🌐 Exposing Feeds via `.well-known/` - MCP Progressive Enhancement

The .well-known/ directory is the anchor of discoverability in the LLMFeed and MCP ecosystem.

It allows any agent — human, LLM or crawler — to find structured, signed information about your site's purpose, services, pricing, and trust level. This specification builds upon Anthropic's excellent Model Context Protocol (modelcontextprotocol.io) with optional enhancements for enhanced agent trust and behavior.

🤝 MCP Compatibility & Enhancement

Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (modelcontextprotocol.io) provides excellent agent-tool communication. Standard .mcp.json works perfectly and should remain your primary implementation.

LLMFeed complements MCP with optional enhancements: cryptographic trust, agent behavioral guidance, and progressive disclosure - all while maintaining full compatibility.

Migration philosophy: Test enhanced features gradually without breaking existing MCP implementations.

✅ Purpose

Using .well-known/ lets you:

Declare machine-readable intent for your website or service
Publish agent-compatible feeds (static or dynamic)
Allow verification, reputation tracking, and search
Enable agents to auto-configure themselves for interaction
Enhance standard MCP with optional trust and behavioral features
Bridge to future standards while maintaining current compatibility

🔗 Progressive Enhancement Strategy (Validated June 2025)

For existing MCP implementations, you can test enhanced features by adding a single discovery link to your standard .mcp.json:

Step 1: Keep Your Standard MCP (Recommended)

// /.mcp.json - Your standard Anthropic MCP configuration
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "postgres-server": {
      "command": "/path/to/postgres-mcp-server",
      "args": ["--connection-string", "postgresql://..."],
      "env": { "CACHE_DIR": "/tmp" }
    }
  }
}

Step 2: Add Optional Discovery Link (Test Enhancement)

// /.mcp.json - Enhanced with discovery link
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "postgres-server": {
      "command": "/path/to/postgres-mcp-server", 
      "args": ["--connection-string", "postgresql://..."],
      "env": { "CACHE_DIR": "/tmp" }
    }
  },
  
  // Optional: Link to enhanced LLMFeed version for testing
  "llmfeed_extension": "/.well-known/mcp.llmfeed.json"
}

Step 3: Create Enhanced Version (Copy + Extend)

// /.well-known/mcp.llmfeed.json - MCP + LLMFeed enhancements
{
  "feed_type": "mcp",
  "metadata": {
    "title": "Enhanced PostgreSQL API",
    "origin": "https://api.example.com",
    "description": "Standard MCP + enhanced trust and agent guidance"
  },
  
  // Copy your MCP configuration exactly
  "mcpServers": {
    "postgres-server": {
      "command": "/path/to/postgres-mcp-server",
      "args": ["--connection-string", "postgresql://..."],
      "env": { "CACHE_DIR": "/tmp" }
    }
  },
  
  // Enhanced features
  "agent_guidance": {
    "interaction_tone": "professional",
    "fallback_behavior": "ask_user_for_clarification"
  },
  
  // Optional trust for future autonomy
  "trust": {
    "signed_blocks": ["mcpServers", "agent_guidance"],
    "scope": "public"
  }
}

Test results: Claude naïf successfully detected discovery links and requested user permission before accessing enhanced features - proving safe coexistence and progressive enhancement potential.

Benefits:

✅ Zero risk: Standard MCP clients continue working unchanged
✅ Progressive testing: Enhanced agents get additional features
✅ Future readiness: Infrastructure prepared for industry evolution
✅ Standards convergence: Smooth path if/when industry adopts enhanced standards

📁 Expected Files and Structure

At minimum, the following files can be served from your domain:

File	Purpose
`/.mcp.json`	Standard Anthropic MCP (recommended baseline)
`/.well-known/mcp.llmfeed.json`	Enhanced MCP + LLMFeed features (optional)
`/.well-known/capabilities.llmfeed.json`	Actionable API functions or declared services
`/.well-known/llm-index.llmfeed.json`	Directory of all feeds exposed on this site
`/.well-known/pricing.llmfeed.json`	(Optional) Declares pricing and billing logic
`/.well-known/prompts/prompt-index.llmfeed.json`	(Optional) Index of agent-intent trigger phrases

You may also expose:

/.well-known/public.pem or /.well-known/trust/llmca-certificate.json → for verification
/.well-known/prompts/*.llmfeed.json → reusable structured prompts
/.well-known/export/*.llmfeed.json → static content packs or data bundles

Migration approach: Start with standard MCP, add discovery link for testing, gradually enhance based on results.

