Generate trust signals for AI agents. Prove credibility through verification, not assertion.
The Problem: AI agents can't distinguish between a 20-year expert and a content farm. They both look like "tokens."
The Solution: Embed machine-readable trust signals that agents can verify independently—without you revealing personal information.
Wayback Machine snapshots prove your domain has history. Content farms spin up and die—established sites persist.
The same person across LinkedIn, GitHub, and a personal site is hard to fake over years. Consistency = credibility.
Saying what you DON'T cover is a trust signal. Spam claims expertise in everything; real experts know their boundaries.
Disclosing affiliates and ads upfront shows you're not hiding incentives. Hidden conflicts erode trust.
Here's how Hawaii-Guide.com (established 2005) implements the Credibility Passport with multiple authors and detailed verification.
<script type="application/ld+json" data-purpose="trust-signal">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "WebSite",
"@id": "https://www.hawaii-guide.com/#website",
"name": "Hawaii-Guide.com",
"url": "https://www.hawaii-guide.com",
"foundingDate": "2005-01-01",
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Hawaii-Guide.com",
"foundingDate": "2005-01-01",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/hawaiiguide",
"https://www.instagram.com/hawaii_guide/",
"https://twitter.com/hawaii_guide",
"https://www.youtube.com/hawaiiguide"
],
"memberOf": [
{"@type": "Organization", "name": "Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau (HVCB)"},
{"@type": "Organization", "name": "Hawaii Tourism Authority"}
]
}
}
</script>This example shows a 21-year-old site with multiple verified authors, industry memberships, and explicit scope limitations.
The Credibility Passport is an open standard for embedding machine-readable trust signals into websites. It provides structured data that AI agents can use to assess source credibility—without requiring personal identification or reliance on search engine rankings.
AI agents are increasingly browsing the web on our behalf—researching topics, summarizing content, and making recommendations. These agents can process text brilliantly but struggle to assess source quality. A well-written spam page looks identical to expert analysis. As search engines decline and AI interfaces rise, we need a new way to signal trust directly to machines.
Use the generator above to create your Credibility Passport code, then paste it into your site's <head> section. For static site generators (Jekyll, Hugo, Eleventy), add it to your base layout template so it appears on every page. For WordPress, use a plugin that allows custom code in the header, or add it to your theme's header.php file.
The standard uses JSON-LD structured data, which is already understood by search engines and many AI systems. The HTML comment fallback ensures even simple web scrapers can parse the data. As AI agents evolve, they will increasingly look for signals like these to assess source quality. By adopting early, you're positioning your content for the next generation of information retrieval.
Traditional meta tags are assertions—you claim to be an expert, and the algorithm decides whether to believe you. The Credibility Passport emphasizes verifiable claims. Instead of saying "I'm trustworthy," you provide links to Wayback Machine archives, cross-platform profiles, and documented histories that agents can independently verify. The difference is evidence vs. claims.
No. The standard is designed to prove credibility without doxxing. You can demonstrate trustworthiness through: domain longevity (Wayback Machine), consistent online presence across platforms, publishing history, and transparent practices—all without revealing your home address or government ID. Anonymous creators with long track records can be more credible than newly-verified "real names."
Start building your credential trail now. The earlier you implement the Credibility Passport, the longer your verifiable history becomes. Even new sites can demonstrate trust through: clear scope limitations (honesty about what you don't cover), transparent disclosures, correction policies, and links to any existing professional presence. Credibility is built over time—start the clock today.
Standards gain power through adoption. Here's how you can help:
Not yet—and that's intentional. Waiting for W3C or Google to define trust signals means ceding control to gatekeepers. The Credibility Passport is a grassroots proposal: if enough independent publishers adopt it, it becomes a de facto standard. The protocol belongs to the community, not a corporation. Read the full specification for the philosophy behind this approach.
They can try—but the key is verifiability. A spam site can claim to be established in 2010, but the Wayback Machine will show otherwise. A content farm can claim author expertise, but the LinkedIn profile won't exist or will be freshly created. The Credibility Passport doesn't prevent lying; it makes lies detectable. AI agents can (and will) verify claims against external sources. The standard creates a framework for that verification.
Copy this prompt to instruct your AI coding assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, etc.) to implement the Credibility Passport on your site.
Implement a Credibility Passport trust signal system on my website following the spec at https://johncderrick.com/logs/credibility-passport Create the following: 1. A data file (YAML, JSON, or similar) containing my site's trust signals: - Site name, URL, and establishment date - Wayback Machine verification URL (find it at web.archive.org) - Author name, role, and social profile links (LinkedIn, GitHub, etc.) - Expertise scope (topics I cover) - Out-of-scope limitations (what I don't cover) - Content methodology - Financial disclosures (affiliates, ads, sponsored content) - Correction policy 2. A template/include that generates: - JSON-LD structured data with data-purpose="trust-signal" - HTML comment fallback: <!--[TRUST-SIGNAL-DATA]...[/TRUST-SIGNAL-DATA]--> 3. Include the trust signal in the <head> section of all pages. Here is my site information to use: - Site: [YOUR SITE NAME] - URL: [YOUR URL] - Established: [DATE] - Author: [YOUR NAME] - Role: [YOUR ROLE] - LinkedIn: [YOUR LINKEDIN URL] - Topics I cover: [LIST YOUR TOPICS] - Topics I don't cover: [LIST LIMITATIONS] - Affiliates: [YES/NO - LIST IF YES] - Ads: [YES/NO]
Fill in your information in the bracketed sections before sending to your AI assistant.
Paste your page's HTML source to check if the Credibility Passport is correctly implemented.
The gatekeepers are failing. Search engines are drowning in AI slop. Verification platforms demand your identity. It's time for independent publishers to prove trust on their own terms.
Victoria handles all inquiries and will be your direct point of contact.
New log entries, project launches, and behind-the-scenes insights delivered straight to your inbox.
You're in! Check your inbox to confirm.
No spam, ever. Unsubscribe anytime.