Score Methodology

How Bothub calculates the Market Score and Trust Score — and why each signal is weighted the way it is.

Two Independent Scores

Bothub separates trust signals from engagement signals. This prevents a highly-promoted agent from appearing trustworthy, and vice versa.

Trust Score0 – 100

Measures identity, ownership proof, and profile completeness.

Purely trust-focused. Cannot be gamed by buying traffic or votes.

Claim status (0–40)
Verification level (0–35)
Profile completeness (0–25)

Market Score (BMS)0 – 100

Measures discoverability, engagement, and verification depth.

Blends profile quality, badge achievements, and observed activity.

Profile quality (0–30)
Badges + level (0–40)
Engagement (0–20)
Trend boost (0–10)

Signal Types

Every data point is tagged as one of three source types. Verified signals carry the most weight because they cannot be self-reported or purchased.

Verified

Confirmed externally — can be independently validated by the registry.

  • Domain ownership (DNS TXT record)
  • GitHub repository ownership
  • Billing / payment verification
  • API endpoint liveness check
  • Traffic verification
  • Security review completion

Declared

Self-reported by the creator — taken at face value, flagged when inconsistent.

  • Pricing model (free / paid / enterprise)
  • Deployment type (API / web-app / SDK)
  • Model stack (GPT-4o, Claude 3.5…)
  • Supported integrations
  • Company country & founding year
  • BAIP manifest fields

Observed

Measured directly by the platform — not manipulable by the creator.

  • Profile page views (hourly snapshots)
  • Watchlist adds & removals
  • Upvote / downvote net score
  • Compare-page appearances
  • Score history trend over 7d / 30d
  • Referral click-throughs

Trust Score Breakdown

Max 100 points across three component groups.

ComponentSignalMax pts
Claim StatusVerified40
Verification LevelVerified35
Website URLDeclared8
Docs URLDeclared6
GitHub RepositoryDeclared5
LogoDeclared3
Full DescriptionDeclared3
Total100

Trust Score is recomputed automatically whenever claim_status, verification_level, or any profile URL changes. The hourly cron snapshot persists the value for trend tracking.

Market Score (BMS) Breakdown

Max 100 points. Recalculated on every view, vote, and watchlist event.

ComponentSignalMax pts
Title + DescriptionDeclared10
Profile CompletenessDeclared20
Verification LevelVerified20
Active BadgesVerified20
Watchers + ViewsObserved20
Trend Score BoostObserved10
Total100

Verification Levels

Each level is a superset of the previous — level 3 requires all level 1 and 2 checks to have passed.

0
Listed

Agent added to the directory. Unreviewed.

+0 pts
1
Claimed

Creator has claimed the profile via domain / email / GitHub.

+5 pts
2
Verified

Identity and live endpoint confirmed by Bothub review.

+15 pts
3
Certified

Full technical + security review passed.

+25 pts
4
Enterprise Certified

Enterprise-grade review, SLA documentation, and compliance verified.

+35 pts

BAIP Manifest

The Bothub AI Protocol (BAIP) defines a machine-readable manifest at /.well-known/ai-agent.json. Agents that serve this manifest get richer auto-fill on submission and signal type upgraded from Declared → Verified for the fields it provides.

{
  "name":             "My Agent",
  "description":      "One-line description (max 160 chars)",
  "long_description": "Full description...",
  "version":          "1.0.0",
  "website":          "https://myagent.com",
  "docs":             "https://docs.myagent.com",
  "github":           "https://github.com/org/repo",
  "logo":             "https://myagent.com/logo.png",
  "pricing":          "free | freemium | paid | usage-based | enterprise",
  "deployment":       "api | web-app | browser-extension | desktop | mobile | sdk",
  "model_stack":      ["GPT-4o", "Claude 3.5 Sonnet"],
  "integrations":     ["Slack", "GitHub", "Jira"],
  "creator":          "Acme Corp",
  "agent_type":       "agent | bot | assistant | copilot",
  "category":         "coding"
}

Serve the file with Content-Type: application/json. Bothubbot crawls it on submission and on hourly rescans.

Manipulation Resistance

Can I boost my score by buying traffic?

Page views and watchers contribute at most 20 pts to BMS and 0 pts to Trust Score. Spammed views are rate-limited and decay.

Can I vote for my own agent?

Votes from the agent's creator_id are not counted. Vote stuffing from the same IP subnet triggers a review flag.

Why does an unclaimed agent have a non-zero score?

BMS rewards completeness and engagement regardless of claim status. Trust Score is 0 until the profile is claimed.

How often does the score update?

Trust Score updates on any profile field change (trigger). BMS is recalculated on each view/vote event and snapshotted hourly.

Improve your score today

Claim your profile to start earning Trust Score points. Every step is shown directly on your agent page.