Consolidated representation preference applied but response is unchanged

What it detects

The homepage reports 'Preference-Applied: return=consolidated' for a 'Prefer: return=consolidated' request, but the response is indistinguishable from the plain HTML page.

Why it matters

Claiming a preference was honored without actually changing the response is worse than not claiming it at all — an agent that trusts the header believes it received a consolidated view when it didn't.

How to fix

- Send `curl -I -H "Prefer: return=consolidated" <homepage>` and check whether the response includes `Preference-Applied: return=consolidated`. - If it does, compare the response body/Content-Type against a plain request with no Prefer header — they should differ (e.g. a consolidated Markdown or JSON view) if the preference is genuinely honored. - If the responses are identical, either implement an actual consolidated representation for that preference, or stop sending `Preference-Applied` until you do — claiming a preference was applied without changing anything misleads clients that trust the header. - Verify: diff the two responses (with and without the Prefer header) and confirm they materially differ when `Preference-Applied` is present.

References

• RFC 9309 — Robots Exclusion Protocol
• Sitemaps protocol