No money custody
The project does not accept payments or settle accounts between advertisers and partners.
Project idea
Why Affiliate.txt is needed
Affiliate program rules are stored in dashboards, emails and chats. Different participants often work with different versions of the terms. Affiliate.txt puts the current rules on the advertiser's domain.
In one sentence
One official source for offer rules — human-readable, machine-readable and available without registration.
Why program rules diverge
There are many platforms. Each keeps its own copy of an offer, partner IDs and communication history. When an advertiser changes a brand-bidding restriction, networks and publishers learn about it at different times.
A publisher can violate a rule they never saw. An advertiser may not know which site is behind an ID. An anti-fraud team may find an issue but lack a current rule or responsible contact.
Affiliate.txt does not replace existing systems. It publishes a core set of rules they can reference.
Principles
Project principles
Open by default
The specification, examples and discussion are accessible without a paywall.
Control at the source
The advertiser publishes terms on its own domain and owns their accuracy.
Facts, not ratings
Affiliate.txt is not a blacklist and does not declare guilt without verifiable evidence.
Right to respond
Disputed records need a source, date, contact and clear appeal procedure.
Minimal data
Only operationally necessary public information belongs in the file.
Interoperability
The format should be readable by people and importable by networks, CRMs and anti-fraud tools.
Boundary
Not a contract, a court or a new affiliate network
The file helps people discover official rules and identify a version. Legal terms remain in contracts, payments remain in affiliate platforms and disputes remain with the involved parties.
No access fee
The core specification and public catalog remain freely available.
No verdicts
The system points to sources and procedures instead of assigning labels.
How to contribute
How to take part
Test the format with a real affiliate program or dispute and tell us which information is missing.
Advertisers
Create a test file from the draft specification and identify missing fields.
Publishers
Bring a dispute where a rule was impossible to find, a contact was missing or a term was ambiguous.
Networks and tools
Try importing an example and propose the minimum fields needed for sync and change history.
Everyone else
Review the copy, propose a translation, find a contradiction or build an independent validator.
Next project step
Open a public specification repository and contribution channel. Until then, everything on this site remains a discussion draft.
Project contactJason