--- title: "Test with a plain-fetch client | Agent Ready Checklist" description: "How to test with a plain-fetch client. See the page the way a fetch-only agent sees it, with curl and no JavaScript, and know what that test misses." canonical: https://agentreadychecklist.com/guides/test-with-a-plain-fetch-client site: "Agent Ready Checklist" last_updated: 2026-11-05 date: 2026-11-04 section: "Guides" --- # Test with a plain-fetch client | Agent Ready Checklist > How to test with a plain-fetch client. See the page the way a fetch-only agent sees it, with curl and no JavaScript, and know what that test misses. Source: https://agentreadychecklist.com/guides/test-with-a-plain-fetch-client Site: Agent Ready Checklist Last reviewed: 2026-11-05 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). # How to test with a plain-fetch client See the page the way a fetch-only agent sees it, with curl and no JavaScript, and know what that test misses. It covers 2 requirements: AR-READ-01, AR-FIND-01. The spec verification step is curl -iL -A "Claude-User/1.0" against the page; the request should end in 200, with 301 or 308 hops acceptable. ## Before you start You need curl and a page you care about. A plain-fetch client is any client that requests the URL and reads the response without running JavaScript. ## Steps 1. **[AR-READ-01: Answer in the initial HTML.](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-read-01/)** Put the answer in the initial HTML: server-rendered or prerendered, not injected by a single-page app after load. ```bash curl -fsSL https://agentreadychecklist.com/kit/verify.sh | bash -s -- https://example.com --only=initial-html ``` Watch for: Prerendering the shell but fetching the answer client-side. 2. **[AR-FIND-01: Do not block agents.](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-find-01/)** Do not block agent and crawler access to public content, in robots.txt or at the network layer (WAF, bot manager). ```bash curl -fsSL https://agentreadychecklist.com/kit/verify.sh | bash -s -- https://example.com --only=reach-as-agent,robots-verdicts ``` Watch for: A named group (User-agent: GPTBot, Disallow: /) left over from 2023 that overrides a permissive wildcard. 3. **Read what comes back.** Fetch the page with an agent user agent, follow redirects and keep the headers. A 200 confirms access. It does not confirm that the answer is in the body. ```bash curl -iL -A "Claude-User/1.0" https://example.com/pricing/ | head -60 ``` ## How you know it is done You are done when you can say, for each page that matters, what a client that never runs a script receives: the status, the h1 and the sentence that holds the answer. ## The facts behind it - The spec verification step is curl -iL -A "Claude-User/1.0" against the page; the request should end in 200, with 301 or 308 hops acceptable.primary source: [github.com/agentready-org/standard/blob/main/spec/spec.md](https://github.com/agentready-org/standard/blob/main/spec/spec.md), read 2026-11-04 - The spec says the curl is not proof either way, because bot blockers weigh request origin more than the user-agent string.primary source: [github.com/agentready-org/standard/blob/main/spec/spec.md](https://github.com/agentready-org/standard/blob/main/spec/spec.md), read 2026-11-04 - In the experiment the plain-fetch client got 0 of 5 answers from the js-only configuration; the JavaScript client got 5 of 5.primary source, 2026-08-28: [vercel.com/kb/guide/make-your-site-readable-by-ai-agents](https://vercel.com/kb/guide/make-your-site-readable-by-ai-agents), read 2026-11-04 - contentsignals.org returned a page whose body was an empty
to a plain fetch on 2026-11-04.primary source, 2026-11-04: [contentsignals.org](https://contentsignals.org/), read 2026-11-04 - The Vercel guide notes a 200 confirms access but not that the content contains the answer or that the agent read it right.primary source, 2026-08-28: [vercel.com/kb/guide/make-your-site-readable-by-ai-agents](https://vercel.com/kb/guide/make-your-site-readable-by-ai-agents), read 2026-11-04 ## Sources - [github.com/agentready-org/standard/blob/main/spec/spec.md](https://github.com/agentready-org/standard/blob/main/spec/spec.md)read 2026-11-04 - [vercel.com/kb/guide/make-your-site-readable-by-ai-agents](https://vercel.com/kb/guide/make-your-site-readable-by-ai-agents)read 2026-11-04 - [contentsignals.org](https://contentsignals.org/)read 2026-11-04 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 2026-11-05. AgentReady v2.0, read 2026-11-04.