The idea came from a simple observation: AI agents are getting smarter, but the web wasn't built for them. It's like dropping a robot into a kitchen with no labels causing them to fumble, hallucinate, or fail entirely. That's why we see stories like the "one-hour cupcake order" from ChatGPT agents.
I believe the fix is a smarter, machine-readable web.
So I built a prototype for a new open protocol: 'kodec.txt'.
Its like robots.txt, but instead of saying "what bots cant do" it says what they can do. A sitess /kodec.txt file defines actionable intents (like 'OrderAction', 'ScheduleAction', 'EmailAction') and specifies what inputs are required to perform them. It’s a structured, declarative instruction manual for agents, no need for scraping or guessing.
You can check out the demo (kodec.net/blog/showhn) of a single agent completing 3 tasks using just this protocol:
* Ordering a product
* Sending an email
* Booking a consultation (with Kodec itself)
Below the video, I've included the full unedited log of the agent's step-by-step reasoning.
It's very early, and I know there are edge cases everywhere — but I'd love your thoughts on:
1. Decentralized vs centralized: Does this make sense as a decentralized standard (like robots.txt), or would developer adoption require a centralized registry (like OpenAI plugins)?
2. Security & abuse vectors: What attack surfaces or pitfalls do you foresee if this became widely adopted?
3. Great-fit use cases: What other kinds of actions would benefit from this protocol?
Thanks in advance for taking a look. I'll be around all day and would love to discuss more.