Peek-Then-Pay

The Open Standard for AI Content Discovery and Use

A protocol that separates discovery from access for the first time. AI agents evaluate content before retrieving it. Publishers control what is discovered, accessed, and exchanged in return.

View the Spec →Learn How It Works →

Why Peek-Then-Pay?

Think of it as robots.txt for AI, but enforceable and auditable. A new architecture for how AI agents and content owners interact.

⚠️ Two Broken Extremes

Unrestricted Scraping

AI agents scrape content freely, resulting in incomplete and inaccurate representation, no click, no credit, and no path to value for the publisher.

Full Blocking

Blocking AI entirely removes the publisher from discovery altogether. Content that cannot be found cannot drive value.

To date this has forced a binary choice. Neither is a viable strategy.

✅ A Third Path

Decentralized Control

Publishers signal participation through a peek.json manifest and maintain authority at their domain edge. No centralized gatekeeper controls access.

Centralized Coordination

Value exchange is coordinated across the ecosystem: licensing, attribution, referred traffic, or any model the publisher defines.

Peek-Then-Pay introduces a third path: structured discovery without full access, with permissioned use determined separately.

Protocol Flow

AI Agent

→

Discovery

→

Structured Peek Response

→

JWT License

→

Licensed Content

Automatic Discovery: AI agents encountering a Peek-Then-Pay enabled domain automatically receive a structured peek response. Discovery happens without full retrieval. Publishers remain in control from the first request.

Composable Architecture: Build vs Buy

Publishers can mix and match components based on their technical capabilities and strategic preferences.

1. Edge Enforcer

Validates JWTs and serves content with minimal latency.

• 3P Plugin: CDN-based solutions

• SaaS: Managed enforcement service

• Home-built: Custom edge implementation

2. Tools

Transform and deliver domain-specific content.

• 3P Components: Plug-and-play tools

• Domain Assets: Existing agentic artifacts

• Brand Governance: Consistent quality

3. License Server

Centralized marketplace for AI agent discovery and payment.

• 3P SaaS: Recommended approach

• Marketplace: Discovery & payments

• Collective: Small publisher groups

How It Works

The Peek-Then-Pay Protocol

Discovery

Publishers signal participation through a peek.json manifest, enabling AI agents to discover content terms before any retrieval occurs. No prior knowledge of the domain is required.

Preview

Content requests return HTTP 203 with preview + pricing for informed decisions

License

AI agents acquire JWT licenses for specific intents (read, summarize, embed, etc.) from the license server specified in the peek.json manifest

Access

Edge enforcers validate JWTs and serve licensed content with forensic manifests. Plug-and-play tools can deliver pre-transformed data, benefiting publishers through pay-per-use models while helping AI agents skip data cleaning and transformation steps

Report

Both parties report usage asynchronously for billing and dispute resolution

💡 Key Innovation: For the first time, discovery and use are structurally separate. An AI agent can evaluate whether your content is relevant before committing to access, and you control exactly what they see during that evaluation.

⚡ Efficiency Gains: Structured peek responses reduce AI compute by over 90% compared to raw HTML retrieval. AI operators find content faster and more accurately. Publishers control what that structured response contains.

/.well-known/peek.json

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "meta": {
    "site_name": "TechNews Daily",
    "publisher": "TechNews Corp",
    "publisher_id": "01HQ2Z3Y4K5M6N7P8Q9R0S1T1X",
    "domains": ["technews.com", "*.technews.com"],
    "categories": ["technology", "news", "reviews"],
    "last_updated": "2025-09-01"
  },
  "enforcement": {
    "rate_limit_per_ip": 50,
    "grace_period_seconds": 300,
    "failover_mode": "deny",
    "bypass_paths": ["/robots.txt", "/sitemap.xml"]
  },
  "license": {
    "license_issuer": "https://api.fetchright.ai/v1/license",
    "terms_url": "https://technews.com/legal/ai-terms",
    "supported_intents": ["peek", "read", "summarize", "quote"],
    "content_hints": {
      "average_page_size_kb": 45,
      "content_types": ["text/html", "application/json"],
      "update_frequency": "daily",
      "cache_duration": 3600
    }
  }
}

Standard Intents

peek - Previewread - Full contentsummarize - Summaryquote - Citationsembed - Vectorsanalyze - Structure

Publishers can provide pre-computed transformations, eliminating redundant AI processing and ensuring domain-specific accuracy.

🔍 Discovery

AI agents automatically discover licensing through standardized manifest files and HTTP 203 previews

⚡ Edge Enforcement

Fast, distributed license validation at CDN/edge layer with assertion-only JWTs

📊 Bilateral Reporting

Both parties track usage for accuracy, billing reconciliation, and dispute resolution

Try the Protocol

Test peek.json manifests, validate pricing schemas, and generate licenses against the live specification.

1. Validate peek.json Manifest

Test the validation of a peek.json manifest file against the official specification schema.

peek.json Content

Validation Result

Click "Validate" to see results...

