Methodology

How the index works

The rules that decide what appears on /readable, published so anyone can check them.

Disclosures

ARS measures format and retrievability. It does not measure whether the facts are true, or whether any assistant cites this page.

Verification

How a domain gets named

A named entry in the index requires verified domain-owner opt-in, and there is no other route into the index. The one surface outside it is our own comparison pages, where any printed scan carries its date, its ruleset and a link to rerun it.

DNS TXT record

Publish a TXT record containing rebilder-verify= on the registrable domain. We resolve it, and the entry becomes eligible for named publication only after that resolution succeeds.

A DNS record verifies control of the domain.

Or: the gateway, observed live

If we observe an X-Rebilder-Path response header served from the origin itself, that is equivalent proof for the same reason: it requires control of the response, not of a document.

Verification is free and requires no account.

Eligible scans

Public index entries use scans from the public scanner or index crawler. Authenticated previews and local scans are excluded.

Your private previews and development scans stay separate from the public index.

Removal

How a domain gets out

Removal is free, self-serve and permanent.

Free, permanent removal

Remove your domain through the verification page. Removal is free, self-serve and permanent.

Email unsubscribe and index removal operate independently. Unsubscribing does not change your index entry.

Removal requests under review

If verification is incomplete, we suppress the entry while reviewing the removal request.

Removal applies to listings, badges and aggregates. Later scans do not relist a removed domain.

Appeal outcomes are not published

Disputes and their outcomes remain private.

Contact us to request a correction or use the removal process to withdraw your entry.

Aggregates

What the aggregates publish

At least 25 independent domains per group

Published aggregates include at least 25 independent domains. The publication check enforces this threshold.

Buckets under the floor are not merged or coarsened to clear it. They are withheld, and the page says how many were withheld.

One domain, one row

Distributions are computed over the latest scan per domain per page kind, so a heavily rescanned site cannot weight its own bucket. Suppressed domains are excluded from the aggregates as well as from the named list. A suppressed entry is removed everywhere, not just hidden from the list.

Shares are published; underlying counts per grade are not, beyond the bucket size itself.

Versions

Rescoring and comparability

Comparing score versions

ARS scores are comparable only within an identical spec version and ruleset hash, which is why both are printed on every row. We do not retain third-party response bodies, so a stored result cannot be rescored under a new ruleset from the stored numbers alone.

When the scoring rules change, opted-in domains are rescanned under the new version so results remain comparable.

How the score is calculated

ARS 0.3.0 allocates 63 of 100 points to measured checks and 37 to heuristic ones. A measured check reports a property of the bytes and headers we received; a heuristic check reports an inference about them.

Every check declares its basis in every result, and a heuristic value is never rendered without its label. The spec caps total heuristic weight at 40; a ruleset that exceeds it does not conform to the spec.