# AI readiness of irs.gov

> Measured on the home page. Overall grade: Fair.

Score 63/100, grade Fair. Measured 2026-09-04T23:20:55.404+00:00, engine ax-audit@4.1.0.

## Checks

### Content — 61/100

#### Content Negotiation — 0/100

- **FAIL** Homepage does not serve Markdown via content negotiation
  Got text/html (HTTP 200) for "Accept: text/markdown"
  Serve a Markdown representation of your pages when agents request "Accept: text/markdown". Agents like Claude Code and Cursor ask for it, and Markdown cuts token usage by roughly 80% against HTML. Cloudflare ("Markdown for Agents") and Vercel can enable this without code changes.
  https://axrush.com/guides/content-negotiation#not-supported
- **WARN** No <link rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"> fallback found on the homepage
  If you cannot enable content negotiation, advertise a Markdown version with <link rel="alternate" type="text/markdown" href="/index.md"> so agents can discover it.
  https://axrush.com/guides/content-negotiation#no-alternate

#### Agent Operability — 80/100

- **PASS** 318/318 interactive elements have an accessible name
- **PASS** 6/6 form controls are labelled
- **WARN** 1 link(s) lead nowhere without JavaScript
  1 with no href, 0 with a javascript: href
  A link with no destination cannot be followed by a fetch-only agent and cannot be opened in a new tab by a browsing one. Give it a real href, or make it a <button> if it is an action rather than a destination.
  https://axrush.com/guides/agent-operability#dead-links
- **WARN** 1/1 iframes have no title
  An untitled frame is an opaque region. A title tells an agent whether it is worth entering.
  https://axrush.com/guides/agent-operability#iframe-no-title
- **WARN** 15/16 images, frames or videos have no declared dimensions
  Undeclared dimensions shift the layout as media loads. An agent working from a screenshot clicks where the button was a moment ago. Set width and height, or aspect-ratio.
  https://axrush.com/guides/agent-operability#unsized-media
- **PASS** Method note: this reads markup, not a rendered accessibility tree
  Labels attached by script and roles computed at runtime are invisible here, so treat low proportions as a prompt to check the real tree rather than as a count. Every finding is also a plain accessibility defect.

#### Structured Data — 0/100

- **FAIL** No JSON-LD structured data found
  Add a <script type="application/ld+json"> block in your HTML <head> with schema.org structured data describing your site, organization, or person.
  https://axrush.com/guides/structured-data#not-found

#### HTML Rendering — 90/100

- **PASS** Server-rendered content detected (1862 words, 12120 chars of visible text)
- **PASS** Text-to-markup ratio is healthy (8.9%)
- **PASS** Semantic landmarks present (main, article, section, header, footer, nav)
- **WARN** No <h1> heading found
  Add a single <h1> describing the page. Agents and search engines treat the H1 as the primary topic indicator.
  https://axrush.com/guides/html-rendering#no-h1
- **PASS** 15/15 <img> tags have alt attributes
- **PASS** Generator: Drupal 10 (https://www.drupal.org)

#### SEO Basics — 92/100

- **WARN** <title> is too long (78 chars)
  "Internal Revenue Service | An official website of the United States government…"
  Shorten the title to 20-70 characters. Many agents and search engines truncate beyond ~70.
  https://axrush.com/guides/seo-basics#long-title
- **PASS** Meta description length 151 chars
- **PASS** Canonical URL: https://www.irs.gov/
- **PASS** <html lang="en">
- **PASS** UTF-8 charset declared
- **PASS** Viewport meta present: "width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no"
- **WARN** 8 hreflang alternate(s) but no x-default
  Add <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="..."> as a fallback for unmatched locales.
  https://axrush.com/guides/seo-basics#no-x-default

### Access — 92/100

#### TLS / HTTPS — 92/100

- **PASS** Site is served over HTTPS
- **PASS** HTTP requests redirect to HTTPS
- **PASS** HSTS max-age=31536000
- **WARN** HSTS does not include subdomains
  Add includeSubDomains to apply HSTS across api., docs., etc. Required for preload list submission.
  https://axrush.com/guides/tls-https#hsts-no-subdomains
- **WARN** HSTS lacks the preload directive
  Add preload (and ensure max-age >= 31536000 + includeSubDomains) and submit the domain at https://hstspreload.org for browser-built-in HTTPS enforcement.
  https://axrush.com/guides/tls-https#hsts-no-preload

#### Agent Access — 90/100

- **WARN** Meta-ExternalAgent is allowed in robots.txt but its User-Agent is refused
  status 403
  Blocking it keeps your content out of Meta AI training and indexing. Your firewall rejects this crawler token even though robots.txt permits it — the block is invisible to you but fatal for the agent. Check your firewall rules and AI-bot toggles (for example Cloudflare "Block AI Crawlers").
  https://axrush.com/guides/agent-access#blocked-crawler

