--- title: "BASF: the 360 check | Agent Ready Checklist" description: "BASF on Ora's agent-readiness scan, read 2026-11-09: 52 of 100, grade C. 4 of 20 checklist rows met, 12 not met. One company a day." canonical: https://agentreadychecklist.com/blog/basf-agent-readiness site: "Agent Ready Checklist" last_updated: 2026-11-09 date: 2026-11-09 section: "360 checks" --- # BASF: the 360 check | Agent Ready Checklist > BASF on Ora's agent-readiness scan, read 2026-11-09: 52 of 100, grade C. 4 of 20 checklist rows met, 12 not met. One company a day. Source: https://agentreadychecklist.com/blog/basf-agent-readiness Site: Agent Ready Checklist Last reviewed: 2026-11-09 Agent endpoints: https://agentreadychecklist.com/llms.txt (index), https://agentreadychecklist.com/openapi.json (API), https://agentreadychecklist.com/mcp (MCP server), https://agentreadychecklist.com/ask (search) Access: https://agentreadychecklist.com/auth.md (no key). Pricing: https://agentreadychecklist.com/pricing.md (free). # BASF against the checklist: the 360 agent-readiness check 360 check, 9 November 2026. BASF is the world's largest chemicals company, based in Ludwigshafen. BASF scores 52 of 100 on Ora's agent-readiness scan, a C, read 9 November 2026. At the door, some agents blocked: GPTBot, ChatGPT-User. 4 of the 20 checklist rows with an Ora check are met. 1 of 4 MUST rows is met. Half the agents in, half out, and two files that answer in the wrong format. On 9 November 2026 the public site at basf.com scored **52 of 100** on [Ora's](https://ora.ai/?utm_source=agentreadychecklist.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=check) agent-readiness scan, a C. Ora probes a site the way an agent would: it requests pages with the agents' own user agents, reads robots.txt, looks for the files agents read, and tries the API, MCP and payment surfaces. Below, each of the 31 checklist rows is read against the Ora checks the [crosswalk](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ora-checks/) names for it, so the result says which requirements this company meets, not only how many points it scored. Ora's one-line summary: BASF.com offers developer resource discoverability, but lacks an OpenAPI/Swagger specification. ## The score | Layer | Points | Share | What the layer asks | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Discovery | 12 of 13 | 92% | Can agents find and recommend it | | Access | 20 of 52 | 38% | Can agents read it | | Usability | 22.5 of 54 | 42% | Can agents use it | | Payments | 0 of 0 | none apply | Can agents pay | | Total | 52 of 100 | 52% | Grade C | ## Row by row A row is met when every Ora check the crosswalk names for it passes, not met when every one fails, and partly when the checks disagree or one is partial. A row with no Ora check in the catalogue, or whose checks did not apply to this site, is marked as such; the [Verify Kit](https://agentreadychecklist.com/kit/) tests those by hand. | Row | Level | Result | Ora checks, and what Ora saw | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AR-FIND-01; Do not block agents | MUST | Partly | robots.txt AI crawler policy (pass), robots.txt agent-user policy (pass), Agent crawler reachability (partial), Not blocked by bot detection (partial).; Training: 2/2. Search: 3/3 page/crawler pairs permitted. No applicable crawl or usage restriction found for 5 training and search crawlers (gptbot, claudebot, oai-searchbot, claude-searchbot, | | AR-FIND-02; Answers on one first-party page | SHOULD | No Ora check | No check in Ora's catalogue names this row. | | AR-FIND-03; Sitemap listed in robots.txt | SHOULD | Met | Sitemap exists (pass).; Valid sitemap found at https://www.basf.com/sitemap.xml with multiple sitemaps entries | | AR-FIND-04; AI Catalog at .well-known | MAY | Not met | AI Catalog discovery (not applicable), ARD discovery (fail).; No /.well-known/ard.json (and no legacy /.well-known/ai-catalog.json) | | AR-READ-01; Answer in the initial HTML | MUST | Partly | Content without JavaScript (partial).; 1604 chars with H1, but first content heading is H2, not H1; 2.5% content ratio is below the 5% target | | AR-READ-02; Real HTTP status codes | MUST | Met | Redirect hygiene (pass).; Redirect hygiene: pass, 1 of 1. | | AR-READ-03; Home page with real links | SHOULD | Not met | Public API/docs linked from homepage (fail).; No public API or documentation page linked from homepage | | AR-READ-04; Docs