2. Validate Pricing Schema

Test the validation of a pricing scheme against the pricing schema specification.

Pricing JSON Content

{
  "pricing_scheme_id": "01HZXYZ123456789ABCDEFGHIJ",
  "pricing_digest": "sha256:a1b2c3d4e5f6789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234abcd",
  "publisher_id": "01HZXYZ123456789ABCDEFGHIJ",
  "currency": "USD",
  "cache_ttl_seconds": 3600,
  "intents": {
    "read": {
      "intent": "read",
      "pricing_mode": "per_request",
      "enforcement_method": "trust",
      "usage": {
        "immediate": { "price_cents": 1 },
        "session": { "price_cents": 2, "max_ttl_seconds": 3600 },
        "index": { "price_cents": 5, "max_ttl_seconds": 86400, "requires_contract": true }
      }
    },
    "quote": {
      "intent": "quote",
      "pricing_mode": "per_1000_tokens",
      "enforcement_method": "tool_required",
      "usage": {
        "immediate": { "price_cents": 2 },
        "session": { "price_cents": 4, "max_ttl_seconds": 1800 }
      },
      "path_multipliers": {
        "/premium/**": 2.0,
        "/public/**": 0.5
      }
    },
    "summarize": {
      "intent": "summarize",
      "pricing_mode": "per_request",
      "enforcement_method": "tool_required",
      "usage": {
        "immediate": { "price_cents": 5 },
        "session": { "price_cents": 10, "max_ttl_seconds": 3600 },
        "train": { "price_cents": 500, "requires_contract": true },
        "distill": { "price_cents": 250, "requires_contract": true }
      },
      "model": {
        "id": "sum:gpt-4.1-mini@v2",
        "provider": "openai",
        "name": "gpt-4.1-mini",
        "version": "v2",
        "digest": "sha256:b2c3d4e5f6789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234bcdef0"
      }
    }
  },
  "search": {
    "endpoint_url": "https://search.example.com/v1/search",
    "price_cents": 3
  },
  "rag_ingest": {
    "endpoint_url": "https://rag.example.com/v1/ingest",
    "pricing_mode": "per_1000_tokens",
    "price_cents": 25
  },
  "quotas": {
    "burst_rps": 100,
    "max_license_duration_seconds": 3600
  }
}

Validation Result

Click "Validate" to see results...

3. Generate Assertion-Only License

See how the license server generates JWT licenses and DPoP proofs for content access.

Generated License Response

Click "Generate License & DPoP Proof" to see the assertion-only license...

These demos use the official @peekthenpay/peek-json-spec package for validation and license generation.

Ecosystem

🔓

Peek-Then-Pay

Open Source Standard

The open schema and governance framework hosted on GitHub. Community-driven development with transparent RFC process.

• CC0-1.0 Licensed specification
• Community governance
• Open RFC process
• Reference implementations

⚡

FetchRight.ai

Reference Platform

The commercial infrastructure layer for Peek-Then-Pay, handling enforcement, licensing, analytics, and value exchange at the CDN edge.

• Secure license issuance & verification APIs
• Token-based accounting & payment processing
• Structured value exchange across licensing, attribution, and referred traffic models
• Analytics for publishers and operators

The protocol is open and free to implement. Commercial services like FetchRight build on top of it, accelerating adoption without creating dependency or lock-in.

Learn More About FetchRight →

Get Involved

Peek-Then-Pay is community-driven. Help shape the future of AI content discovery.

💬

Join Discussions

Participate in discussions on GitHub Issues and RFCs. Help design new features and improvements.

View GitHub Issues →

🔧

Contribute Code

Contribute adapters for Cloudflare, Fastly, and Nginx. Build tools and libraries for the ecosystem.

Browse Repositories →

📢

Spread the Word

Join the conversation on LinkedIn and help evangelize responsible AI content licensing.

Follow #PeekThenPay →

Want to Implement Peek-Then-Pay?

We are looking for early adopters and implementation partners: publishers, affiliate networks, brands, AI companies, and infrastructure providers. If you want to participate in building the standard, we want to hear from you.

Governance & License

⚖️

Open Standard

Peek-Then-Pay is an open standard released under the CC0-1.0 Universal license. Specification and governance discussions live in the PeekThenPay GitHub organization.

The patent notice covers the Peek-Then-Pay mechanism. The specification itself is CC0-1.0 Universal and free to implement without restriction. Any developer, publisher, or platform can build on the protocol without requiring a commercial relationship with FetchRight.

Principles

•Open: Free to implement and use
•Neutral: No vendor lock-in
•Transparent: Public governance process
•Collaborative: Community-driven development

Governance

•RFC process for major changes
•Community consensus decision making
•Regular community calls and updates
•Transparent roadmap and priorities

Current Version: 1.0 (Draft) •License: CC0-1.0 Universal •Repository: github.com/PeekThenPay/peek-json-spec

View Full License →