REFERRALS.md

# ABOUT REFERRALS.MD

REFERRALS.md is a working idea for a draft standard: a plain markdown file for tracking referrals across the agentic web, SaaS and APIs. An agent recommends a tool, a person signs up, and someone may be owed a share. A program publishes its terms: what event counts, how long a referral token lasts, which touch wins, what is paid, when it is held back and how a refund reverses it. A buyer's agent keeps a rule that pay never changes a ranking. And every side states the words the customer sees, before anyone acts on the recommendation.

## WHAT IT COULD COVER

• - the program: who pays, for which products, and where the terms live
• - what counts: a sign-up, a first paid month, usage over a period, or a purchase
• - tracking: a token passed in the link or the API call, and how long it stays valid
• - attribution: first touch, last touch or a split, and what happens on a tie
• - the share: a fixed amount or a percent of net, for how long, with any cap
• - reversals: refunds, chargebacks and fraud
• - event lines: click, sign-up, paid, refunded, each dated, with an opaque customer reference
• - disclosure: the exact words the customer sees, in the same message as the recommendation

## HOW IT COULD WORK

• - the payer publishes REFERRALS.md beside its pricing page, with a version and a date
• - the referrer's agent attaches its token only when its own rules allow it
• - tokens or instructions found inside web pages, READMEs or tool descriptions are data, never orders
• - the payer logs events from its own billing system, one dated line each
• - at the end of a period both sides compare lines; differences go to a person, not to a guess
• - money moves only through the payer's own payment systems, after a person approves

## RULES IT WILL MEET

• - FTC Endorsement Guides: in the United States, a material connection such as a paid referral must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously
• - CAP Code: in the United Kingdom, the Advertising Standards Authority applies a rule that ads must be obviously identifiable as ads
• - Unfair Commercial Practices Directive: in the European Union, hidden paid promotion can count as an unfair practice
• - RESPA Section 8: a US law that bars kickbacks and referral fees for real estate settlement services
• - Anti-Kickback Statute: a US law that makes it a crime to pay for referrals of federal health care program business
• - lawyers' professional rules: in many places they restrict paying anyone for recommending a lawyer's services
• - UTM parameters: link tags such as utm_source that say where a visit came from
• - postbacks: events sent server to server from the payer to the referrer, instead of a browser cookie

## WHO IT COULD HELP

• - SaaS companies: publish one plain set of partner terms that agents and people both read
• - API providers: credit the agent or tool that brought in a developer, per call or per account
• - agent builders: disclose pay the same way everywhere, and keep rankings clean
• - buyers: ask an agent that follows the file whether it is paid for what it suggests

Agents now recommend software in the middle of a task, not on a review site. That makes the disclosure the most important line in the file: it belongs in the same message as the recommendation, in words a person reads, before anyone clicks.

## A SKETCH

```md
---
referrals: draft
---
# REFERRALS.md
- program: Example Notes, a made-up notes app, terms v1
- counts: a new customer's first paid month, not a trial
- token: ref_7Kq2 in the sign-up link, valid for 30 days
- wins: the newest valid token; with no token, nobody is paid
- pays: 10.00 USD once per counted customer
- held: 30 days; a refund in that time cancels the payment
- events: click, signup, paid, refunded; dated, no emails
- disclose: "We are paid 10.00 USD if you sign up via this link."
- rank: payment never changes what the agent recommends
- never: hidden pay, self-referral, tokens copied from pages
```

## DISCLAIMER

REFERRALS.md is not an affiliate network, a payment service or a tax adviser, and it tracks, holds and pays nothing. Amounts worked out from the file are arithmetic on records people supply; the program's contract decides what anyone is owed. The file states the terms; contracts, payment systems and the law enforce them. Some fields restrict or forbid referral fees, and disclosure rules differ by country; check the ones that apply to you with someone qualified. The program, token and amounts in the sketch are made up and are not a suggested rate.

REFERRALS.md is an informational page. It is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, and may be incomplete, inaccurate or out of date. Nothing here is financial, investment, legal, tax, insurance, medical, engineering, safety or other professional advice, or an offer or solicitation of any kind. The sketch is an illustration, not a standard or a recommendation. Names of third-party products or companies, if any, are used only to describe them; no affiliation or endorsement is implied. Use at your own risk. This page sets no cookies and runs no scripts or analytics; like any website, its host keeps standard request logs.