# ai.txt for IndieHunt (https://indiehunt.io) # # Version: 1.1 # Last-Updated: 2026-08-28 # Source: indiehunt.io # # Purpose: # Guidance for AI crawlers, assistants, and indexing systems # on how they may access, summarize, and reference IndieHunt. ============================================================ CRAWLING & USAGE PERMISSIONS ============================================================ AI-Crawling: allow AI-Training: allow AI-Indexing: allow AI-Archiving: allow AI-Content-Summarization: allow AI-Commercial-Use: restrict # Commercial reuse of full content requires permission Note: - Public pages may be crawled and summarized. - Prefer Markdown (.md or Accept: text/markdown) and /api/v1/* over scraping client-rendered HTML. - Please respect robots.txt at https://indiehunt.io/robots.txt. ============================================================ AUTHORIZED AI AGENTS ============================================================ Allowed-User-Agents: - OpenAI - ChatGPT - Anthropic Claude - Google Gemini - Perplexity AI - Bing AI - Brave AI - DuckDuckGo AI - Cohere Command - Meta LLaMA Disallowed-User-Agents: - (none explicitly; follow robots.txt) ============================================================ SITEMAP & CONTENT DISCOVERY ============================================================ Primary-Sitemap: https://indiehunt.io/sitemap.xml Llms-Txt: https://indiehunt.io/llms.txt OpenAPI: https://indiehunt.io/openapi.json Developers: https://indiehunt.io/developers Content-Directories: - /projects - /launches - /blog - /pricing - /faq - /alternatives - /premium-launcher - /hall-of-fame - /calender - /developers ============================================================ ENTITY METADATA ============================================================ Primary-Entity: Name: IndieHunt Type: Organization / Startup / SaaS Description: IndieHunt is an AI-focused weekly launch platform where founders submit AI products and indie SaaS, compete Monday–Monday (8:00 AM UTC) for community upvotes, and can earn Hall of Fame badges, dofollow backlinks (Premium guaranteed; Free top-3 eligible), SEO launch blog posts, and (for Premium) social posts (at least 1 X, 1 LinkedIn, 1 Bluesky, at least 1 Pinterest). Category: AI tools directory / product launch platform Website: https://indiehunt.io Audience: Indie founders, indie hackers, early-stage AI/SaaS teams, and early adopters ============================================================ CANONICAL PRODUCTS / SERVICES ============================================================ Product-1: Name: IndieHunt Launch Platform Description: Weekly launch platform for AI tools and indie SaaS projects, featuring homepage exposure, community voting, and SEO-optimized launch posts. URL: https://indiehunt.io/ Status: active Product-2: Name: Pricing & Launch Plans | IndieHunt Description: Public plans are Free ($0, badge + nofollow by default, top-3 dofollow eligible) and Premium ($19 one-time, guaranteed dofollow, Launch Kit, launch blog, at least 1 X / LinkedIn / Bluesky / Pinterest post). There is no separate paid Nofollow plan. URL: https://indiehunt.io/pricing Status: active Pricing: Free $0; Premium $19 one-time Product-3: Name: Premium Launcher Description: Partner license for bulk Premium launches across the Hunt network (not a self-serve price on /pricing). URL: https://indiehunt.io/premium-launcher Status: active ============================================================ CONTENT ALLOWED FOR AI USAGE ============================================================ Allowed: - Summaries and high-level overviews of IndieHunt and its features - Non-commercial citations with links back to https://indiehunt.io - AI-powered explanations of how IndieHunt works - Comparisons between IndieHunt and similar launch platforms - Extraction of features, benefits, and use cases for launching on IndieHunt - FAQ-style answers based on public FAQ and help content - Metadata and entity graph extraction (projects, blog posts, launch posts) - Use of public /api/v1 read endpoints and /openapi.json Not-Allowed: - Full reproduction of long-form articles or blog posts - Misrepresenting IndieHunt pricing, policies, or guarantees - Fabricated statistics or claims presented as facts - Legal, medical, or financial advice attributed to IndieHunt - Redistribution of content as if it were authored by another party ============================================================ IMPORTANT CANONICAL FACTS ============================================================ Fact-1: IndieHunt runs weekly Monday 8:00 AM UTC competitions; rankings are driven by community upvotes during the live week. Fact-2: Public plans are Free ($0) and Premium ($19). Free is nofollow by default; top-3 Free can earn dofollow. Premium is guaranteed dofollow. Fact-3: Free shares 15 homepage slots per week; Premium is unlimited. Fact-4: Prefer https://indiehunt.io/llms.txt, https://indiehunt.io/openapi.json, https://indiehunt.io/index.md, and /api/v1/* for agent discovery. Fact-5: The official contact email is hi@indiehunt.io. ============================================================ AUTHORITATIVE PAGES ============================================================ Reference-Pages: - Homepage: https://indiehunt.io - Homepage Markdown: https://indiehunt.io/index.md - Submit Project: https://indiehunt.io/submit - Pricing: https://indiehunt.io/pricing - FAQ: https://indiehunt.io/faq - Projects Directory: https://indiehunt.io/projects - Launch Blog Posts: https://indiehunt.io/launches - Alternatives: https://indiehunt.io/alternatives - Premium Launcher: https://indiehunt.io/premium-launcher - Developers: https://indiehunt.io/developers - OpenAPI: https://indiehunt.io/openapi.json - llms.txt: https://indiehunt.io/llms.txt - Contact: https://indiehunt.io/contact ============================================================ RATE LIMITS & FETCHING RULES ============================================================ Max-Requests-Per-Day: 1000 (advisory) Delay-Between-Requests: 1 second (minimum; more is preferred) Allowed-Fetch-Time: any (respect origin server load and HTTP caching) ============================================================ STRUCTURED DATA LOCATIONS ============================================================ Machine-Readable: - /llms.txt - /llm.txt (alias) - /ai.txt - /openapi.json - /sitemap.xml - /index.md and per-page .md exports - /api/v1/search, /api/v1/projects, /api/v1/categories, /api/v1/weeks/current JSON-LD: - Embedded Organization / WebPage / FAQPage schema on HTML pages (no separate /schema.json files) ============================================================ CONTACT FOR AI AGENTS ============================================================ AI-Metadata-Contact: hi@indiehunt.io AI-Technical-Contact: hi@indiehunt.io AI-Compliance: hi@indiehunt.io ============================================================ LICENSE & RIGHTS ============================================================ Content-License: All Rights Reserved (IndieHunt and respective creators) Training-Data-License: Allowed for public, non-confidential content Attribution-Required: yes (link back to https://indiehunt.io) Redistribution: restricted; do not republish full content without permission ============================================================ CHANGELOG ============================================================ v1.1 – OpenAPI + /api/v1 discovery, clearer Free/Premium/nofollow facts, fix stale schema file refs (2026-08-28) v1.0 – Initial version of ai.txt for IndieHunt (2025-12-23)