Machine-Readable Web Intelligence, Provenance, and Trust Infrastructure
GoGuides is public web-intelligence and trust infrastructure for systems that consume the open web. It observes web sources, preserves longitudinal evidence, applies interpretation and policy layers, and publishes compact machine-readable records that humans, crawlers, AI systems, search systems, and automated agents can inspect before deciding how a source should be used.
AI systems need more than content retrieval. They need source state, provenance, time, policy context, change evidence, and machine-readable decision support.
GoGuides separates these concerns into three layers: Evidence → Interpretation → Decision. Observed facts remain distinct from computed signals and from downstream source-use decisions.
Read the Public Technical White Paper
Version 2.7 documents the architecture as published at that revision, including Web State V3,
historical evidence, machine interaction sequence, Verified Text, public endpoints, limitations,
and the then-planned derived change-intelligence layer. Change Intelligence V1 has since become live
at /changes/{domain}.
The problem: AI needs more than content
A web page can be fetchable without being stable, attributable, current, appropriate for citation, or suitable for a particular machine task. A domain may change ownership, alter structured data, replace outbound links, change machine-facing directives, or substantially rewrite content while retaining the same URL.
Reconstructing that context independently requires repeated crawling, normalization, fingerprinting, historical storage, and comparison. GoGuides is designed to perform that observation work once and expose the resulting evidence through public machine-readable surfaces.
System architecture
1. Web observation
GoGuides fetches public web sources and records objective observations about content, headers, links, structured data, machine-facing directives, and other source state.
2. Evidence preservation
Observation records preserve time and state so later systems can distinguish a current snapshot from longitudinal evidence.
3. Interpretation
Computed signals and policy gates interpret stored observations without rewriting the underlying evidence.
4. Machine-use decision context
Public endpoints expose compact decision-oriented records while allowing consumers to follow links into deeper State, History, verification, or primary-source evidence.
The Favicon North Star
The GoGuides favicon is a lightweight deterministic monitoring signal. Its purpose is not to replace JSON or serve as a security certificate. Its purpose is to provide a tiny public signal that can point back to a deeper canonical trust record.
A tiny public signal should be able to point back to a deeper trust record.
Web State V3
Web State V3 is the objective current-state layer exposed at
/state/{domain}. It reads the latest eligible stored observation and publishes
compact measurements without turning those measurements into claims of truth.
Current Web State V3 fields
text_simhash
structured_data_sha256
schema_type_mask
headers_sha256
word_count
internal_link_count
external_link_count
outbound_links_sha256
ai_policy_maskFields without an observed value may be omitted. Absence is not equivalent to zero.
Machine Interaction Sequence
GoGuides is designed so a machine can begin with a compact discovery or evaluation surface and follow deeper evidence only when the task requires it.
From discovery to source decision
AI crawler / agent
↓
Discovery / machine-readable signal
↓
Evaluate decision context
↓
State / History when needed
↓
Primary source when needed
↓
Consumer makes its own decision1. Discover
Find the compact public machine-readable surface.
2. Evaluate
Request domain-level decision context.
3. Inspect State
Follow state_url when objective current state is needed.
4. Consult History
Inspect longitudinal evidence when time or change matters.
5. Fetch primary source
Retrieve the original source when the task requires primary evidence.
6. Decide
The consuming system makes its own final source-use decision.
Live machine-readable endpoints
Machine-use discovery
Machine-readable description of GoGuides public capabilities, endpoint relationships, and usage flow.
Evaluate
/evaluate.php?domain=goguides.com&format=json
Decision-oriented domain evaluation with links to deeper public records including Web State.
Web State V3
Objective current-state measurements from the latest eligible stored observation.
Change Intelligence V1
Historical comparison of consecutive stored Web State V3 observations for the same requested URL.
Observation history
Historical observation and provenance context for a domain.
Verified Text
/verified-text.php?q=gravity&format=json
Source-attributed text records with licensing, integrity metadata, and canonical full-record links.
Favicon marker
/favicon_img.php
Deterministic visual monitoring surface linked to deeper GoGuides state.
Evaluate → State
Evaluate remains decision-oriented. It does not need to duplicate every raw Web State V3 field.
When deeper objective state is useful, the evaluation can point the consumer to
state_url.
Representative relationship
{
"api_version": "evaluate-v3.2",
"domain": "goguides.com",
"trust_state": "observed",
"public_eligible": true,
"state_url": "https://www.goguides.com/state/goguides.com"
}Historical observation and provenance
Current state answers a different question from historical evidence. GoGuides preserves observations over time so consumers can inspect when a source was seen, whether its recorded state persisted, and whether later observations differ.
Time is therefore part of the evidence model rather than a decorative timestamp.
Verified Text
Verified Text extends GoGuides from domain-level web state into source-attributed text records. Records can expose source identity, licensing, attribution, hash scope, preview metadata, machine-use context, and canonical full-record URLs.
It is an integrity and provenance layer. It is not a claim that every statement in a source is true.
Technical Reference direction
The white paper explains architecture, methodology, evidence, limitations, and system intent. A complementary Technical Reference can define the precise machine contract: endpoint schemas, field types, null and omission behavior, units, normalization rules, bitmaps, hash inputs, examples, compatibility rules, and version history.
The goal is for the meaning of GoGuides data to be machine-discoverable as well as the data itself.
Change Intelligence V1 is now live
Version 2.7 of the white paper described derived change intelligence as a planned extension.
That extension has since shipped. The public
/changes/{domain}
endpoint compares consecutive stored Web State V3 observations of the same requested URL.
Live classifications include fields such as
content_changed, structured_data_changed,
outbound_links_changed, ai_policy_changed,
http_status_changed, refresh_recommended, and
refresh_reason. The PDF remains version 2.7 and therefore preserves the
architecture and roadmap as documented at that revision.
What GoGuides does not claim
GoGuides does not certify truth, guarantee safety, replace professional review, or prove that a website has not changed after the recorded observation time.
GoGuides publishes what it observed, preserves evidence and time, computes defined signals, exposes policy and verification context, and allows downstream systems to make their own decisions.
Frequently asked questions
Is GoGuides an AI model?
No. GoGuides is web-intelligence, provenance, and trust infrastructure designed to be consumed by AI systems, crawlers, search systems, developers, and other automated clients.
What is Web State V3?
It is a compact objective state record derived from the latest eligible stored observation of a domain.
Why separate Evidence, Interpretation, and Decision?
Because an observed fact is not the same thing as a computed signal, and neither is automatically the same thing as a final source-use decision. Keeping those layers distinct makes the system easier to inspect and less likely to overstate what the evidence proves.
Does the favicon replace the JSON endpoints?
No. The favicon is a lightweight deterministic monitoring signal that points toward deeper records. State, History, Evaluate, verification, and other machine-readable surfaces remain the authoritative sources for deeper inspection.
Observe the Web. Preserve the Evidence. Publish the Signal.
Read the complete v2.7 white paper
The PDF contains the full architecture, methodology, Favicon North Star, production favicon example, Web State V3 field semantics, machine interaction sequence, machine-use decisions, provenance model, automation and manipulation-resistance discussion, Verified Text layer, public endpoint inventory, Technical Reference direction, limitations, standards, and the change-intelligence direction that was planned when version 2.7 was published. Change Intelligence V1 is now live separately from that frozen PDF revision.