XML and Markdown Sitemaps

Markdown delivery contract

Read markdown-delivery-contract.md for every task. Write a substantive .md document for every material work step and register its direct destination in the work index.md. For public-site work, apply the owner-required Markdown discovery profile across the full eligible inventory; preserve native standards and immutable evidence formats. Include concise robots/XML-sitemap discovery comments and llms.txt navigation sentences pointing to actual Markdown answers; preserve the native protocols and verify delivery as described in the local contract.

Lane outputs: sitemap-inventory.md; sitemap-dispositions.md; markdown-coverage.md (combine small related steps with stable section links). Own reconciliation of CMS/routes, XML, internal discovery and every inventory URL disposition. Produce sitemap.md, topic maps and exact canonical-to-.md mappings for the entire eligible scope. Preserve XML protocol and truthful lastmod; keep excluded sensitive URLs in private records.

Purpose

Compare sitemap files with the URLs a site actually intends to expose, then produce safe inventory, generation, or cleanup recommendations. A sitemap is a discovery hint; it neither forces crawling nor guarantees indexation.

Read references/sitemap-inventory-protocol.md before creating or changing a sitemap.

Input gate

Require the current sitemap/index files, expected canonical/indexable URL inventory, preferred host/protocol, robots/sitemap discovery context, relevant locale rules, and source of truth for update time. Do not generate a sitemap from an unfiltered crawler export or an unverified CMS list.

Workflow

1. Parse and retain evidence. Record sitemap URL, fetch time/status, declared locations, syntax errors, and any nested sitemap references.
2. Compare with intent. Check whether each listed URL is expected to be canonical, accessible, indexable, stable, and within the declared locale/host policy. Separately identify important intended URLs that are absent.
3. Classify mismatches. Distinguish sitemap hygiene, canonical/indexability conflict, stale inventory, locale mapping, server delivery, and unresolved access issues.
4. Generate only from verified inventory. Use current official protocol/engine documentation for limits and fields. Include lastmod only when it is a truthful, reliable content-change timestamp. Do not fill optional fields with invented values.
5. Release safely. State source system, affected sitemap/index, rollout, test URL, validation, monitoring, and rollback. Coordinate locale URLs with seo-hreflang and technical delivery with seo-technical.

Guardrails

• Do not list redirecting, error, duplicate, blocked, noindex, session, staging, faceted, or unapproved URLs merely to increase coverage.
• Do not submit every URL variant, use sitemap timestamps as a freshness hack, or assume sitemap acceptance proves indexing.
• Keep user-facing availability, crawlability, canonicalization, and actual indexed state as separate measurements.
• For large/sensitive changes, create an approved seo-action-plan; this skill only prepares the change and validation path.

Formal evidence handoff

When this work needs a cross-team, approval-ready plan, package evidence-bound findings as an immutable seo-findings.json bundle using the checked-out suite contract. Let <suite-root> mean ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} in Claude Code. In Codex, read .seo-suite-runtime.json beside this SKILL.md when present and use its suite_root value; otherwise use the absolute repository checkout. Keep every referenced capture/source below raw/, retain declined claims and limitations, and run python "<suite-root>/scripts/validate_seo_findings.py" validate-findings <bundle>/seo-findings.json --bundle <bundle>. Send only a passing bundle to seo-action-plan; otherwise label the handoff provisional.

Output

Return the verified inventory comparison, sitemap defects/opportunities, source-of-truth assumptions, a generated XML proposal when authorized, and test/rollback instructions. Never output a sitemap “score” or an indexing guarantee.