It definitely lowers the barrier.
But relying on messy HTML as a defense against competitors is 'security through obscurity'. It does not stop them; it just costs you server CPU.
The data is public. If you put it on the screen, a scraper can read it. CommerceTXT just ensures that the good bots (AI Agents bringing customers) get it efficiently, while you can still block the bad ones via WAF.
alt Hacker News
It definitely lowers the barrier. But relying on messy HTML as a defense against competitors is 'security through obscurity'. It does not stop them; it just costs you server CPU. The data is public. If you put it on the screen, a scraper can read it. CommerceTXT just ensures that the good bots (AI Agents bringing customers) get it efficiently, while you can still block the bad ones via WAF.