# Markdown for Agents vs Agent Readability Spec (ARS)

The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both.

[4 Read](/category/read/) [Markdown for Agents](/protocols/cloudflare-markdown-for-agents/) · [4 Read](/category/read/) [Agent Readability Spec](/protocols/vercel-agent-readability/)

|  | [Markdown for Agents](/protocols/cloudflare-markdown-for-agents/) | [Agent Readability Spec](/protocols/vercel-agent-readability/) ARS |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lifecycle step | 4 Read: Give me the content | 4 Read: Give me the content |
| Answers | Can an agent ask a site for a Markdown version of an HTML page, instead of parsing the HTML itself? | How readable is this site's content for AI agents, and what specifically should be fixed? |
| Governed by | Cloudflare; a feature of its network documented in Cloudflare's developer docs, not submitted to a standards body; it rides on ordinary HTTP content negotiation | Vercel; published in Vercel's own Knowledge Base with no external standards process |
| Status (issuer's words) | Vendor feature, available to Pro, Business and Enterprise plans and SSL for SaaS customers at no cost; not a standards-track document | A specification and scoring checklist, not a protocol; framed as best practices to implement voluntarily |
| Version | Generally available on Pro, Business and Enterprise plans; docs last updated 2026-10-09 (2026-02-12) | current (last updated 2026-03-23 per a secondary source; no version number or publication date is given on the page itself) (2026-03) |
| Form / transport | HTTP header | document format |
| Found at | HTTP content negotiation: the client sends Accept: text/markdown and an enabled zone answers with Content-Type: text/markdown; charset=utf-8 and Vary: Accept. There is no manifest or well-known file. | none |
| Implementation | shipping — Cloudflare's own developer docs and blog answer Accept: text/markdown with text/markdown (our check, 2026-10-20); Cloudflare publishes no count of enabled zones | shipping |
| Evidence | 3 verified | 2 reported, 1 verified |
| Primary use case | Serve readable content to agents | Serve readable content to agents |
| Last verified | 2026-10-23 (current) | 2026-10-23 (current) |
| Specification | [https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/reference/markdown-for-agents/](https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/reference/markdown-for-agents/) | [https://vercel.com/kb/guide/agent-readability-spec](https://vercel.com/kb/guide/agent-readability-spec) |

## When to use which

- Choose Markdown for Agents when your question is “Can an agent ask a site for a Markdown version of an HTML page, instead of parsing the HTML itself?” and you accept its maturity: status "Vendor feature, available to Pro, Business and Enterprise plans and SSL for SaaS customers at no cost; not a standards-track document", implementation shipping (Cloudflare's own developer docs and blog answer Accept: text/markdown with text/markdown (our check, 2026-10-20); Cloudflare publishes no count of enabled zones).
- Choose Agent Readability Spec when your question is “How readable is this site's content for AI agents, and what specifically should be fixed?” and you accept its maturity: status "A specification and scoring checklist, not a protocol; framed as best practices to implement voluntarily", implementation shipping.

Guidance is derived from the two records (question, status, implementation, prerequisites, pairings), not from opinion. Each record's page carries its numbered references.

## Read the full articles

- [Markdown for Agents](/protocols/cloudflare-markdown-for-agents/): Can an agent ask a site for a Markdown version of an HTML page, instead of parsing the HTML itself?
- [Agent Readability Spec](/protocols/vercel-agent-readability/): How readable is this site's content for AI agents, and what specifically should be fixed?

Ask the MCP server to compare any two: the compare-protocols prompt, or get on both ids. [Connect](/connect/).

[cloudflare-markdown-for-agents.json](/data/protocols/cloudflare-markdown-for-agents.json) · [vercel-agent-readability.json](/data/protocols/vercel-agent-readability.json) · [Markdown](/compare/cloudflare-markdown-for-agents-vs-vercel-agent-readability/index.md)