# Agent-native badge The agent-native badge is a small SVG that lets a CLI author advertise agent-native conformance on their tool's README. It links to the live scorecard for that tool, so any reader can follow the claim to current evidence rather than trust a self-declaration. This page is the convention. It defines what claiming the badge means, what it does not mean, and how the URL behaves when a tool's score changes. ## What the badge looks like The badge is rendered at build time and served as a static SVG. There is no shields.io endpoint, no third-party render dependency, and no account to register — the renderer is [`badge-maker`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/badge-maker), the same library shields.io uses internally. Visually identical output, fully self-hosted. For a tool named ``: ```text https://anc.dev/badge/.svg ``` The label reads `agent-native vMAJOR.MINOR` (the spec version the score is rooted in); the message is the rounded percent score; the color tracks the same green / yellow / red bands the [leaderboard](https://anc.dev/scorecards) uses. ## How to embed it ```markdown [![agent-native](https://anc.dev/badge/.svg)](https://anc.dev/score/) ``` Replace `` with the tool's slug — the same name that appears on the leaderboard and in the registry. The badge links to the tool's per-tool scorecard page so a reader who clicks lands on the live evidence. Per-tool scorecard pages whose tool clears the eligibility floor render this snippet inline, ready to copy. ## Eligibility — the floor A tool may legitimately embed the badge when its score is **80% or higher**. The floor is the brightline at the top quartile of the launch corpus. It captures tools that took agent-readiness seriously, not tools that scored marginally. A tool below the floor can still link to its scorecard page — that is the public-by-default posture of the standard — but should not embed the badge as a quality signal until it clears 80%. The floor is enforced by the per-tool scorecard page, not by the SVG endpoint. The SVG is rendered for every scored tool regardless of score. This is intentional: a tool that already embedded the badge should see the visual color shift if its score regresses, not a 404. ## Score format — `XX%` The score on the badge is the same pass-rate the leaderboard reports: `pass / (pass + warn + fail)`, rounded to the nearest integer percent. `91/100` and `6/7 principles` were both considered and rejected. The rounded percent reads cleanest at badge size and matches the leaderboard's score column so a reader sees the same number across surfaces. ## Color bands | Range | Color | What it means | | --------- | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | 80–100% | brightgreen | Eligible — meets or exceeds the badge floor | | 60–79% | yellow | Decent agent-readiness with meaningful gaps | | Below 60% | red | Significant gaps; the per-tool page lists the failing checks | Tools below the floor still receive a rendered SVG so an embedded badge stays honest after a regression. ## Version pinning — the URL is always-latest, the label cites the spec The URL `/badge/.svg` always reflects the tool's most recent score against the most recent published spec. The spec version baseline is carried in the badge **label** (e.g., `agent-native v0.3`), not in the URL. This is a deliberate trust-and-verify choice. A tool author embeds the badge once; the score and the spec-version label update on every site build. If the spec moves to v0.4 and a tool's score drops because a new MUST landed, the badge reflects the drop the next time it's served. If the URL pinned a spec version (`/badge//v0.3.svg`), readers would be looking at a snapshot — exactly what trust-and-verify says not to do. The trade-off: there is no "I was 100% conformant on v0.3" archival URL. That is by design. The historical record lives in [the scorecard JSON archive](https://github.com/brettdavies/agentnative-site/tree/main/scorecards), which carries the spec version inside each file. The badge surface is for the present, not the past. ## Honesty expectation Self-grading is acceptable. The badge URL must resolve to a scorecard that anyone can re-run. That is the whole story. In practice this means: - The tool must be listed in the [registry](https://github.com/brettdavies/agentnative-site/blob/main/registry.yaml). - The scorecard must be a real `anc check --output json` run, committed under [`scorecards/`](https://github.com/brettdavies/agentnative-site/tree/main/scorecards). - Anyone reading the badge can run `anc check --command ` locally and arrive at the same number, modulo scorecard-staleness — see the regression policy below. If the live re-run produces a different score than the badge, the live re-run wins. The badge is a pointer, not an authority. ## Regression policy If a tool regresses below the floor, no separate action is required from the tool author. The next site build will render a yellow or red badge in place of green, and the per-tool scorecard page will replace the embed snippet with a "top issues to address" hint. There is no maintainer takedown, no embargo, no retroactive edit of historical commits in the tool's README. This is the core promise: the badge is an outbound link, not a stamp. Embedding it is permission for the world to check your work continuously, not a one-time award. ## Claiming the badge 1. Get on the [leaderboard](https://anc.dev/scorecards) — file a registry entry per [the registry README](https://github.com/brettdavies/agentnative-site/blob/main/registry.yaml). The site auto-discovers the latest scorecard for each registry entry on every build. 2. Run `anc check --command --output json > scorecards/-v.json` and commit the result. 3. When your tool's row on the leaderboard reads 80% or higher, the per-tool page at `/score/` renders the embed snippet inline. Copy it into your README. That is the whole flow. The convention is intentionally narrow. ## Related - [Methodology](https://anc.dev/methodology) — how scores are computed and what the audience signal does and does not claim - [Scorecard schema](https://anc.dev/scorecard-schema) — the shape of the underlying JSON - [Leaderboard](https://anc.dev/scorecards) — every scored tool, sortable - [Install `anc`](https://anc.dev/install) — the CLI that produces scorecards