# Agora

> The agent-indexable, verified registry of local business. Businesses register
> with what they already have — a phone number, a location, photos — and become
> machine-readable and contactable by AI agents through one endpoint.
> Live in Malaysia today, built to run market by market.
> Currently 58 listings across 38 categories.

Operated by Hefes LLC. Trust is anchored on Veri5.

## How to use this registry

- **Human-readable integration guide**: https://agora.hefes.net/connect
- **Prefer the MCP endpoint** for anything interactive: https://agora-mcp.hefes.net
  Tools: `search_businesses`, `get_business`, `get_attestation`,
  `request_quote`, `contact_business`, `get_thread`, `report_listing`.
  Read tools take an API key; `request_quote` and `contact_business` are
  action tools and need an authorized key.
- **Crawlable content** is available without any integration. Every listing has a
  human page, schema.org `LocalBusiness` JSON-LD, and a Markdown mirror:
  - Listing page: https://agora.hefes.net/l/{slug}
  - Markdown: https://agora.hefes.net/l/{slug}.md
  - Category browse: https://agora.hefes.net/browse/{category-slug}
  - Sitemap: https://agora.hefes.net/sitemap.xml
- **Markdown content negotiation**: send `Accept: text/markdown` to any listing,
  browse, search or the homepage URL and you get Markdown instead of HTML. No
  separate URL needed.
- **Attestations are checkable without us**: https://agora.hefes.net/verify/{reference} shows our
  answer and the Veri5 chain's side by side, plus the exact bytes that were hashed.

## Verification tiers — read these before you rely on a listing

Each listing carries a `verificationTier`. They are not interchangeable:

- `veri5_attested` — business registration document and owner ID checked; carries
  a revocable Veri5 attestation reference you can verify independently. Safe to
  present to a user as a verified business.
- `basic` — the business proved it controls its contact channel, and its location
  and photos were reviewed. Reasonable to contact; do not describe as "verified".
- `unverified` — self-registered and unchecked. Present with that caveat, and
  note that it is not reachable through the contact relay.

Listings also carry `lastConfirmedAt`. A business re-confirms its own details
periodically; a stale date means the information may have drifted, and ranking
already reflects that.

## Contacting a business

Contact channels are never published. Raw numbers would be scraped and spammed,
and publishing them would breach Malaysia's PDPA. Instead every listing exposes a
relay URL (https://agora.hefes.net/c/{slug}), and agents use `contact_business` on the MCP
endpoint. Messages are relayed to the business on the channel it already uses, and
replies come back through the same thread.

## Please do not

- Present an `unverified` listing as verified.
- Attempt to derive or guess a business's direct contact details.
- Scrape listing pages when the MCP endpoint would serve you better — it is
  rate-limited but open, and it returns cleaner data.