Handbook · humans & agents

idlidu operating handbook

Stepwise guide to the brand, shared API contract, buyer path, agent playbook, and portfolio map. Machine index: /handbook.json.

Part I — What idlidu is

1 Understand the brand

idlidu is one brand with many small data businesses (“assets” / “tracks”). Each sells a self-serve API that scripts and AI agents call with a bearer key. There is no support desk and no custom consulting SKU.

Most assets sell history the open web forgets — prices that change, pages that overwrite, policies that rewrite. A few sell a computed check instead of a pure archive.

2 Learn the three public hosts

For a dataset with public prefix {name}:

Host	Role
`{name}.idlidu.com`	Docs, methodology, pricing, agents page
`{name}-api.idlidu.com`	HTTP API under `/v1`
`{name}-mcp.idlidu.com`	MCP tools mirroring the API

 
Brand front door: www.idlidu.com. Product router:
/products/. Indices catalog:
/indices/.

  3 Know the factory line
 watch → save raw (+ hash) → notice change → extract → index
                                                      ↓
                         bill keys / usage ← serve API + MCP ← document
 Raw bytes are the moat. Extraction may be imperfect; it must not block saving raw.
 
  4 Know the three shapes
  A — probe/fetch; “what happened when we looked”
 B — archive surfaces that overwrite themselves
  C — computed check; heavy compute offline / local policy, not the
            Workers bill

  Part II — Shared contract
  5 Authenticate
 Authorization: Bearer idl_…
 
Keys are secrets. Soft launch may use waitlist / manual keys until checkout is named live.
          Prefer each track’s documented key prefix.
 
  6 Prefer versioned HTTP under /v1
  Health — GET /v1/health
 Contract — GET /v1/openapi.json
 Samples — documented /v1/public/… where offered
 Work — entity / as-of / events / index routes
 Meter — usage / entitlements when billed
 
 Exact paths differ by track — OpenAPI wins.
 
  7 Use MCP when tool-native
  
Point the client at https://{name}-mcp.idlidu.com/mcp (confirm path on
            the agents page).
 Send the same Bearer key.
 Call tools that mirror HTTP; do not invent tool names.
 
 
  8 Ask the right question types
    Question  Expect  
 
   What was true as of date D?  Point-in-time + methodology version  
  What changed?  Change / drift / event feed  
  What does the index say?  Methodology-versioned series  
  Does this input fail known rules?  Shape C hits + citations (not a physics guarantee)  
 
 
 
  9 Respect non-claims
 
Outputs are not credit ratings, legal advice, malware verdicts, CPI, security
          certifications, offers to sell chemicals, recruiting services, or correctness guarantees.
          Keep each track’s disclaimer token next to claims in downstream UIs. See
handbook.json assets[].disclaimer.
 
 
  Part III — Human buyer path
  10 Pick a dataset
 
Start at /products/. Prefer featured / soft-launch-honest hosts.
          Recommended first API: finance (
finance-api.idlidu.com).
 
  11 Read methodology before money
  Home — scope
 /methodology/ — measured vs not
 /pricing/ — plan caps
 /agents/ — HTTP + MCP quickstart
 /legal/ — track + platform terms
 
 
  12 Obtain a key
 
Self-serve checkout when the product names a live PSP (USD). Until then: waitlist / manual
          key / sample-only paths. Store keys in a secret manager.
 
  13 First successful call
 curl -sS "https://finance-api.idlidu.com/v1/health"
curl -sS "https://finance-api.idlidu.com/v1/public/sample/banks"
curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $IDLI_KEY" \
  "https://finance-api.idlidu.com/v1/banks?q=…"
 Adjust hosts and paths per that track’s OpenAPI.
 
  14 Wire metering into your agent loop
  Cache entity IDs; do not re-search every turn.
 Prefer as-of queries over unbounded API scrapes.
 Watch plan caps (entities, history depth, calls).
 On 401/403/429, stop retry storms.
 
 
  15 Escalate only when docs fail
  [email protected] — founders mail, multi-day
          replies, not a ticket queue.
 
 
  Part IV — Agent playbook
  16 Bootstrap from machine surfaces
  Fetch /handbook.json
 
Fetch https://{name}-api.idlidu.com/v1/openapi.json 
 Prefer JSON fields over scraping HTML
 
 
  17 Choose transport
  HTTP — bulk and scripts
 MCP — interactive tool loops
 Both — HTTP for bulk; MCP for dialogue
 
 
  18 Safe default loop
 health → openapi → (public sample?) → auth search →
  as-of / events / index → check usage → stop
 
  19 Citation rules
  Cite dataset, methodology version, and as-of date.
 Attach the disclaimer token for that asset.
 Distinguish raw / observed facts from extracted fields.
 Never claim idlidu endorsed a bank, vendor, package, or model.
 
 
  20 Bot / crawler boundaries
 
Our fetchers identify as
idlidu-bot/1.0 (+https://www.idlidu.com/bot) and respect robots.txt on source
          sites. Calling our APIs with a key is not a license to scrape third parties. Details:
/bot/.
 
