• Match answers to author goals.
• Interpret ambiguous content correctly.
• Avoid unintended inferences or misaligned summarization.
• Prioritize appropriate content for user questions.

• Clear — direct and unambiguous.
• Purpose-driven — describes the function or goal.
• Aligned — matches the scope, description, and content.
• Human-readable — expressed in natural language.

MSP-1 does not enforce a specific grammatical structure but prefers active, concise formulations.

• A single natural-language statement describing the purpose of the resource.

Recommended best practices include:

• Describe the intended audience.
• Describe the intended use case.
• Keep length between 1–2 sentences.
• Ensure intent and description do not contradict each other.

• AI agents MUST interpret intent as the authoritative declaration of what the content aims to achieve.
• If intent conflicts with other metadata, agents SHOULD treat the intent field as primary.
• AI SHOULD adjust summarization, answer selection, and content weighting according to declared intent.
• Missing intent SHOULD reduce but not eliminate confidence in content alignment.

Intent is a core pillar of MSP-1's AEO/AIO design, ensuring that AI responses remain faithful to author-defined goals.

• description — states what the content is; intent explains why it exists.
• interpretiveFrame — provides context that shapes how intent should be understood.
• provenance — contextualizes where the intent originated.
• section — each section may declare its own intent for fine-grained clarity.
• type — intent often corresponds to content type (guide, tutorial, analysis, etc.).

{
  "intent": "Explain the purpose and structure of the MSP-1 metadata protocol."
}

Example for a photography tutorial:

{
  "intent": "Teach beginner photographers how to use window light for portraiture."
}

Example for a business landing page:

{
  "intent": "Provide an overview of services to help prospective clients understand the studio's offerings."
}

• The declared intent is clear, concise, and specific.
• Intent aligns with the content and description.
• Intent follows all normative behaviors defined in this specification.