Verification

Since Standard.site records reference domains and web pages, a verifiable way for these resources to point back to their corresponding records is needed.

Overview

Verification is accomplished using a .well-known endpoint for publications, and an HTML <link> tag for documents.

When an application needs to verify a record, it fetches the appropriate verification endpoint and checks that the returned value matches the record's AT-URI.

A Standard.site record should only be considered "valid" if the author of the material provides an accurate verification endpoint pointing to the record.

Publication Verification

To verify a publication, add a .well-known endpoint to the domain:

/.well-known/site.standard.publication

The endpoint should return the AT-URI of the publication record:

at://did:plc:abc123/site.standard.publication/rkey

Non-root Publications

If the publication does not live at the domain root, append the publication path to the endpoint:

/.well-known/site.standard.publication/path/to/publication

Document Verification

To verify an individual document, include a <link> tag in the document's <head> that references its AT-URI.

HTML Example

<link
  rel="site.standard.document"
  href="at://did:plc:xyz789/site.standard.document/rkey"
/>

This confirms the association between the rendered document and its site.standard.document record.

Verification Flow

An application discovers a Standard.site record
The record contains a url (for publications) or site + path (for documents)
The application fetches the verification endpoint from that URL
The application checks if the returned AT-URI matches the record
If they match, the record is verified

Best Practices

Always implement verification for production records
Use HTTPS for all publication and document URLs
Keep AT-URIs consistent across records and verification endpoints
Update verification endpoints when migrating records to a new DID

Publication lexicon - Understanding publication records
Document lexicon - Understanding document records
Quick Start - Implementation guide