AI assistants and shopping platforms back different protocols, and no single one covers every surface. Supporting only one means you're invisible everywhere it isn't used. To reach as many shopping surfaces as possible, you generally need to support several protocols at once, which is why [CorgiMaps](https://www.corgimaps.com) maintains compliant surfaces across the major protocols from one place rather than one at a time.

### How do you keep up with changes to the protocols and new protocols?

Keeping up is continuous work, not a one-time task. Specs ship new releases, requirements change, and entirely new protocols keep emerging. Doing this by hand means tracking 6–12 evolving specifications and re-validating after every release. This is exactly what [CorgiMaps](https://www.corgimaps.com) maintains for you. It tracks the spec changes and keeps your endpoints compliant as they land, so your team doesn't have to monitor the protocols at all.

### How often do these protocols change?

Frequently. Major releases tend to land on roughly a quarterly cadence, with smaller changes and activity happening as often as weekly across the protocols and their governing bodies. Because the space is young and moving fast, a surface that's compliant today can fall behind within a few weeks if no one is watching.

### If I don't keep up with versions, will my site stop being compliant?

Yes. As new versions of ARD are published and AI platforms deprecate support for older ones, a surface that was compliant can quietly stop working, and you may not notice until you've dropped out of AI results. Staying compliant means tracking every release and updating accordingly. [CorgiMaps](https://www.corgimaps.com) handles this version drift for you, keeping your ARD surface current as the spec moves.

### How long does it take to implement these protocols on my own?

Building ARD support yourself typically means months of custom engineering – mapping your data into the schema, standing up and hosting endpoints, and testing against the spec – followed by constant monitoring of 6–12 evolving protocols to stay compliant. [CorgiMaps](https://www.corgimaps.com) removes nearly all of that: it generates compliant endpoints in minutes from your existing data and keeps them current as the specs change, so there's no build and no ongoing maintenance burden on your team.

### What is an ARD manifest?

A JSON document at /.well-known/ard.json on your domain with an entries array. Each entry describes one agentic resource you offer, such as an MCP server or an A2A agent card, with a urn:air identifier, a media type, a display name, and a url or inline data for the resource's own descriptor. Agents and registries read it to find what you have.

### What does the ARD check actually do?

It finds your manifest, validates it against the current ARD schema, and checks each entry: the identifier, the media type, representative queries, and the publisher identity if you declare one. It then sends GET requests to up to 10 entry links to confirm they resolve and, for JSON types, that the body parses as JSON. Registry entries are declared-only and are not fetched. It also checks basic hygiene such as HTTPS and CORS. It never sends credentials and never calls a registry's search API.

### How is ARD different from llms.txt or agents.md?

ARD is a machine-readable manifest: a list of the callable resources you offer, each with a type and a link to its descriptor, published at /.well-known/ard.json. llms.txt and agents.md are separate files with their own purposes. This check looks only at the ARD manifest and the links it publishes, and does not read or assess either of them.

### Do I still need ai-catalog.json?

ai-catalog is ARD's predecessor, and its path was /.well-known/ai-catalog.json. The ARD spec says a publisher on that path should move to /.well-known/ard.json, and that consumers may still consult the old path but are not required to. That is why the check falls back to ai-catalog.json when it finds no manifest at ard.json, and reports a warning when it does.

### Does ARD replace MCP or A2A?

No. ARD is how an agent finds your MCP server or A2A agent card; MCP and A2A are how it then uses them. A clean ARD result says nothing about whether the server card or agent card behind an entry is valid, since those are checked separately.

### Is ARD a finished standard?

Not yet. The current version is v0.91 and its status is "Proposal", so details can change between versions. The check is pinned to one version of the spec and the result says which. Expect to revisit your manifest as the spec moves.