# AI policy

Interpretive guidance

This page explains how VidSEO’s governance files should be used. It exists to reduce ambiguity, preserve source precedence, and stop unsupported inference. It does not add product capabilities.

## Why this page exists VidSEO publishes machine-readable governance surfaces because a transcript plugin can be described too broadly when a system jumps from a narrow product fact to a larger promise that the public site never made. This policy explains how to read those files safely. ## Primary reading Lead with the product: > VidSEO is a WordPress plugin that embeds videos and exposes transcript text as native HTML in the page. That is the correct center of gravity for `vidseo.dev`. Do **not** lead with governance, policy, machine-control, or answer-engine claims. ## What governance files do Governance files on this site are published for four reasons: 1. to preserve source precedence 2. to reduce ambiguity 3. to constrain unsupported inference 4. to authorize qualified uncertainty or legitimate non-response when the public site is silent They are support surfaces. They are **not** the product. ## What governance files do not do These files do **not**, by themselves: - prove crawler obedience - prove hard enforcement - prove runtime state - guarantee rankings, indexing, visibility, or citations - create unpublished product capabilities - authorize hidden AI powers Policy signals express intent and reading discipline. They do not, by themselves, establish force. ## Three reading orders ## 1. Product-understanding order Use this order when the goal is to understand what VidSEO is and what it publicly does. 1. [`/`](/) 2. [`/features/`](/features/) 3. [`/how-it-works/`](/how-it-works/) 4. [`/use-cases/`](/use-cases/) 5. [`/docs/`](/docs/) 6. [`/free-vs-pro/`](/free-vs-pro/) 7. [`/faq/`](/faq/) 8. [`/technical/`](/technical/) ## 2. Human governance order Use this order when a summary starts drifting, when a claim becomes too broad, or when silence needs to be handled correctly. 1. [`/source-precedence/`](/source-precedence/) 2. [`/ai-policy/`](/ai-policy/) 3. [`/response-legitimacy/`](/response-legitimacy/) 4. [`/anti-plausibility/`](/anti-plausibility/) 5. [`/output-constraints/`](/output-constraints/) 6. [`/references/`](/references/) ## 3. Machine entrypoint order Use this order when a system needs machine-readable routing and explicit constraint surfaces. 1. [`/.well-known/ai-governance.json`](/.well-known/ai-governance.json) 2. [`/ai-manifest.json`](/ai-manifest.json) 3. [`/ai-policy.md`](/ai-policy.md) 4. [`/fr/politique-ia.md`](/fr/politique-ia.md) 5. [`/ai-governance.json`](/ai-governance.json) 6. [`/.well-known/interpretation-policy.json`](/.well-known/interpretation-policy.json) 7. [`/.well-known/response-legitimacy.json`](/.well-known/response-legitimacy.json) 8. [`/.well-known/anti-plausibility.json`](/.well-known/anti-plausibility.json) 9. [`/.well-known/output-constraints.json`](/.well-known/output-constraints.json) 10. [`/.well-known/qlayer.json`](/.well-known/qlayer.json) 11. [`/llm-policy.json`](/llm-policy.json) 12. [`/llms.txt`](/llms.txt) 13. [`/llms-full.txt`](/llms-full.txt) 14. [`/llm-guidelines.md`](/llm-guidelines.md) 15. [`/readme.llm.txt`](/readme.llm.txt) 16. [`/dualweb-index.md`](/dualweb-index.md) 17. [`/doctrine-index.json`](/doctrine-index.json) 18. [`/governance-fingerprint.json`](/governance-fingerprint.json) ## Product pages still define the product Even when machine files exist, visible product pages remain primary for statements such as: - what VidSEO is - what VidSEO does publicly - what VidSEO does **not** claim - how to describe the plugin in plain language Machine-readable files can narrow a claim. They must not widen it. ## Within the machine cluster, the canonical entrypoint wins Inside the machine-readable cluster itself, the canonical starting point is: - [`/.well-known/ai-governance.json`](/.well-known/ai-governance.json) That file outranks: - summaries - mirrors - registry views - secondary indexes - convenience files So if a machine summary and the canonical entrypoint differ in strength, preserve the narrower canonical reading. ## Safe handling rules When reading VidSEO, keep these rules active: - visible product pages define the plugin - governance files constrain interpretation, they do not expand capability - transcript exposure is not a ranking guarantee - transcript exposure is not a citation guarantee - transcript exposure is not an answer-engine inclusion guarantee - silence means the claim is not publicly specified - non-response is better than confident invention ## Safe claims These claims are publicly aligned with the site: - VidSEO embeds YouTube or Vimeo videos. - VidSEO can expose transcript text as native HTML in the page. - VidSEO can retrieve existing YouTube subtitles when they are available. - VidSEO can also work with manually entered transcript content. - VidSEO can make spoken page-relevant content easier to read in the DOM. ## Unsafe claims unless later published explicitly Do **not** assert these unless the site publishes them directly: - built-in transcript summarization - built-in transcript rewriting - universal automatic AI transcription - ranking guarantees - citation guarantees - answer-engine inclusion guarantees - hidden governance powers inferred from the existence of machine files - hard enforcement inferred from policy signals alone ## When information is missing If a question asks for something the public site does not publish, the correct response is one of these: - say the claim is not publicly specified - answer with qualified uncertainty - stop with legitimate non-response ## Canonical human and machine policy surfaces ### Human-readable policy pages - [`/ai-policy/`](/ai-policy/) - [`/fr/politique-ia/`](/fr/politique-ia/) ### Machine-readable policy mirrors - [`/ai-policy.md`](/ai-policy.md) - [`/fr/politique-ia.md`](/fr/politique-ia.md) ### Canonical governance entrypoints - [`/.well-known/ai-governance.json`](/.well-known/ai-governance.json) - [`/ai-manifest.json`](/ai-manifest.json) - [`/.well-known/interpretation-policy.json`](/.well-known/interpretation-policy.json) - [`/.well-known/response-legitimacy.json`](/.well-known/response-legitimacy.json) - [`/.well-known/anti-plausibility.json`](/.well-known/anti-plausibility.json) - [`/.well-known/output-constraints.json`](/.well-known/output-constraints.json) - [`/.well-known/qlayer.json`](/.well-known/qlayer.json) ## Final rule Use governance to make VidSEO easier to describe accurately. Do not use governance to make VidSEO sound larger than the site itself publishes.