# AI assistants doing things: the 4 checks

Whether an AI agent could find your tools and complete a task: book, buy, look something up. All optional; having none of it is normal.

Every check the site check runs in this group, with why it matters and what to do. All hundred: https://oftheard.in/docs/checks

### MCP server card

medium · No effect on AI search

**Why it matters.** Agents can only use tools they can discover. Without a server card an AI agent has no way to learn your site exposes an API it could call, so it is reduced to scraping your HTML like a person — slower, more fragile, and far more likely to give up and use a competitor.

**What to do.** Publish /.well-known/mcp/server-card.json per SEP-1649 describing your MCP server's transport and tools. Note the spec is still a proposal; expect changes.

*When it is not scored.* Not present — only needed if you run an MCP server for AI agents. Not scored.

### A2A agent card

low · No effect on AI search

**Why it matters.** The other half of the discovery question the MCP card asks. MCP advertises tools an agent can call on your behalf; A2A advertises an agent of yours that another agent can hand a task to. A2A reached v1.0 under the Linux Foundation, so the shape is settled — but publication is not: probed across 42 real sites, including the AI- and agent-forward ones where it would appear first, exactly one served a card. Read absence here as the normal state, not as a gap to close.

**What to do.** Only if you actually run an A2A agent. Publish /.well-known/agent-card.json naming the agent, its service endpoint, its authentication scheme and its skills. A card pointing at an endpoint that does not answer is worse than none, because a client spends a request to learn nothing.

*When it is not scored.* Not present — only needed if you run an agent other agents should be able to delegate to. Not scored.

### MCP manifest

low · No effect on AI search

**Why it matters.** A competing discovery proposal (SEP-1960) to the server card. Both are in flight; neither is final.

**What to do.** Implement the server-card form first. Add this only if a client you care about requires it.

*When it is not scored.* Not present — only needed if you run an MCP server. Not scored.

### OAuth discovery

medium · No effect on AI search

**Why it matters.** If your MCP server requires a login, agents cannot complete the authorization handshake without these discovery documents. The integration does not error loudly — it just silently fails to connect.

**What to do.** Serve /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource and /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server. Only needed if your MCP server is authenticated.

*When it is not scored.* Not present — only needed if your MCP server requires a login. Not scored.