--- title: "Next.js: agent-ready recipes | Agent Ready Checklist" description: "Every agent-ready recipe for Next.js: 31 rows of the checklist, the version read, the date and the vendor documentation each step came from." canonical: https://agentreadychecklist.com/platforms/nextjs-app-router site: "Agent Ready Checklist" last_updated: 2026-11-05 section: "Platforms" --- # Next.js: agent-ready recipes | Agent Ready Checklist > Every agent-ready recipe for Next.js: 31 rows of the checklist, the version read, the date and the vendor documentation each step came from. Source: https://agentreadychecklist.com/platforms/nextjs-app-router 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). # Next.js: agent-ready recipes Next.js (App Router): 31 recipes against the 31 checklist rows, read on 2026-11-04. Next.js: 29 are direct, 2 are workarounds. Next.js recipes cite the page they were derived from, or the specification when the step is generic. A Next.js workaround names the real route: a proxy, an edge function or a domain you control. Version read for Next.js: Next.js 16.x. ## Version and documentation read Version Next.js 16.x (npm latest 16.4.5, read 2026-11-04); docs at nextjs.org/docs/app Read on 2026-11-04 Recipes 29 direct, 2 workaround, 0 not possible on the platform robots.txt [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/metadata/robots](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/metadata/robots). app/robots.ts returning MetadataRoute.Robots generates /robots.txt. Sitemap [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/metadata/sitemap](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/metadata/sitemap). app/sitemap.ts returning MetadataRoute.Sitemap generates /sitemap.xml. Structured data [nextjs.org/docs/app/guides/json-ld](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/guides/json-ld). Render a script type application/ld+json in a Server Component, escaping < as \\u003c. Status codes [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/functions/not-found](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/functions/not-found). notFound() renders the not-found UI and injects a noindex robots meta tag; custom UI in not-found.js. Headers and redirects [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/config/next-config-js/headers](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/config/next-config-js/headers). headers() in next.config.js, with has conditions on request headers. Content negotiation [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/proxy](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/proxy). proxy.ts (middleware.ts renamed in v16.0.0) can read the Accept header and rewrite to a markdown route. llms.txt [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/route](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/route). No built-in llms.txt; serve it from public/ or an app/llms.txt/route.ts Route Handler. OpenAPI [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/public-folder](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/public-folder). No built-in OpenAPI generator; put openapi.json in public/ so it is served from the root. [The checklist table for Next.js (App Router)](https://agentreadychecklist.com/platform/nextjs-app-router/checklist/) shows every row with its first step. ## Verify with Ora Next.js (App Router) has a direct recipe for 29 rows, and Ora's catalogue (read 2026-11-05) names a matching check for 26 of them, among them AR-FIND-01, AR-FIND-03, AR-FIND-04. After the steps are live, one audit shows which of those fixes the score picks up. ```bash npx ax@0.10 audit https://example.com --min-score 70 ``` Run it again with `--force` after a deploy, so the audit skips Ora's cache. [Gate deploys on it in CI](https://agentreadychecklist.com/guides/gate-deploys-on-agent-readiness-in-ci/), [why this site recommends Ora](https://agentreadychecklist.com/verify-with-ora/), [the crosswalk of rows and checks](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ora-checks/). ## Recipes, row by row ### [AR-FIND-01](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-find-01/): Do not block agentsrecipe In app/robots.ts return rules: \[{ userAgent: "\*", allow: "/" }\] and add a sitemap URL. Do not add per-bot disallow groups for GPTBot or ClaudeBot unless you mean to opt out of training. Check the WAF on your host separately. Read 2026-11-04. [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/metadata/robots](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/metadata/robots) ### [AR-FIND-02](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-find-02/): Answers on one first-party pagerecipe Publish each answer once, as a page on your own domain. Put the fact (price, limit, version) in the page text, give the page one stable address, and link it from the home page and from llms.txt. Keep the page current: a second, older copy elsewhere on the site is the usual way an agent cites the wrong figure. Generic step from the AgentReady specification; not platform-specific. [github.com/agentready-org/standard/blob/main/spec/spec.md](https://github.com/agentready-org/standard/blob/main/spec/spec.md) ### [AR-FIND-03](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-find-03/): Sitemap listed in robots.txtrecipe Create app/sitemap.ts exporting a default function that returns MetadataRoute.Sitemap entries ({ url, lastModified }). Reference it from app/robots.ts with sitemap: "https://example.com/sitemap.xml". Read 2026-11-04. [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/metadata/sitemap](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/metadata/sitemap) ### [AR-FIND-04](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-find-04/): AI Catalog at .well-knownrecipe Add app/.well-known/ai-catalog.json/route.ts exporting GET that returns Response.json({ specVersion: "1.0", host: {…}, entries: \[…\] }), or place the static file at public/.well-known/ai-catalog.json. Read 2026-11-04. [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/route](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/route) ### [AR-READ-01](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-read-01/): Answer in the initial HTMLrecipe Keep pages as Server Components (the App Router default) so content is in the HTML response. Fetch data in the page, not in a useEffect. For fully static output set output: "export" in next.config.js. Read 2026-11-04. [nextjs.org/docs/app/getting-started/server-and-client-components](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/getting-started/server-and-client-components) ### [AR-READ-02](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-read-02/): Real HTTP status codesrecipe Call notFound() from next/navigation when a record is missing; Next.js renders not-found.js with a 404. For throttling, return new Response("Too Many Requests", { status: 429, headers: { "Retry-After": "60" } }) from proxy.ts or a Route Handler. Read 2026-11-04. [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/functions/not-found](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/functions/not-found) ### [AR-READ-03](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-read-03/): Home page with real linksrecipe Render the home page as a Server Component and use next/link Link components, which output real a href anchors to /docs, /pricing and product pages. Read 2026-11-04. [nextjs.org/docs/app/getting-started/server-and-client-components](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/getting-started/server-and-client-components) ### [AR-READ-04](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-read-04/): Docs that answer agent tasksrecipe For each of your top five agent tasks, write a page that holds the steps as text, in order, with the exact names of the buttons, fields and settings. Steps that exist only in an image, a video or a script-built widget are not in the response a plain fetch receives. Fetch the page with curl and grep for the step. Generic step from the AgentReady specification; not platform-specific. [github.com/agentready-org/standard/blob/main/spec/spec.md](https://github.com/agentready-org/standard/blob/main/spec/spec.md) ### [AR-READ-05](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-read-05/): Fenced, language-tagged coderecipe In MDX pages write fenced blocks with a language (\`\`\`ts). With @next/mdx add a rehype highlighter; the language tag stays in the class name of the code element. Read 2026-11-04. [nextjs.org/docs/app/guides/mdx](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/guides/mdx) ### [AR-READ-06](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-read-06/): Link the discovery filesrecipe In app/layout.tsx export metadata with alternates: { types: { "text/markdown": "/index.md" } } and render footer links to /llms.txt and /openapi.json. Read 2026-11-04. [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/functions/generate-metadata](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/functions/generate-metadata) ### [AR-READ-07](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-read-07/): Ship llms.txtrecipe Write public/llms.txt (H1, summary blockquote, link lists) or generate it in app/llms.txt/route.ts with export const dynamic = "force-static" and Content-Type text/plain. Read 2026-11-04. [nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/route](https://nextjs.org/docs/app/api-reference/file-conventions/route) ### [AR-READ-08](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-read-08/): JSON-LD on key pagesrecipe In the page component render