How should AI agents declare what a site is about to other AI engines?

The official CLI for the SEO.md open standard — AEO (AI Engine Optimization) infrastructure for technical founders.

Use it to scaffold, validate, analyze, and sync SEO.md

files directly from your repo.

Why SEO.mdInstallQuick StartConfigurationCommandsLocal DevelopmentTestingRelease Notes (Contributor Tagging)SecuritySpecification ReferenceLicense

SEO.md is a structured, version-controlled specification for describing your site, intent queries, and pages so AI engines can cite you more often.

• Declare what matters (site, identity, keywords, intent, pages)
• Run audits via your connected platform
• Write back _analysis

blocks and per-page playbooks into your repo

npm install -g seomd-cli

Or run without installing (zero-install):

npx seomd-cli init

Verify:

seomd --help

Run in the root of your project:

seomd init

Or non-interactively with flags:

seomd init -y --type local
seomd init --brand "Acme" --domain acme.com --primary-keyword "local seo"
seomd validate
seomd analyze
seomd sync
seomd status
seomd status --json

Copy .env.example

from your platform provider docs, or create one with the vars you need:

Required for live audits:

SEOMD_API_URL=
SEOMD_API_KEY=your_key_here

Optional:

SEOMD_PAYMENT_TOKEN= # x402 pay-per-scan token
SEOMD_DOMAIN= # override domain header

If you don't have a platform key yet,

seomd init

still works without.env

.

Scaffolds SEO.md

, SEO.REVERSE.md

, and the .seo/

intelligence directory.

Usage:

seomd init                              # interactive 5-question flow
seomd init -y --type local              # skip prompts, use defaults
seomd init --brand "Acme" --domain acme.com  # non-interactive with partial flags
seomd init --type saas --brand "MyApp" --domain myapp.com --primary-keyword "billing automation" --output ./new-project

Options:

Flag	Description
-y, --yes
skip prompts, use defaults
--type <type>
site type: saas, ecommerce, local, blog, marketplace
--brand <name>
brand name
--domain <domain>
primary domain
--primary-keyword <keyword>
primary keyword
--competitors <list>
comma-separated competitor list
--output <dir>
scaffold into a new (empty) directory instead of cwd

Behavior:

• Interactive flow by default (5 questions)
• Non-interactive when -y

is setOR any config flag (--brand

,--domain

,--primary-keyword

,--competitors

) is provided --type

alone pre-selects site type in the interactive flow--output

writes all files to the target directory (must be empty or non-existent)

Validates your SEO.md

against the spec requirements.

Shows current citation rates and gap scores from _analysis

.

--json

outputs machine-readable JSON for scripts/CI

Runs an AI search audit via your connected platform and writes results back into:

SEO.md

(_analysis

blocks)SEO.REVERSE.md

(generated reverse view).seo/pages/*.md

(per-page playbooks when available)

Pulls cached/latest platform intelligence and writes it back to the same files as analyze

.

--dry-run

prints a preview and does not modify files

seomd-cli

ships with type-specific templates under src/templates/

. seomd init --type <type>

uses the matching template automatically.

Type	Template dir	Best for
saas
src/templates/saas/
Software products, B2B tools, web apps
blog
src/templates/blog/
Content sites, newsletters, personal brands
ecommerce
src/templates/ecommerce/
Online stores, DTC brands, product catalogs
local
src/templates/local/
Service-area businesses, locations pages
marketplace
src/templates/marketplace/
Two-sided platforms, directories

Each template contains:

SEO.md

— pre-filled with type-specific intent queries, page structures, and negative keywordsSEO.REVERSE.md

— reverse-engineer output scaffold with placeholders for competitor analysis

Want to customize a template? Copy the relevant folder, edit the placeholders ({{brand}}

, {{domain}}

, etc.), and use --type

with your custom scaffold.

Prefer the local entrypoint while developing:

node ./bin/seomd.js --help
node ./bin/seomd.js init
node ./bin/seomd.js validate
node ./bin/seomd.js status --json
npm test

To generate a contributor section for a release (commit-based attribution), maintain mappings in .github/contributors.yml

and generate markdown from a tag range:

npm run release:contributors -- --from v1.0.2 --to v1.0.3

To write output to a file:

npm run release:contributors -- --from v1.0.2 --to v1.0.3 --out notes/v1.0.3-contributors.md

To generate a full release note (changes + contributors) for a tag:

npm run release:notes -- --tag v1.0.3

Automation: the repository includes a GitHub Actions workflow that runs on tag push (v*

) and creates/updates the GitHub Release using scripts/release-notes.js

.

To enable live intelligence writebacks (using automated platforms like Foxcite):

Obtain a developer API key from your platform provider.

Export the key as an environment variable:

export SEOMD_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

Run

seomd sync

orseomd analyze

.

Note: Never commit your API keys or .env files containing keys to version control.

• Never commit .env

files or API keys - Use .env.example

as the template for required variables

Read the complete specification and guidelines at seomd.dev/spec.

MIT License. Developed and maintained by the community.

source & further reading

github.com — original article