draft-dpa-uzpif-outbound-indexing

UZPIF Outbound Indexing for Search Engines and AI

groupnone stateactive pages24 rev01 expires2026-09-17 canonicalhttps://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-dpa-uzpif-outbound-indexing/
This document proposes an outbound, opt-in mechanism for web content discovery and indexing, complementing or replacing traditional inbound crawling models such as those governed by the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP; [RFC9309]). In the proposed approach, servers proactively initiate authenticated outbound connections to trusted indexers (search engines or AI systems) using identity-bound grants, enabling explicit consent for indexing, freshness signalling, and content usage policy communication. The mechanism integrates with identity-centric frameworks such as the Universal Zero-Port Interconnect Framework (UZPIF; [UZPIF]) and supports both traditional search engines and AI-driven indexing and retrieval systems. This document is part of an experimental, research-oriented Independent Stream suite and defines the current normative baseline for trust objects, validation rules, and security semantics within its scope. Hard interoperability is expected for shared object semantics and validation rules. Full wire-level, clustering, and proof-family interoperability is not claimed everywhere yet; the remaining details are intentionally profile- defined or deferred. This revision defines semantic transparency objects and baseline evaluation now while leaving append-only proof- family interoperability to deployment profiles. The design aims to reduce unsolicited crawling abuse and improve signal quality for authorised indexers without claiming universal control over discoverability.