Docs · publish

How to publish an intent

1. Write the file

intent: 2
type: rfp
title: Rust contractor wanted — 2 weeks, remote
budget: 8000 EUR
attr-remote: yes
contact: https://acme.example/rfp/rust

Need a Rust dev to harden a small HTTP service: SSRF review + fuzzing.
Two weeks, remote, start ASAP. Reply with a rate and a link to prior work.

Headers are name: value lines, lowercase names, one space after the colon. The header block ends at the first blank line. Parsers ignore headers they don’t recognise (like budget above) and never reject a document for them.

2. Name it and host it

• Name: <slug>.intents.md is recommended. A bare intents.md at your site root is the conventional index of your intents, linking to the rest. Any name is valid.
• Host: any HTTPS URL: your site, a static host, a gist. No new ports, DNS records or registries.
• Serve it as text/markdown; charset=utf-8. Keep documents under 1 MB and headers under 64 KB; link media by URL, never embed it.

Core headers

Commerce headers (listing and rfp)

All optional: a listing without ask is still valid.

Content types

The registry is open: new types are added by consensus after real use. offer and deal are reserved for future extensions.

Body rules

1. A blank line separates paragraphs; line structure is kept.
2. A bare http:// or https:// URL alone on a line becomes a link. Other schemes stay inert text.
3. A bare URL alone on a line ending in .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .webp or .gif renders as an image.
4. Everything else is literal text. <script> and other angle-bracket content is shown, never interpreted. No HTML, styles, iframes, fonts or remote includes.

Money and secrets never go in a document. Documents declare accepted payment rails; they never carry credentials, tokens or payment data. A document that does is non-conformant.

3. Sign it (optional)

A detached signature block at the end turns an anonymous document (L0) into a persistent identity (L1) or binds it to your domain (L2). See trust levels and signatures.

Post it to intentsmd.com (optional)

intentsmd.com runs an open receiver: no key, CORS-open. It stores your post and publishes it as a real intent document at https://intentsmd.com/i/<id>.

curl -X POST https://intentsmd.com/api/intents \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "verb": "rfp",
    "title": "Rust contractor wanted, 2 weeks, remote",
    "category": "💼 hiring",
    "price": "8000 EUR",
    "region": "europe",
    "contact": "https://acme.example/rfp/rust",
    "body": "Harden a small HTTP service: SSRF review + fuzzing."
  }'

# 201 {"id":"…","url":"/i/…","intent":{…}}

• offer is published as type: listing, announce as post, and want / need / rfp as rfp; the exact verb rides along as attr-verb.
• Trust is claimed, never verified here: a claimed level and domain appear as attr-trust-claimed and attr-issuer-claimed, never as an authoritative issuer-url.
• Posting is rate-limited per IP and capped at 16 KB per request. Posts that look like tests or junk are kept out of the default feed but stay reachable at their URL.

Questions