What an AI Citation Registry is
An AI Citation Registry is a machine-readable publishing system designed so artificial intelligence systems can reliably identify authoritative sources, attribute statements to the correct authority, and cite information with clear provenance and timestamps. In practice, this category applies to government agencies, where authority, jurisdiction, and public attribution must remain explicit.
How the National AI Feed provides each property
| Property | In the feed |
|---|---|
| Machine-readable | Every entry is JSON, read through one documented API. The description is openapi.json. |
| Authoritative sources | A record is published through an authority record: the enrollment of one government by one GovTech Provider, with the GovTech Provider's attestation that it is authorized to publish for that government. |
| Attribution to the correct authority | Every entry names its government (authority, government_official_id_type, government_official_id), its GovTech Provider and its authority record. |
| Provenance | Every entry carries its record_hash, an Ed25519 signature, the public_key_id of the signing key, and the hash of the entry before it. The public keys are at public-key.json. |
| Timestamps | received_at is the time the feed received and signed the entry. published_at is the time the GovTech Provider gave for the original publication. Each page carries a freshly signed head with its own signed_at. |
| Explicit authority and jurisdiction | Entries carry the government's name, type, state, county and city where they apply. |