The framework behind the evidence layer.
How Cartograph is specified to observe merchant surfaces, how evidence is labeled, and exactly where the scope stops.
Readable, Consistent, Transactable.
This is a readiness framework, not an ACES taxonomy, classifier, confidence model, grade, or score. Each category names the merchant surface, the observation method, and its limitation.
Can the defined scanner or collector fetch and parse the named merchant surface?
Boundary: not external-model understanding, citation, preference, or recommendation.
Do named merchant-authorized surfaces materially agree within a defined observation window and comparison policy?
Boundary: not external-agent trust, belief, confidence, preference, rejection, or consideration-set placement.
Do merchant-observed events or a separately authorized synthetic diagnostic show progression through the exact cart or checkout milestones in scope?
Boundary: not complete-journey proof, order completion, payment authorization, provider support, or conversion.
Evidence, not guesswork.
The v0.1 specification defines deterministic traffic labels and evidence codes. It does not infer intent, score actors, or treat missing agent evidence as proof of human traffic.
The v0.1 specification defines five traffic labels: verified agent, declared bot — verified, declared bot — unverified, AI-referred, and unclassified. Those labels describe available evidence at capture; they do not assert that unclassified traffic is human.
Honest about the scope.
- ×We do not replace your ecommerce platform.
- ×We do not replace your PSP.
- ×We do not replace your PIM.
- ×We do not blindly allow agents to bypass checkout, fraud, or payment controls.
- ×We do not claim every AI crawler is trustworthy.
- ×We do not ask for sensitive customer or payment data for the initial scan.
Questions worth having answered.
- ›Can the defined scanner or collector fetch and parse our named product surfaces?
- ›Do our product pages, feeds, structured data, and policies materially agree within the defined observation window?
- ›What was the last merchant-observed cart or checkout milestone?
- ›Which challenge or block response, if any, was recorded at a named milestone?
- ›Which eligible request events remain
unclassifiedafter deterministic labeling? - ›Which request-evidence fields are absent from our current analytics view?
The infrastructure for agentic commerce is forming now.
Product feeds, checkout protocols, delegated payments, agent identity, crawler controls, and referral analytics are relevant merchant-side surfaces as agent commerce develops. Cartograph is being built to document evidence from those surfaces without claiming what an external model understood, preferred, or decided.