Links for LLMs: serving JSON to agents while humans get pages
AI agents follow links too — but they want structured data, not HTML. One URL that redirects people and answers machines with clean JSON changes what a "link" can do.
The same URL, two audiences
Content negotiation is old web tech having a renaissance: inspect what the caller accepts and answer accordingly. A person clicking your link in a chat gets the 302 to your landing page. An agent requesting application/json gets a structured document — product data, pricing, availability — from exactly the same URL.
Why not just build an API?
APIs need discovery, keys and docs. A link is already everywhere your customers are — in bios, emails, QR codes and now in prompts. Making the link itself agent-readable means the distribution problem is already solved.
Practical notes
Keep machine responses small and stable — agents cache and reason over them. Version the payload shape. And log agent traffic separately: your analytics will otherwise report a "drop in conversion" that is actually a rise in automation.
Written by the rii.link team.
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