Publisher archive and AI boundaries

Use this playbook when the site is a publisher or content-heavy editorial property that wants to remain visible in search while drawing clearer boundaries around archive capture and AI-related usage.

Typical profile

• media or editorial site
• large archive of articles or content pieces
• clear concern about training or archive reuse
• need to keep discoverability while clarifying policy

Main priority

Separate classic search visibility from AI training or archive posture.

Main risk

Publishing a file that sounds strong but does not distinguish clearly between indexing, answer-generation use, and training.

Recommended start

• start with AI-First
• review archive control deliberately
• enable llms.txt only when the team wants a clearer public machine-readable surface
• document the policy in the AI Usage Policy

Review modules in this order

1. Search visibility
2. AI governance
3. Archive control
4. SEO tool protection only if crawl cost justifies it

Safe wording

Say that the publisher expresses a clearer machine-readable policy around search, AI, and archives. Do not claim that all systems will comply.

Read with

• Publisher on AI-First
• AI Usage Policy
• Bot taxonomy