paywalls.net

Validated Actor Inventory (VAI)

Validated Actor Inventory (VAI) is a publisher-originated, pre-bid classification signal. It helps you route and price inventory based on:

  • Validated Actor Type (VAT): who/what is most likely responsible for the request (e.g. HUMAN, AI_AGENT)
  • Actor Confidence Tier (ACT): how confident that classification is (ACT-1, ACT-2, ACT-3)

In addition, when VAI signals are sent through the programmatic stack, they can optionally be cryptographically signed by the publisher’s domain. This provides a verifiable signal of both visitor classification and domain provenance.

What you implement

At a practical level, implementing VAI means:

  • Load the VAI script on inventory pages
  • Pass VAI signals into ad server tags (if applicable): forward VAI information using your ad server’s supported key/value or targeting mechanism. This provides routing of traffic based on who/what is consuming it as well as improved ad reporting split out by actor type and confidence tier.
  • Pass VAI signals into RTB for programmatic buyers (if applicable): this provides both signals of visitor classification and confidence, as well as (optionally) cryptographically signed domain provenance.

Documentation