Conformance

Conformance levels

Conformance is incremental — each level builds on the previous one. Claim only the level you fully satisfy.

Level 1 — Integrity

Focus: cryptographic correctness.

Requirement	Detail
Required methods	integrity.digest.sha256 (or sha512 / blake3)
Canonicalization	JSON content must follow the JCS-subset rules in the spec
Digest format	{ "alg": "<algorithm>", "value": "<lowercase-hex>" }
Determinism	Same input must always produce the same digest

Claim L1:

{
  "conformance_level": "L1-integrity",
  "implements": ["integrity.digest.sha256"]
}

Level 2 — Engine

Focus: provenance record construction.

Requires everything from L1, plus:

Required methods	Purpose
adapter.wrap.envelope_v0_1	Wrap non-envelope payloads
adapter.provenance.attach_record_v0_1	Attach a provenance record to an envelope
engine.prov.artifact.register_output	Register output artifacts

Additional rules:

• Envelope must be a valid mcp.envelope.v0.1.
• No double-wrapping — existing envelopes pass through unchanged.
• Only claim methods that were actually applied.

Level 3 — Lineage

Focus: provenance chains and graphs.

Requires everything from L2, plus:

Required methods	Purpose
lineage.parent.link	Link to parent provenance records

Additional rules:

• parents[] must contain valid run_id values.
• Parent records should be retrievable.
• The lineage graph must be a DAG (no cycles).

Method namespaces

All method IDs belong to one of four defined namespaces:

Namespace	Purpose
adapter.*	Envelope wrapping, transport, execution wrappers
engine.*	Evidence extraction, normalization, provenance construction
integrity.*	Hashing, signatures, verification
lineage.*	Parent linking and graph operations

Four additional namespaces are reserved for future use:

Namespace	Intended purpose
policy.*	Access control, retention policies
attestation.*	Third-party attestations, compliance claims
execution.*	Runtime environment, resource usage
audit.*	Audit trail operations

Implementations must not use reserved namespaces until they are formally specified.

Optional methods

These methods are not required for any conformance level but enhance an implementation:

Method	Purpose
engine.prov.artifact.register_input	Track input artifacts
engine.extract.evidence.json_pointer	JSON pointer evidence anchors
engine.extract.evidence.text_lines	Text line evidence anchors
integrity.signature.create	Sign provenance records
integrity.signature.verify	Verify signatures

Declare optional methods in your prov-capabilities.json:

{
  "optional": [
    "engine.prov.artifact.register_input",
    "integrity.signature.create"
  ]
}

Automated validation

# Validate your manifest
python tools/python/prov_validator.py validate-manifest prov-capabilities.json

# Run applicable test vectors
python tools/python/prov_validator.py check-vector integrity.digest.sha256
python tools/python/prov_validator.py check-vector adapter.wrap.envelope_v0_1

# Run all built-in checks (schemas, vectors, catalog)
python tools/python/prov_validator.py self-test

Next steps

See Specification for repository structure, versioning rules, and canonicalization details.