#### AI Directives — 100/100

- **PASS** Homepage is indexable
- **PASS** No directive restricts how AI assistants may use this page

#### HTTP Hygiene — 80/100

- **WARN** A missing page redirects (301) instead of returning 404
  Location: https://www.irs.gov/ax-audit-probe-rlathxd9
  A redirect on a nonexistent path hides the error. Return 404 or 410 so a client can tell the difference.
  https://axrush.com/guides/http-hygiene#soft-404-redirect
- **PASS** Homepage answers after 1 redirect
  301 → https://www.irs.gov/
- **PASS** HEAD requests are supported
- **PASS** Content-Type: text/html with charset

#### Crawl Efficiency — 100/100

- **PASS** Response compressed with Brotli (br)
- **PASS** Cache validator present (ETag)
- **PASS** Conditional request returns 304 Not Modified
- **PASS** Homepage size is reasonable (132.9 KB decompressed)
- **WARN** Roughly 3,030 tokens of content in 34,001 tokens of response (91% markup)
  Estimated at four characters per token.
  An agent pays to receive the markup and then discards it. Serving Markdown on Accept negotiation is the direct fix.
  https://axrush.com/guides/crawl-efficiency#markup-overhead
- **PASS** Homepage responded in 71ms

### Discovery — 53/100

#### LLMs.txt — 0/100

- **FAIL** /llms.txt not found
  HTTP 404
  Create a /llms.txt file at your site root following the llmstxt.org specification. It should be a Markdown file starting with "# Your Site Name" and include a description, sections, and links.
  https://axrush.com/guides/llms-txt#not-found

#### Robots.txt — 60/100

- **PASS** /robots.txt exists
- **FAIL** No core AI crawlers explicitly configured
  Expected: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Meta-ExternalAgent, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, Amazonbot, Bytespider, CCBot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, ChatGPT-User
  Add User-agent entries for core AI crawlers in your robots.txt. For each crawler, add: User-agent: <name> followed by Allow: / on the next line.
  https://axrush.com/guides/robots-txt#no-core-crawlers
- **PASS** Sitemap directive present
- **WARN** No Content-Signal directive found (optional)
  Declare how crawlers may use your content after access with the Content Signals Policy, e.g.: Content-Signal: search=yes, ai-train=no. Known signals: search, ai-input, ai-train, plus the optional use=immediate|reference|full. Generate yours at contentsignals.org.
  https://axrush.com/guides/robots-txt#missing-content-signals
- **WARN** 0/57 known AI crawlers have explicit rules
  Add explicit User-agent entries for more AI crawlers to maximize discoverability.
  https://axrush.com/guides/robots-txt#low-coverage

#### Meta Tags — 46/100

- **WARN** No AI meta tags (ai:*) found
  Add AI meta tags to your HTML <head>: <meta name="ai:summary" content="Brief description">, <meta name="ai:content_type" content="website">, <meta name="ai:author" content="Your Name">.
  https://axrush.com/guides/meta-tags#no-ai-meta
- **WARN** No rel="alternate" link to llms.txt in HTML
  Add to your <head>: <link rel="alternate" type="text/plain" href="/llms.txt" title="LLM-optimized content">
  https://axrush.com/guides/meta-tags#no-llms-alternate
- **WARN** No rel="alternate" link to the Agent Card in HTML
  Add to your <head>: <link rel="alternate" type="application/json" href="/.well-known/agent-card.json" title="Agent Card">
  https://axrush.com/guides/meta-tags#no-agent-alternate
- **WARN** No rel="me" identity links found
  Add rel="me" links to verify your identity across platforms: <link rel="me" href="https://github.com/yourname">, <link rel="me" href="https://twitter.com/yourname">.
  https://axrush.com/guides/meta-tags#no-rel-me
- **WARN** OpenGraph required tags missing: og:title, og:description, og:url, og:type
  Add these meta tags: <meta property="og:title" content="...">, <meta property="og:description" content="...">, <meta property="og:url" content="...">, <meta property="og:type" content="...">.
  https://axrush.com/guides/meta-tags#og-required-missing
- **PASS** Twitter Card required tags present (twitter:card, twitter:title, twitter:description)

#### Sitemap — 100/100

- **PASS** Sitemap located: https://www.irs.gov/sitemap.xml
- **PASS** Content-Type is XML (application/xml)
- **PASS** Sitemap-index references 12 child sitemap(s)
- **PASS** 3/3 sample child sitemap(s) reachable
- **PASS** Sample yielded 15000 URL(s) across 3 child(ren)
- **PASS** Newest <lastmod> is recent (1 day(s) ago)

