For lighting manufacturers

Specifier discovery is shifting from PDF to AI. The manufacturers whose data is machine-readable are the ones AI surfaces, design tools consume, and designers ask for by name.

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Where product discovery is going

Specifier discovery is moving from the designer opening your PDF to the designer asking an AI which luminaire fits. Machine-readable data is what surfaces in the answer; the rest depends on whatever the AI guessed off the PDF. The bottleneck isn't the AI. It's the data layer underneath.

Today's discovery loop, from the manufacturer's seat. Loss accumulates at the extraction and aggregator-interpretation hops.

What ULC is

ULC is the open, machine-readable standard for luminaire product data: the layer AI tools, design tools, and spec databases read alongside the PDF, IES, and LDT you already publish.

Before and after, from the manufacturer's seat. The PDF stays beautiful for human readers. The ULC record stays accurate for machine readers.

How to publish

A .ulc file is JSON, validated against an open schema, that references your existing PDF, IES, and LDT by SHA-256 hash instead of embedding them. There are two ways to produce it.

From your PIM. If your data lives in Salsify, Akeneo, SAP, or a custom PIM, the structure already exists. The mapping guides at /docs translate your fields onto ULC's, usually a one-time integration that then runs inside your existing publishing pipeline.

From a spreadsheet. If your data lives in spreadsheets rather than a PIM, the open-source workbook template and the ulc from-sheet converter turn it into validated records: one row per product, point each row at your source files, and run one command. The converter computes the schema structure, SHA-256 hashes, and dual units, then validates each record. Deterministic and offline.

The validator catches schema errors before you publish. The schema, examples, and mapping guides all live at /docs.

What changes

  • Found in AI-mediated discovery, with your attributes. When a designer asks an AI for a 2700K downlight under 40W, your products are in the answer with the CCT, CRI, optics, and IP rating you published, not the ones an extraction layer guessed.
  • A direct channel to the designer's tools. Their AI and design tools fetch your authoritative record from your infrastructure and parse it natively. The aggregator's interpretation stops being the data layer. Reps, distributors, and aggregator relationships stay exactly where they are.
  • Early-mover position in the standard your peers will adopt. Open, MIT-licensed, neutrally stewarded, in dialogue with DIAL, the IES, and the LIA. The first to publish are the ones the industry remembers as having defined the layer.

Take action

Pilot it. Publish one to three of your most-specified SKUs as .ulc files; one product line is enough to start. The example records show the shape, the validator catches the easy mistakes, and the conversations that follow shape what the standard becomes.

Start at /docs, browse the schema and examples on GitHub, or read the designer track that drives the demand.

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