that answer agent tasks | SHOULD | No Ora check | No check in Ora's catalogue names this row. | | AR-READ-05; Fenced, language-tagged code | SHOULD | No Ora check | Code fence validity (not applicable). | | AR-READ-06; Link the discovery files | SHOULD | No Ora check | No check in Ora's catalogue names this row. | | AR-READ-07; Ship llms.txt | SHOULD | Partly | llms.txt exists (partial), llms.txt formatting (fail), llms.txt links resolve (not applicable).; A file is present at https://basf.com/llms.txt, but it returns an HTML page rather than a plain-text llms.txt. | | AR-READ-08; JSON-LD on key pages | SHOULD | Partly | JSON-LD structured data (partial).; JSON-LD has Organization type but missing key fields (name, description) | | AR-READ-09; Advertise a markdown mirror | MAY | Not met | Markdown alternate link (fail).; No sampled page advertises a markdown alternate. Add (or the equivalent Link response header) pointing at a markdown twin of the page. | | AR-READ-11; Pricing as first-party HTML | SHOULD | Not met | Pricing info accessible (fail).; No pricing page or pricing data found | | AR-ACT-01; Auth an agent can finish | SHOULD | No Ora check | OAuth 2.0 support (not applicable), Scoped permissions (not applicable). | | AR-ACT-02; OpenAPI contract | SHOULD | Not met | OpenAPI spec published (fail).; No OpenAPI/Swagger specification found | | AR-ACT-03; MCP over Streamable HTTP | SHOULD | Not met | MCP server / manifest (fail), Listed in MCP registries (not applicable), MCP PKCE S256 support (not applicable), MCP OAuth metadata (not applicable).; No MCP server or manifest found | | AR-ACT-04; MCP server card | MAY | Not met | MCP server-card.json (fail).; No MCP server card found at /.well-known/mcp/server-card.json | | AR-ACT-05; MCP Apps view | MAY | No Ora check | MCP Apps support (not applicable). | | AR-ACT-06; SDKs and a CLI | SHOULD | No Ora check | CLI tool available (not applicable), Multi-language SDK packages (not applicable), NPM/PyPI SDK package (not applicable). | | AR-ACT-07; WebMCP tools | SHOULD | Not met | WebMCP support (fail).; No WebMCP support detected - no tool-attribute forms and no document.modelContext / navigator.modelContext usage found (scanned 0 of 2 same-origin script bundle(s) for modelContext registrations) | | AR-ACT-08; Agent payments | MAY | No Ora check | x402 payment protocol (not applicable), MPP payment protocol (not applicable), UCP - Universal Commerce Protocol (not applicable), ACP - Agentic Commerce Protocol (not applicable), ACP delegate payment (not applicable). | | AR-ACT-09; NLWeb /ask endpoint | MAY | Met | NLWeb /ask endpoint (pass).; NLWeb /ask endpoint exists but requires authentication (HTTP 403, via POST) | | AR-ACT-10; An MCP server or a CLI | MUST | Not met | MCP server / manifest (fail), CLI tool available (not applicable).; No MCP server or manifest found | | CF-CONTENT-SIGNALS; Content-Signal line | cloudflare | No Ora check | No check in Ora's catalogue names this row. | | CF-MARKDOWN-NEGOTIATION; Markdown by Accept | cloudflare | Not met | Markdown content negotiation (acceptmarkdown.com) (fail), Markdown agent docs (fail).; Homepage https://basf.com does not meet the Markdown negotiation requirements: Accept: text/markdown returned application/json; charset=utf-8; Vary header missing Accept (got "authorization, accept-encoding") | | CF-PAY-PER-CRAWL; Pay per crawl, HTTP 402 | cloudflare | No Ora check | No check in Ora's catalogue names this row. | | CF-OAUTH-DISCOVERY; OAuth discovery files | cloudflare | Not met | OAuth Protected Resource metadata (RFC 9728) (fail).; No /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource found (RFC 9728) | | CF-AGENT-SKILLS; Agent Skills index | cloudflare | No Ora check | Agent Skills index conformance (v0.2.0) (not applicable). | | VERCEL-NEGOTIATION-HEADERS; Markdown headers | vercel | Not met | Markdown content negotiation (acceptmarkdown.com) (fail).; Homepage https://basf.com does not meet the Markdown negotiation requirements: Accept: text/markdown returned application/json; charset=utf-8; Vary header missing Accept (got "authorization, accept-encoding") | | VERCEL-ROBOTS-EXCLUSIONS; Robots exclusions | vercel | Met | robots.txt AI crawler policy (pass), robots.txt agent-user policy (pass).; Training: 2/2. Search: 3/3 page/crawler pairs permitted. No applicable crawl or usage restriction found for 5 training and search crawlers (gptbot, claudebot, oai-searchbot, claude-searchbot, | ## The fixes worth most points Ora attaches an estimate to each failing or partial check: how many points the site would gain by passing it. These are the 5 with the largest estimates for BASF, each tied to the checklist row whose recipes cover it. MCP server / manifest Fail, 0 of 6, about 4.9 points to gain. Ora saw: No MCP server or manifest found. Row [AR-ACT-03](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-act-03/), MCP over Streamable HTTP. OpenAPI spec published Fail, 0 of 7, about 4.5 points to gain. Ora saw: No OpenAPI/Swagger specification found. Row [AR-ACT-02](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-act-02/), OpenAPI contract. WebMCP support Fail, 0 of 5, about 4.1 points to gain. Ora saw: No WebMCP support detected - no tool-attribute forms and no document.modelContext / navigator.modelContext usage found (scanned 0 of 2 same-origin script bundle(s) for modelContext registrations). Row [AR-ACT-07](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-act-07/), WebMCP tools. GraphQL typed error model Fail, 0 of 3, about 2.5 points to gain. Ora saw: GraphQL introspection auth-gated and no typed graphql error model documentation found on GraphQL-tagged pages. No checklist row names this check. Idempotency-Key support Fail, 0 of 3, about 2.5 points to gain. Ora saw: GraphQL introspection auth-gated and no idempotency documentation found on GraphQL-tagged pages. No checklist row names this check. ## Our read BASF splits the door down the middle: ClaudeBot and Google-Extended get in, GPTBot and ChatGPT-User are blocked, while robots.txt allows every training and search crawler Ora checked. That contradiction between the policy file and the edge is the first thing to fix, because the checklist's door rows read the two together. Behind it the site is better than its score: five of five sampled pages read without a login, the sitemap index is valid, and a GraphQL endpoint at basf.com/graphql answers, with introspection behind authentication. Two files are wrong rather than missing: the llms.txt at /llms.txt returns an HTML page, and a request for markdown gets application/json back, so an agent asking for text receives neither. The JSON-LD has an Organization type without a name or a description. BASF has done more of the work than most industrial groups here and is losing points on finishing. ## Verify your own site The scan above is free and needs no account: enter a domain at [ora.ai](https://ora.ai/?utm_source=agentreadychecklist.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=check) and read the same four layers for your own site, then take each failing row to its recipe on this site. The command below runs the same audit from a terminal and exits with 1 under the score you set, so it can gate a deploy. Payments did not apply to this company; a site that sells is read on that layer too. [Why Ora, and its limits](https://agentreadychecklist.com/verify-with-ora/). ```bash npx ax@0.10 audit https://example.com --min-score 70 ``` [All 360 checks](https://agentreadychecklist.com/blog/), one company a day. Corrections to [the corrections page](https://agentreadychecklist.com/corrections/). ## Sources - [ora.ai/api/score/basf.com, Ora's scan (vendor)](https://ora.ai/api/score/basf.com?utm_source=agentreadychecklist.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=check)read 2026-11-09 - [ora.ai/api/checks, contract 1.38.0 (vendor)](https://ora.ai/api/checks?utm_source=agentreadychecklist.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=check)read 2026-11-05 - [basf.com, the company's site](https://www.basf.com/us/en)read 2026-11-09 Edition Data 2026-11-04 Reviewed 2026-11-05 Spec AgentReady v2.0, 273d2d7 Crawl 13,071 rows, 2026-11-04 Ora 132 checks, contract 1.38.0, 2026-11-05 Verify with Ora The scanner this site recommends for the whole checklist. 132 checks, a score out of 100, no account. `npx ax@0.10 audit --min-score ` [Why Ora, and its limits](https://agentreadychecklist.com/verify-with-ora/) Method - [How rows, commands and rates are made](https://agentreadychecklist.com/method/) - [How an Ora check is matched to a row](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ora-checks/) - [Pass rates by rank band](https://agentreadychecklist.com/data/by-rank/) Sources and read dates sit at the foot of the page. Last reviewed 2026-11-09. AgentReady v2.0, read 2026-11-04.