What is Markdown for Agents?

Markdown for Agents is a Cloudflare feature that automatically converts HTML pages to clean markdown when AI crawlers request it using the Accept: text/markdown header. This reduces token usage by up to 80% and improves AI comprehension of your content.

How does Markdown for Agents work with xSeek CDN Proxy?

When you enable xSeek CDN Proxy, your traffic runs through Cloudflare's network. Markdown for Agents is enabled on the proxy zone, so AI crawlers that send Accept: text/markdown automatically receive markdown versions of your pages — no configuration needed.

Which AI crawlers support Accept: text/markdown?

Major AI coding agents like Claude Code and OpenCode already send Accept: text/markdown headers. As more AI systems adopt content negotiation, markdown will become the default format for AI crawling.

Markdown for Agents — Serve Clean Markdown to AI Crawlers

Why markdown matters

Feeding raw HTML to an AI is expensive and noisy. A simple ## About Us heading in markdown costs roughly 3 tokens. Its HTML equivalent — <h2 class="section-title" id="about">About Us</h2> — burns 12-15 tokens. And that's before you count the <div> wrappers, nav bars, and script tags that pad every real web page.

16,180

tokens in HTML

3,150

tokens in markdown

Typical blog post. Same content. 80% reduction in token usage.

Markdown has become the lingua franca for AI systems. The format's explicit structure — headings, lists, code blocks — makes it ideal for AI processing, resulting in better comprehension while minimizing cost.

How it works

Cloudflare's network converts HTML to markdown in real-time at the edge using content negotiation. When an AI crawler sends a request with Accept: text/markdown, Cloudflare fetches the original HTML from your origin, converts it to markdown on the fly, and serves it back.

With xSeek CDN Proxy, this happens automatically. Your traffic already runs through Cloudflare — Markdown for Agents is enabled on the proxy zone.

Request

curl https://your-site.com/pricing \

-H "Accept: text/markdown"

Response Headers

HTTP/2 200

content-type: text/markdown; charset=utf-8

vary: accept

x-markdown-tokens: 725

content-signal: ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes

Response Body

---

title: Pricing — Your Site

---

## Plans for every team

From solo founders to enterprise teams...

The x-markdown-tokens response header tells the AI system how many tokens the markdown document contains. Agents can use this to calculate context window sizes or decide on chunking strategies.

Content Signals

Converted markdown responses include the Content-Signal header — a framework from Cloudflare that lets you express how your content can be used after it's been accessed.

content-signal: ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes

ai-train=yes

Content can be used for AI model training

search=yes

Content can appear in search results

ai-input=yes

Content can be used as AI input, including agentic use

This gives you explicit control over how AI systems use your content — complementing robots.txt with per-response granularity.

Which AI crawlers use this?

Major AI coding agents already send Accept: text/markdown headers with their requests:

✓ Claude Code (Anthropic)
✓ OpenCode
✓ OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI/ChatGPT search)
→ More AI systems adopting content negotiation every month

As AI agents become the primary way content is discovered and consumed, markdown is becoming the standard request format. Having your site ready to serve markdown positions you ahead of competitors still serving raw HTML.

Built into the xSeek CDN integration

Markdown for Agents comes built into the xSeek CDN integration. When you enable CDN Proxy, your traffic runs through Cloudflare — and any AI crawler requesting markdown receives it automatically. No configuration needed.

What you get

✓
Automatic HTML-to-markdown conversion
No code, no config. Cloudflare handles the conversion at the edge.
✓
Token count in response headers
AI agents can use x-markdown-tokens for context window management.
✓
Content Signals for usage control
Express preferences for AI training, search, and agentic use per response.
✓
Combined with AI bot tracking
CDN Proxy still detects and logs every AI crawler — whether they request HTML or markdown.

Without xSeek CDN Proxy

If your site already uses Cloudflare (Pro, Business, or Enterprise plan), you can enable Markdown for Agents directly from the Cloudflare dashboard:

Log into the Cloudflare dashboard
Select your account and zone
Look for Quick Actions
Toggle Markdown for Agents to enable

This feature is available in Beta at no additional cost for Cloudflare Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans, as well as SSL for SaaS customers.

If you're not on Cloudflare, xSeek CDN Proxy gives you this capability without migrating your DNS or infrastructure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will human visitors see markdown instead of my website?

No. Markdown for Agents uses HTTP content negotiation. Only requests that include Accept: text/markdown receive markdown. All other visitors see your normal HTML website.

Does this affect my site's performance?

No. Conversion happens at the Cloudflare edge, not on your origin server. Your origin still serves normal HTML — Cloudflare handles the conversion in milliseconds.

Can I control which pages serve markdown?

Currently Markdown for Agents is enabled zone-wide. Cloudflare will add more granular controls in the future.

Does xSeek still track bots that request markdown?

Yes. CDN Proxy detects AI crawlers by user-agent pattern matching — regardless of whether they request HTML or markdown. Every visit is logged.

Ready to serve markdown to AI crawlers?

Enable xSeek CDN Proxy. One DNS change. Markdown for Agents, AI bot tracking, and complete visibility — all included.