Core format · included on every plan

Humans.txt

Attribution for the people behind the site.

3 / 5GEO score
TXT · Geordyhumans.txt
Why it matters

humans.txt is a tiny, well-known plain-text file that names the real people, tools and credits behind a site, giving crawlers, archivists and AI assistants a single canonical place to attribute authorship and team identity without scraping bylines from many pages.

Geordy generates this format for every page on your site that warrants it — auto-detected by page type, served from your subdomain, and refreshed on the cadence below.

Sample outputhumans.txt
/* TEAM */
Founder & CEO: Alex Morgan
Head of AI Research: Dr. Sarah Chen
Lead Engineer: Jordan Kim

/* SITE */
Last update: 2024-01-15
Standards: AI-optimized formats, Schema.org
Components: Next.js, React, TypeScript
Get it right

How to make this format work for AI.

DoBest practices
  • Save the file as /humans.txt (always lower-case) at the site root, UTF-8 encoded.
  • Reference it from the document head with `<link rel="author" type="text/plain" href="/humans.txt">` so crawlers discover it.
  • Use the conventional /* TEAM */, /* THANKS */ and /* SITE */ section headers so parsers and humans both recognise the structure.
  • Include role, name, contact (handle or URL - avoid raw email to limit spam), location, plus a Last update line in /* SITE */.
AvoidCommon pitfalls
  • Naming it Humans.txt or humans.TXT (case matters on Linux web servers) so the file 404s.
  • Putting raw email addresses in the file, which attracts spam scrapers - use "name [at] domain" or social handles.
  • Letting it go stale: the only signal that the site is human-maintained loses credibility once the Last update date is years old.
Where it shines

Use cases, scored for AI visibility.

Agency attributionGEO 4/5
Product company credibilityGEO 3/5
Content publisher transparencyGEO 3/5
Used in production by

Real sites already shipping Humans.txt.

Working with it

Tools & resources for Humans.txt.

The trade-offs
Strengths
  • Simple format requiring no special tools
  • Promotes transparency
  • Improves credibility signals (E-A-T)
Limitations
  • Limited adoption
  • Requires manual updates
  • Minimal traditional SEO impact
Spec sheet
Filename
humans.txt
Refresh cadence
monthly
Released
2011 · Abel Cabans
Read byEthical AI systemsAttribution validatorsTrust raters
Other core formats

Generate every format at once.

Geordy emits all sixteen - auto-selected per page type, served from your subdomain. Set up in fifteen minutes.

Humans.txt (.txt) format — spec, examples and AI readers | Geordy