#### HTTP Headers — 80/100

- **WARN** Only 3/7 security headers present
  Add security headers like Strict-Transport-Security, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy to your server response.
  https://axrush.com/guides/http-headers#low-security-headers
- **WARN** No Link header for AI discovery (llms.txt, Agent Card)
  Add a Link response header pointing to your AI discovery files: Link: </llms.txt>; rel="alternate"; type="text/plain", </.well-known/agent-card.json>; rel="alternate"; type="application/json"
  https://axrush.com/guides/http-headers#no-link-header
- **WARN** No machine-readable discovery relations beyond llms.txt and the Agent Card
  describedby — llms.txt v2 uses this relation to point a page at the llms.txt that covers it.
api-catalog — RFC 9727: the catalog of APIs this publisher offers.
service-desc — RFC 8631: a machine-readable API description.
service-doc — RFC 8631: human documentation for the API.
ai-catalog — Draft: the AI catalog listing agent cards and MCP server cards.
c2pa-manifest — C2PA 2.4: content provenance for media on the page.
license — RSL and other machine-readable licensing terms.
  Advertise what you publish with Link relations so agents stop guessing paths. Add the ones that apply, for example: Link: </llms.txt>; rel="describedby", </.well-known/api-catalog>; rel="api-catalog". Informational in 3.x: this does not affect your score.
  https://axrush.com/guides/http-headers#discovery-relations

### Protocols — 50/100

#### Agent Card (A2A) — N/A

- **PASS** No agent-facing surface — an Agent Card does not apply to this site
  No API, MCP server or existing card was found. An Agent Card advertises capabilities another agent can invoke; a site that offers none has nothing to put in it. Run with --profile agent to audit as though it did.

#### OpenAPI Spec — N/A

- **PASS** No API surface — API discovery does not apply to this site
  No description, catalog, service-desc relation or developer area was found. Run with --profile api to audit as though the site offered one.

#### MCP (Model Context Protocol) — N/A

- **PASS** No MCP server — MCP discovery does not apply to this site
  A server card describes an MCP server so agents can find it. A site that runs none has nothing to advertise. Run with --profile mcp to audit as though it did.

#### AI Catalog — 0/100 (reports, does not score)

- **WARN** No agent resource catalog found
  Checked robots.txt Agentmap: directive, Link header rel="ai-catalog", <link rel="ai-catalog">, well-known path and /.well-known/ai-catalog.json, /.well-known/ard.json. Both specifications are drafts.
  A catalog is one document listing everything an agent can call here — agent cards, MCP servers, APIs, skills — so a client stops probing four conventions to find out. Worth publishing once you have more than one of those. Informational: both ai-catalog.json and ard.json are still drafts, so this never affects your score.
  https://axrush.com/guides/ai-catalog#not-found

#### Agent Skills — N/A

- **PASS** No developer-facing surface — skills do not apply to this site
  No documentation links, llms.txt, or API description found. Skills describe procedures an agent follows; a site with no procedures to teach has nothing to publish.

#### WebMCP — 100/100 (reports, does not score)

- **WARN** 2 form(s) on the page, none declared as agent tools
  WebMCP is a W3C Community Group draft in a Chrome origin trial. It is not a standard and adoption is minimal, so this is a forward-looking note, not a defect.
  A declared form is called by an agent rather than driven pixel by pixel. Add toolname and tooldescription to the forms worth automating — search, filter, subscribe — and toolparamdescription to each field.
  https://axrush.com/guides/webmcp#no-annotations

#### Commerce Discovery — N/A

- **PASS** No commerce surface — agentic-commerce discovery does not apply to this site
  No Product or Offer structured data, cart links, or product price tags found.

#### Auth Discovery — N/A

- **PASS** Nothing on this site requires authorization — auth discovery does not apply
  No API description, API catalog, MCP server card or commerce profile found.

### Policy — 18/100

#### Security.txt — 0/100

- **FAIL** /.well-known/security.txt not found
  HTTP 404
  Create a /.well-known/security.txt file per RFC 9116. At minimum, include Contact: and Expires: fields. See https://securitytxt.org/ for a generator.
  https://axrush.com/guides/security-txt#not-found

#### RSL License — 0/100

- **FAIL** No RSL license discovery found
  Checked robots.txt License directive, Link header, and <link rel="license" type="application/rsl+xml">
  Declare machine-readable licensing terms for your content with Really Simple Licensing. Add to robots.txt: License: https://your-site.com/license.xml — then publish the RSL document. See https://rslstandard.org.
  https://axrush.com/guides/rsl#not-found

#### Usage Policy — 40/100

- **WARN** No machine-readable usage policy declared
  Checked robots.txt Content-Signal and Content-Usage, the Content-Usage and content-signal response headers, an RSL licence, TDMRep, and the noai meta directive.
  State your terms where they can be read without a lawyer. The lowest-effort option is a Content-Signal line in robots.txt: Content-Signal: search=yes, ai-input=yes, ai-train=no. Absence is neutral, not permission — but it also gives you nothing to point at.
  https://axrush.com/guides/usage-policy#no-policy

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Markdown representation of https://axrush.com/report/irs.gov
