Show HN: CommerceTXT – An open standard for AI shopping context (like llms.txt)

Meet CommerceTXT, a plain text “cheat sheet” for AI shoppers that promises real-time stock, prices, reviews, and images without scraping clunky web pages. Sounds neat—until the internet shows up with receipts. The strongest vibe? “Not another root file.” One commenter demanded it live under the well-known URI instead of cluttering site roots, and the thread instantly turned into a mini standards war. Then came the comedy: a demo said “Only 3 left” while the inventory block showed 42. Cue the meme of the day: “42 vs 3.” People joked the file was hallucinating before the AI even touched it. Others rolled their eyes at the whole “LLM-ready” angle, asking why anyone would use a large language model (LLM) to read a structured format when a normal JSON parser does the job faster and cheaper. Another camp asked, “Why not just use Schema.org JSON-LD embedded in pages?” And when the post bragged about “legal compliance” via Schema.org, critics fired back with, “How does compatibility equal compliance?” Despite the eco-friendly pitch (fewer tokens, fewer emissions), the mood was classic Hacker News: split between “interesting idea” and “please, no more files.” CommerceTXT didn’t just launch; it triggered a debate on how AI should shop—and who gets to set the rules.