# /sitemap.md markdown site map

> /sitemap.md markdown site map: Lets an agent read your site structure as markdown in a single file. The fix: publish a markdown sitemap.

- Source: /checks/sitemap-md
- Site: AgenticWebScore
- Language: English

---
Lets an agent read your site structure as markdown in a single file. Adoption is still very low, so this is an early-mover advantage.

| Property | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Check id | `sitemap-md` |
| Dimension | Discoverability (20%) |
| Tier | Emerging — pool 5 pts |
| Weight inside tier | 1 |
| Impact | Low |
| Maturity | Draft — A published specification that is not yet ratified. |
| Conditional | No |
| Publishing skill | `sitemap-md` |
| Standards | — |

## What the scanner requests

- `/sitemap.md`

## What is measured

The scanner fetches https://<domain>/sitemap.md (the exact path this check probes) and parses it as markdown. Pass = 200 markdown whose body is an H1 plus markdown links to the site's key pages written as absolute URLs. Partial = markdown is served but the links are relative, are not a list, or cover only a couple of top-level pages. Fail = 404, or an HTML document returned for the path.

## Reproduce it yourself

You do not have to take our word for any of this. Run the same measurement against your own domain:

```bash
DOMAIN=example.com
curl -sS "https://$DOMAIN/sitemap.md" | head -30
```

## The fix

This is the artifact to ship. It is the complete change, not a description of one.

```markdown
# Sitemap

- [Home](https://example.com/): What Example Inc does and who it is for
- [Quickstart](https://example.com/docs/quickstart): First API call in five minutes
- [API reference](https://example.com/docs/api): Every endpoint and response field
- [Authentication](https://example.com/docs/auth): OAuth 2.0 flows and token lifetimes
- [Pricing](https://example.com/pricing): Plans, limits and overage rates
- [Status](https://example.com/status): Live service status and incident history
- [Contact](https://example.com/contact): Sales and support routes
```

> Keep it to the pages an agent should actually read and regenerate it whenever sitemap.xml changes, since the two drifting apart is the usual failure.

## Related checks

| Check | Tier | Impact | Same skill |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `reachable` — Homepage open to agent access | Essential | Critical | — |
| `robots-txt` — robots.txt with agent directives | Essential | High | — |
| `sitemap-xml` — sitemap.xml valid and current | Essential | High | — |
| `llms-txt` — /llms.txt published and well-structured | Essential | Critical | — |
| `link-headers` — Discovery via Link response headers | Emerging | Medium | — |
| `dns-aid` — DNS-AID discovery record | Emerging | Medium | — |
| `canonical` — Canonical and hreflang discipline | Recommended | Medium | — |
| `llms-full` — /llms-full.txt expanded context | Recommended | Low | — |