{"slug":"appcues-bt944x","companyName":"Appcues","domain":"appcues.com","url":"https://appcues.com","headline":"Pricing is hidden behind JavaScript and a sales process, blocking cost evaluation before signup.","compositeScore":27,"humanScore":0,"agentScore":27,"doorGap":0,"humanMeasured":0,"agentMeasured":6,"percentile":null,"humanPercentile":null,"agentPercentile":null,"isPartial":true,"depth":"free","siteClass":"b2b_saas","scannerVersion":12,"scannedAt":"2026-09-08T13:58:04.650Z","unlocked":false,"mission":{"steps":[{"url":"https://www.appcues.com","outcome":"ok","purpose":"reach the site at all"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com/robots.txt","outcome":"ok","purpose":"find out whether machines are welcome"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com","outcome":"ok","purpose":"ask whether the door opens for requests carrying the AI crawlers' names"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com/llms.txt","outcome":"ok","purpose":"read the site's own guide for language models"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com/sitemap.xml","outcome":"ok","purpose":"find out what pages exist"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com/.well-known/security.txt","outcome":"missing","purpose":"find a contact route for machines"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com","outcome":"missing","purpose":"find a published agent interface"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com/.well-known/ai-plugin.json","outcome":"missing","purpose":"find an agent plugin manifest"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com","outcome":"missing","purpose":"find out whether verified agents are recognised"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com","outcome":"missing","purpose":"read the homepage as data rather than as a page"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com","outcome":"missing","purpose":"find a machine readable API spec"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com","outcome":"blocked","purpose":"read the developer documentation"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com/pricing","outcome":"ok","purpose":"read the prices without running JavaScript"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com","outcome":"missing","purpose":"find a comparison page worth citing"},{"url":"https://www.appcues.com","outcome":"ok","purpose":"walk the way a visitor would, to a signup form or a product"}],"verdict":"The site refused automated access at www.appcues.com, so the agent could not read the developer documentation."},"observations":null,"dimensions":[{"key":"machine_discoverability","audience":"agent","score":72,"summary":"A real browser is served the site normally and no user agent rule blocks declared AI crawlers. The sitemap lists 517 URLs and llms.txt is published with 173 lines. No schema.org markup is present on the homepage.","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":4}},{"key":"programmatic_onboarding","audience":"agent","score":10,"summary":".","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":3}},{"key":"pricing_legibility","audience":"agent","score":20,"summary":"The pricing page at /pricing says 'starting at' three times but provides no figures after any of them. No prices appear in raw HTML or after rendering.","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":1}},{"key":"agent_aware_instrumentation","audience":"agent","score":8,"summary":"No MCP manifest is published at any of the three standard paths checked. The site does not declare itself as agent-aware through any machine-readable protocol, leaving assistants unable to understand what actions are available.","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":4}},{"key":"machine_fetchable_trust","audience":"agent","score":40,"summary":"No security.txt is published at /.well-known/security.txt. The homepage answers automated requests normally. An agent can reach the site but cannot find a security contact or policy without human research.","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":2}},{"key":"commercial_rails","audience":"agent","score":10,"summary":".","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":2}},{"key":"steps_to_first_value","audience":"human","score":null,"summary":"Could not verify: this scan did not reach the pages that would show it.","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":1}},{"key":"required_fields","audience":"human","score":null,"summary":"Could not verify: this scan did not reach the pages that would show it.","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":1}},{"key":"verification_walls","audience":"human","score":null,"summary":"Could not verify: this scan did not reach the pages that would show