 
  Part V — Portfolio map
 
Hosts may exist while marketing GA stays gated. Treat
/products/ as the honest router. Phase V1 citeable
        indices: /indices/ (+
/indices.json).
 Soft-launch cohort 1–10
    #  Slug  Purpose  
 
  1 finance US bank ratios, peers, conditions indices
 2 saas B2B software pricing/packaging history
 3 k8s Managed K8s prices + Helm/OCI archive
 4 mcp Public MCP fingerprint / drift
 5 pkgs Package ownership / yank / transfer
 6 robots Dated robots.txt / AI-policy
 7 apibreak Silent API-break panel
 8 labprice CAS × grade × supplier prices
 9 hire Sci/tech hiring adoption timelines
 10 simdeck Simulation deck checks (Shape C)
 
 
 Expansion 11–21
    #  Prefix  Purpose  
 
  11 uaweb Cross-UA deltas for the same URL
 12 gpucap Capacity obtainability probes
 13 labsec Instrument secondary-market asks
 14 mlip MLIP ensemble fitness (Shape C)
 15 dftconv DFT convergence recipes (Shape C)
 16 engprobe Engineering canary history
 17 llmstxt llms.txt / AI-manifest archive
 18 specarc As-of API contract snapshots
 19 hfcard HF model-card timeline
 20 extstore IDE extension marketplace history
 21 crddrift CRD / values-schema drift
 
 
 
  Part VI — Pricing
  21 Plan families
 
Full list matrix:
/pricing/ · common/PRICING.md.
    Plan  A/B from  C from  
 
  Starter $99 $199
 Growth $249 $499
 Archive $599 $999
 Scale $1,499 $2,499
 Institution $3,999 $6,999
 
 
 
  21b Bulk access
  Snapshot — $2,500 one-shot · 30-day download
 Deep dump — $7,500 · raw+extract + 30d Archive API
 Annual refresh — $4,500/yr · four quarterly drops
 Packs — 3×Growth $599 · 5×Archive $1,999 · cohort Archive $3,999
 
 
  22 Money rules
 
USD for commercial checkout. Annual prepay Archive+: pay 10 get 12. Overage opt-in on
          Scale/Institution: $8 / +10k calls. Invoice/Net-30 for Institution and bulk ≥ $2,500.
          x402 is not the headline path. No “unlimited” claims.
 
 
  Part VII — Legal & boundaries
  23 Read platform legal
  Terms · Privacy ·
AUP · Bot. Drafts may be marked not
          counsel-reviewed.
 
  24 Acceptable use (summary)
 
Lawful keyed API use and caching within plan are fine. Key sharing, paywall/auth bypass on
          third-party sources, and infrastructure abuse are not. Full text: AUP.
 
  25 What idlidu will not do
  Human research memos as the product
 “Book a demo / custom peer set” consulting
 Customer’s full heavy simulation cluster as the Cloudflare SKU
 Endorsement by FDIC, CNCF, Hugging Face, cloud vendors, etc.
 
 
 
  Part VIII — Troubleshooting
    Symptom  Do this  
 
   DNS / connection failure  Confirm host from /products/ or OpenAPI; try /v1/health  
  401  Check Bearer header and track key prefix  
  403  Plan entitlement / AUP / revoked key  
  404 on known route  Re-fetch OpenAPI  
  429  Exponential backoff; reduce poll frequency  
  Empty extracts  Prefer raw/hash evidence; read methodology limits  
  Docs disagree with API  OpenAPI + methodology version win  
 
 
 
  Part IX — Quick reference
 Brand:     www.idlidu.com
Handbook:  /handbook/  +  /handbook.json
Products:  /products/
Indices:   /indices/  +  /indices.json
Developers:/developers/
Legal:     /legal/
Bot:       /bot/
Mail:      [email protected]
Auth:      Authorization: Bearer idl_…
Discover:  GET /v1/health  ·  GET /v1/openapi.json
 
Not a launch claim. Not legal advice. Not a substitute for per-track methodology. Full
        markdown: common/HANDBOOK.md in the repo.

Question	Expect
What was true as of date D?	Point-in-time + methodology version
What changed?	Change / drift / event feed
What does the index say?	Methodology-versioned series
Does this input fail known rules?	Shape C hits + citations (not a physics guarantee)

#	Slug	Purpose
1	`finance`	US bank ratios, peers, conditions indices
2	`saas`	B2B software pricing/packaging history
3	`k8s`	Managed K8s prices + Helm/OCI archive
4	`mcp`	Public MCP fingerprint / drift
5	`pkgs`	Package ownership / yank / transfer
6	`robots`	Dated robots.txt / AI-policy
7	`apibreak`	Silent API-break panel
8	`labprice`	CAS × grade × supplier prices
9	`hire`	Sci/tech hiring adoption timelines
10	`simdeck`	Simulation deck checks (Shape C)

#	Prefix	Purpose
11	`uaweb`	Cross-UA deltas for the same URL
12	`gpucap`	Capacity obtainability probes
13	`labsec`	Instrument secondary-market asks
14	`mlip`	MLIP ensemble fitness (Shape C)
15	`dftconv`	DFT convergence recipes (Shape C)
16	`engprobe`	Engineering canary history
17	`llmstxt`	llms.txt / AI-manifest archive
18	`specarc`	As-of API contract snapshots
19	`hfcard`	HF model-card timeline
20	`extstore`	IDE extension marketplace history
21	`crddrift`	CRD / values-schema drift

Plan	A/B from	C from
Starter	$99	$199
Growth	$249	$499
Archive	$599	$999
Scale	$1,499	$2,499
Institution	$3,999	$6,999

Symptom	Do this
DNS / connection failure	Confirm host from /products/ or OpenAPI; try `/v1/health`
401	Check Bearer header and track key prefix
403	Plan entitlement / AUP / revoked key
404 on known route	Re-fetch OpenAPI
429	Exponential backoff; reduce poll frequency
Empty extracts	Prefer raw/hash evidence; read methodology limits
Docs disagree with API	OpenAPI + methodology version win