---
title: "Manifest.json (manifest.json)"
description: "Identity declaration for installable surfaces."
canonical: "https://geordy.ai/formats/manifest-json"
---
# Manifest.json

**Identity declaration for installable surfaces.**

Declares your site's name, icons, language, description and entry point in one JSON file, at a fixed address, in a shape browsers and app stores already agree on.

A web app manifest is a JSON file that describes how your website behaves as an installable application: name, short name, icons, display mode, scope, language and theme colours. Browsers read it to offer installation, operating systems read it to draw the launcher entry, and app store packaging tools read it to build a store listing.

## At a glance

- File: `manifest.json`
- First released: 2013
- Created by: W3C Web Applications Working Group
- Specification: https://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/
- Read by: Chrome and Edge install prompts, Safari Add to Home Screen, Microsoft Store via PWABuilder, Google Play via Trusted Web Activity

## Why it matters for AI

A Web App Manifest is the standard, machine-readable description of a site as an installable application - name, icons, scope, theme, language and start URL - which lets browsers, app stores and OS launchers establish a site's identity and entry point from a single JSON file rather than scraping HTML. Anything else that wants those facts can read the same file, because it is public, linked from the head and served under a registered media type.

## Example

```
{
  "name": "Geordy - AI Optimization Platform",
  "short_name": "Geordy",
  "start_url": "/dashboard",
  "display": "standalone",
  "theme_color": "#2a9d8f",
  "categories": ["productivity", "business", "seo"]
}
```

## Benefits

- Enables installation with app-like behavior
- Mobile-first advantage - improves mobile user experience
- States your site's identity once, in machine form, instead of leaving it to be inferred from markup

## Limitations

- Requires HTTPS setup and service worker

## Best practices

- Link the manifest from every HTML page with `<link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.webmanifest">` and serve it as `application/manifest+json`.
- Always provide name, short_name, start_url, display, icons (include 192x192 and 512x512 PNG, plus a maskable icon), theme_color and background_color.
- Set scope to the URL prefix the app controls and an explicit id so the browser identifies app updates correctly across start_url changes.
- Declare lang and dir, and use description so search engines and AI assistants can summarise the app from the manifest alone.

## Pitfalls

- Serving the file with the wrong MIME type or behind auth, so browsers silently ignore it.
- Omitting a 512x512 (or maskable) icon, which blocks installability prompts and degrades OS-level rendering.
- Using a relative start_url that resolves outside scope, which causes the installed app to fail to launch in standalone mode.

## Use cases

- **Progressive Web Apps**
- **Mobile-optimized sites**
- **App store distribution**

## Adopters

- Twitter / X (https://twitter.com/manifest.json)
- Starbucks (https://app.starbucks.com/manifest.json)
- Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/manifest.json)
- Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/manifest.webmanifest)
- Flipkart Lite (https://www.flipkart.com/manifest.json)
---

Source: https://geordy.ai/formats/manifest-json
This is a machine-readable markdown version of that page, generated by Geordy.