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Publisher Integration

Early Draft

This specification is at an early draft stage. Ideas are open for change and debate. A lot of the content was developed with the help of Claude AI.

Publisher Integration​

Integration Tiers​

Vera is fully opt-in for publishers and can be adopted incrementally. Each tier builds on the previous one.

Tier 1: Vera Reader Experience​

Validate Vera headers server-side and serve a better page to Vera readers: no consent banners, no cookie dialogs. The publisher controls what Vera users see based on verified browser signals. No SDK required.

from vera_sdk import is_vera_request

def article_view(request, slug):
    article = get_article(slug)
    if is_vera_request(request):
        return render(request, "article_vera.html", {"article": article})
    return render(request, "article_standard.html", {"article": article})

See Traffic Classification for is_vera_request details and header validation.

Tier 2: Compensation Model​

Integrate the Vera SDK to define how Vera readers compensate for content. Four models are supported:

  • Free: unrestricted access for all Vera readers
  • Ad-supported: Vera-native ad integration (contextual, no cross-site tracking)
  • Content subscription provider: access via an aggregated reading pass from a third-party subscription provider
  • Publisher subscription: direct publisher paywall using Vera's native HTTP 402 payment dialog

The compensation model is declared via meta tags and enforced server-side. See Monetization and HTTP 402.

<meta name="vera:access_model"  content="subscription|ppr|ad_supported|free" />
<meta name="vera:publisher_key" content="spiegel" />
<meta name="vera:ppr_price"     content="0.49" />
<meta name="vera:reading_time"  content="12" />
<meta name="vera:exclusive"     content="true|false" />

Tier 3: Foundation Membership​

Join the Vera Foundation and integrate your subscription system directly into the browser. This tier requires:

  • Vera identity integration: publisher login system linked to Vera accounts, so users connect their existing publisher account to their Vera identity once.
  • In-browser subscription management: subscription state exposed via the Vera SDK, allowing users to subscribe, manage, and cancel publisher subscriptions directly from the Vera account panel.
  • Token-validated access: full X-Vera-Token validation on every request, binding content access to verified Vera identity.

Foundation members appear in the Vera publisher directory and benefit from consortium-level distribution to Vera readers.

Vera Template Guidelines​

When serving a Vera-specific HTML response (Tier 1+), the following rules apply.

Not allowed:

  • Cookie consent overlays of any kind
  • JavaScript-based paywalls (hiding article body via JS)
  • SEO filler sections ("In this article you will learn…")
  • Auto-play video or audio
  • Push notification requests (Notification.requestPermission())
  • Third-party tracking pixels (except consent-compliant analytics)
  • Newsletter overlays, app download banners, interstitials

Required:

  • Full article body
  • Structured metadata (Open Graph, JSON-LD)
  • Clean typography without overlapping elements

These rules apply only to the Vera response. The standard HTML response served to non-Vera traffic is not restricted by Vera.