Do AI agents refuse to read sites served over HTTP?
We check the origin we ended on is https:// and that the TLS handshake completed without an exception.
What it is
Every request we make asks for HTTPS first. This Check records whether the connection we ended up with was encrypted and whether the certificate validated.
A certificate that cannot be verified is reported as its own failure. Expired, self-signed and hostname mismatches all end the request before we read a byte.
We do not inspect the chain or report an expiry date. The Evidence states whether the handshake succeeded, which is the fact a client acts on.
Why an agent needs it
Most HTTP clients refuse a certificate they cannot verify, and they refuse it before your page exists to them. It is indistinguishable from an outage.
A failure here fails the whole Report with it. Nothing else can be measured on a site we could not connect to securely.
The Fix
Serve the whole site over HTTPS with a certificate that validates without exceptions. A free automated certificate from your host or Let's Encrypt is enough.
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS with a 301, and make sure the certificate covers every hostname you serve, including the www and non-www forms.
Set renewal to run automatically and alert you when it fails. An expired certificate takes a site off the network as completely as a power cut.
This one is a change in your own markup or edge configuration, so the Fix Pack cannot write it for you. A Report names every page it affects, with the Evidence.