it.","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":1}},{"key":"error_recovery","audience":"human","score":null,"summary":"Could not verify: this scan did not reach the pages that would show it.","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":1}}],"issues":[{"rank":1,"title":"Pricing figures are absent from the pricing page, forcing buyers to request a quote before they can evaluate cost.","dimensionKey":"pricing_legibility","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":3},"fix":null},{"rank":2,"title":"docs.appcues.com turn the honest automated client away while serving a real browser, so the search crawlers that would cite the page are turned away by a rule about the client.","dimensionKey":"machine_discoverability","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":1},"fix":null},{"rank":3,"title":"No comparison or alternatives page exists, which is the page an assistant cites when a buyer asks it to shortlist vendors.","dimensionKey":"machine_discoverability","evidence":{"locked":true,"count":1},"fix":null}],"fixArtifacts":{"locked":true,"count":7,"summaries":[{"id":"pricing_publish:pricing-md","kind":"pricing_publish","title":"A pricing page that states a price","path":"/pricing.md","effort":{"minutes":60,"role":"owner"},"outcome":{"dimension":"pricing_legibility","external":["Assistants can quote a starting price instead of routing the buyer to a call."]}},{"id":"bot_wall_guidance:notes","kind":"bot_wall_guidance","title":"Let verified assistants through","path":"notes","effort":{"minutes":60,"role":"developer"},"outcome":{"dimension":"machine_discoverability","external":["Assistant shopping and search crawlers reach the product, pricing and policy pages a buyer asks about."]}},{"id":"comparison_page_brief:compare-appcues-vs-competitor","kind":"comparison_page_brief","title":"A comparison page brief","path":"/compare/appcues-vs-competitor","effort":{"minutes":180,"role":"owner"},"outcome":{"dimension":"machine_discoverability","external":["A server-rendered comparison page exists for an assistant to cite."]}},{"id":"robots_search_bots:robots-txt","kind":"robots_search_bots","title":"robots.txt rules for AI crawlers","path":"/robots.txt","effort":{"minutes":10,"role":"owner"},"outcome":{"dimension":"machine_discoverability","external":["The assistants' search crawlers read and cite the site to buyers; training stays the owner's decision."]}},{"id":"interfaces_note:notes","kind":"interfaces_note","title":"Machine interfaces: where you stand","path":"notes","effort":{"minutes":10,"role":"owner"},"outcome":{"dimension":"agent_aware_instrumentation","external":["The developer surface is built in an order where every published pointer answers."]}},{"id":"organization_jsonld:homepage","kind":"organization_jsonld","title":"Organization structured data","path":"homepage","effort":{"minutes":15,"role":"developer"},"outcome":{"dimension":"machine_discoverability","external":["Search and assistant crawlers read the company entity from the homepage rather than inferring it."]}},{"id":"security_txt:well-known-security-txt","kind":"security_txt","title":"security.txt","path":"/.well-known/security.txt","effort":{"minutes":10,"role":"owner"},"outcome":{"dimension":"machine_fetchable_trust","external":["Researchers and automated scanners find a disclosure address instead of guessing one."]}}]},"feedback":{"endpoint":"/api/feedback","mcpTool":"rate_fix","targets":[{"type":"report","key":"report"},{"type":"dimension","dimensionKey":"machine_discoverability","key":"dimension:machine_discoverability"},{"type":"dimension","dimensionKey":"programmatic_onboarding","key":"dimension:programmatic_onboarding"},{"type":"dimension","dimensionKey":"pricing_legibility","key":"dimension:pricing_legibility"},{"type":"dimension","dimensionKey":"agent_aware_instrumentation","key":"dimension:agent_aware_instrumentation"},{"type":"dimension","dimensionKey":"machine_fetchable_trust","key":"dimension:machine_fetchable_trust"},{"type":"dimension","dimensionKey":"commercial_rails","key":"dimension:commercial_rails"},{"type":"dimension","dimensionKey":"steps_to_first_value","key":"dimension:steps_to_first_value"},{"type":"dimension","dimensionKey":"required_fields","key":"dimension:required_fields"},{"type":"dimension","dimensionKey":"verification_walls","key":"dimension:verification_walls"},{"type":"dimension","dimensionKey":"error_recovery","key":"dimension:error_recovery"},{"type":"issue","dimensionKey":"pricing_legibility","checkId":"pricing_nojs","key":"issue:pricing_legibility:pricing_nojs"},{"type":"issue","dimensionKey":"machine_discoverability","checkId":"bot_walls","key":"issue:machine_discoverability:bot_walls"},{"type":"issue","dimensionKey":"machine_discoverability","checkId":"comparison_pages","key":"issue:machine_discoverability:comparison_pages"}]}}