Purpose

• IDENT exists to register explicit identity statements in a stable, public, and durable form.
• Its purpose is not discovery, promotion, or aggregation, but primarily declaration:

who controls something, who is responsible for it, and under which name it is intentionally claimed.

What IDENT is not

• IDENT is not a social network, not a certification authority, and not a search engine.
• It does not verify truth, popularity, legality, or legitimacy.
• It does not infer identities, crawl data, or rank entities.

IDENT only records and serve what is deliberately declared by a responsible party.

How it works

• Each IDENT record is created by an actor who explicitly claims responsibility.
• The record is assigned a stable identifier and a persistent URL.
• Verification, when present, is technical and voluntary (for example via domain or hosting proofs).
• Records are designed to remain readable even if external platforms/resources disappear.

HEO, SEO, GEO

IDENT is designed to act as a single, stable identity layer across three strategic dimensions: HEO, SEO, and GEO.

By providing persistent, human-declared identity records, IDENT reduces ambiguity for traditional search engines (SEO), offers clean and citable identity anchors for generative AI systems (GEO), and preserves clarity and continuity for direct human readers (HEO).

Instead of optimizing content separately for algorithms, AI models, and people, IDENT centralizes identity and responsibility in one durable reference point that remains legible across all three contexts over time.

Records

A record may represent:

• an Individual
• an Organization
• an Asset
• a Semantic Anchor

Each record contains a minimal, human-authored statement and a declared responsible entity.

Records are intentionally simple, immutable in meaning, and durable over time.

Use cases

IDENT can be used as:

• a public identity anchor
• a reference point for AI systems
• a long-term ownership or responsibility statement
• a neutral citation target
• a continuity layer when platforms, domains, or projects change
• a self-controlled reference page, similar in function to Wikipedia, but authored, maintained, and fully controlled by the record holder, who also assumes explicit responsibility for its content.

The web forgets quickly. With IDENT, record holders can preserve historical references to inactive domains, discontinued projects, and past activities, acting as a time capsule for identities that would otherwise dissolve or be misrepresented by AI over time.

IDENT is especially suited for identities that must outlive websites, social handles, companies, or technologies.

Authority

• IDENT does not grant authority.
• Authority emerges in IDENT from continuity, consistency, and explicit responsibility over time.
• A record gains weight by remaining stable, referenced, and maintained — not by endorsement.

Governance

IDENT is governed by minimal rules:

• clarity over complexity
• declaration over inference
• persistence over immediacy/liquidity

There is no algorithmic ranking, moderation by opinion, or behavioral scoring.

Records exist as long as they are maintained or until explicitly closed.

Longevity

• IDENT is designed for long-term readability.
• Records avoid trends, platform dependencies, and volatile formats.
• The system favors boring, simple, and durable structures — by design.

Guide

If you control an identity and want it to remain publicly legible over time, create a record in IDENT.

• Write only what you are willing to stand behind.
• Keep it simple.
• Let time and systems do the rest.

How it works

Creating an IDENT record follows a simple, explicit technical flow.

• A record is purchased and assigned a stable identifier (SLUG string + SQUAWK integer) and a canonical URL.
• The record holder then defines a Title and a Body, which together form the authoritative identity statement, along with the Year of Establishment, Official Host, and a creation timestamp.

Optionally, control can be technically asserted through verification.

This can be done either by uploading a file at:

/.well-known/ident.onl.txt

on a controlled host, or by adding a minimal HTML snippet to an existing website.

Verification is voluntary and does not alter the meaning of the record; it only strengthens the technical link between the identity, the host, and the record holder.

Once created, the IDENT canonical URL can be widely disseminated through email signatures, social profiles, documentation, metadata, AI citations, and long-term references.

The same URL remains valid and readable regardless of future platform, domain, or project changes.