So You Want to Define a Well-Known URI

(mnot.net)

32 points | by ingve 1 hour ago

4 comments

  • sandblast 8 minutes ago
    No, in fact I don't. But this post wouldn't be of any help anyway. It feels like it's about nothing, there is no substance, just stating some obvious facts. Without examples that lead to some real recommendations, this whole expertise claimed by the author is of no use.
  • reddalo 27 minutes ago
    I wish people would follow this, instead of coming up with new standards in the root namespace. "llms.txt" [1] comes to mind, for example.

    Let's stop polluting the root of a domain!

    [1] https://llmstxt.org/

  • jvuygbbkuurx 30 minutes ago
    Why are they so specific?

    Why password-reset instead of a more generic link tree?

    Why discord domain verification instead of domain-verifications with a dynamic list on entries?

    Seems like a waste of time. I would just define my own spec outside of well known for my use case.

    • arcfour 16 minutes ago
      > Why discord domain verification instead of domain-verifications with a dynamic list on entries?

      The TXT record itself is already a dynamic list of entries. It's far simpler and easier to iterate through the list and compare the start of each value with your search string until you find "discord domain verification" directly than it would be to iterate through a list to find "domain-verifications", and then parse that inner list format to find the code for Discord.

    • reddalo 25 minutes ago
      Your own spec wouldn't be used by anyone else.

      The password-reset well-known endpoint is used by password managers to show a "Change password..." button in their interface, which magically links to the password change page described in that well-known file.

      • jvuygbbkuurx 18 minutes ago
        If the website implements it. What about email preferences? Removing account links? There are many use-cases you might want to redirect a user to, but having to make their own well known for it seems dumb instead of using a more generic one.

        Anyway discord domain verification can tell in their onboarding docs to put it anywhere. It being well known does nothing. If there was a root level domain verification, then you might as well put it under that. But otherwise why go through a process?

  • einpoklum 22 minutes ago
    How well-known are those URIs though? :-\
    • eschatology 9 minutes ago
      I spent 10 minutes searching for one in the article, in the RFC, in the wikipedia page, on google, to search for a .well-known example. Couldn't find one.

      I did read one before while working with github oidc, and I did find it very useful.

      What is it with technical documentations that go deep describing what it is in plenty words but refusing to give a single example? This far from the first case I've ran into either.

    • reddalo 13 minutes ago
      There's an interesting list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-known_URI#List_of_well-kn...
    • timwis 20 minutes ago
      I agree. I was hoping for a few positive examples, but didn't see any. The only one I know of is the OIDC discovery endpoint.