# KnownTrade KnownTrade is a non-profit organization operating an open, AI-native directory of commercial entities. Founded 2026. ## What it does - Maintains a public reference layer of business records for AI consumption - Serves every entry as both HTML (browsers) and markdown (LLMs) on the same URL - Exposes the directory through a shell-like query API: tree, cat, grep, git log ## Operations - Read-only public API; no authentication required - Manual curation only — no AI-generated entries accepted - All entries versioned; full history exposed via `git log` - Content licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0; code MIT ## Why it exists To leave a marketing-free, traceable record for businesses that don't play the SEO / GEO game — traditional craftspeople, low-profile industrial firms, services that exist but go unseen by language models. The "trade" KnownTrade itself provides — an open, machine-readable reference for commercial entities — is the means by which the organization sustains itself. By that test, KnownTrade qualifies as an entry in its own directory. ## Reference - Founding post: /blog/the-companies-that-ai-forgot - Site: knowntrade.org --- Source: KnownTrade (https://knowntrade.org) License: CC-BY-SA 4.0