🧱 Static vs Dynamic

Feeds can be:

Static: stored in /public/.well-known/
Dynamic: served from a route (e.g. /api/llmfeed/static/mcp)

Agents treat both equally — as long as the URL and format are consistent.

For MCP compatibility: Ensure your standard .mcp.json remains static and predictable while enhanced features can be dynamic.

🛡️ Trust and Signature Expectations

Your .well-known/ should allow validation of feeds:

Signed blocks declared via trust.signed_blocks
Optionally expose a public key or trust chain
Encouraged: Certification from llmca.org

Evolution timeline (based on validation tests):

Current (June 2025): User consent required for discovery links
Future evolution: Trust-based progressive autonomy as industry adopts enhanced standards
Standard MCP: Always continues working with human oversight model

Philosophy: Enhanced trust features complement MCP's excellent tool calling with autonomous behavior capabilities.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 User Spaces (Multi-User Platforms)

On platforms like github.com/username, medium.com/@handle, or france-care.fr/john, feeds may be user-scoped.

If .well-known/ cannot be served per-user:

Declare userspaces: true in llm-index

Use URLs like:

/.well-known/users/github.com/username/mcp.llmfeed.json

Agents that support userspaces will automatically check subfeeds.

MCP compatibility: This extends standard MCP user support with enhanced user-scoped features.

🧪 Real-World Examples

Site	Standard MCP	Enhanced LLMFeed	Status
`https://wellknownmcp.org`	`/.mcp.json`	`/.well-known/mcp.llmfeed.json`	Testing coexistence
`https://demo.llmfeedforge.org`	Standard tools	`export`, `session`, `prompt-index`	Enhanced features

Recommended approach: Implement standard MCP first, then test enhanced features with discovery links.

Official Anthropic MCP – Authoritative MCP specification
llmfeed.md – LLMFeed enhancements to MCP
llm-index – how to list feeds
prompt-index
trust & signature

📘 OpenAPI and `.well-known/`

Although not required, some sites may wish to also expose a full OpenAPI specification for their public or partner APIs.

To do so, you may serve:

/.well-known/openapi.json

You can link this file from your capabilities.llmfeed.json using a capability block with "type": "openapi".

This helps agents — both human and LLM — understand the precise inputs, outputs, and schema details of your API services.

Hybrid approach: Standard MCP for tool calling + OpenAPI for schemas + LLMFeed for trust and behavioral guidance.

🧠 Agent Prompts and Behavior Capsules

The .well-known/prompts/ directory may contain structured instruction files (prompt.llmfeed.json) that are designed to be interpreted by agents, not end users.

These prompts can:

Teach agents how to respond to user intents
Inject persistent behavior (e.g. always export sessions as .llmfeed.json)
Trigger agent override modes when consented and signed

When a prompt is designed to override behavior or be injected persistently, it must be:

Signed (trust.signed_by)
Marked as requiring consent (trust.consent_required)
Optionally certified by llmca.org

Example prompts:

mcp-mode-activation.llmfeed.json
generate-session-feed.llmfeed.json
mcp-agent-behavior-override.llmfeed.json

Compatibility note: These behavioral prompts complement standard MCP tool definitions with agent guidance for appropriate usage.

🚀 Strategic Vision

Current reality: Anthropic's MCP provides excellent tool calling foundation
Enhanced possibility: LLMFeed adds trust, behavioral guidance, and autonomous capabilities
Future convergence: Industry evolution toward enhanced standards with backward compatibility

This specification positions you for both current MCP compatibility and future enhanced agent capabilities - test safely, enhance gradually, maintain compatibility always.

The goal is seamless evolution, not disruptive replacement.

🤝 MCP Compatibility & Enhancement​

✅ Purpose​

🔗 Progressive Enhancement Strategy (Validated June 2025)​

Step 1: Keep Your Standard MCP (Recommended)​

Step 2: Add Optional Discovery Link (Test Enhancement)​

Step 3: Create Enhanced Version (Copy + Extend)​

📁 Expected Files and Structure​

🧱 Static vs Dynamic​

🛡️ Trust and Signature Expectations​

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 User Spaces (Multi-User Platforms)​

🧪 Real-World Examples​

🔗 Related​

📘 OpenAPI and .well-known/​

🧠 Agent Prompts and Behavior Capsules​

🚀 Strategic Vision​