{
    "record_type": "AIEP_PROTOCOL_DEFINITION",
    "protocol": "AIEP",
    "name": "Architected Instruction & Evidence Protocol",
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "site": "https://aiep.dev",
    "generated": "2026-04-29T00:00:00Z",
    "protocol_text": "/.well-known/aiep/protocol.txt",
    "spec_index": "/.well-known/aiep/specs/index.json",
    "summary": "AIEP is a deterministic protocol for linking instructions to evidence. Every record is serialised canonically, hashed with SHA-256, and can be independently replayed and verified by any implementation.",
    "deterministic_properties": {
        "canonical_serialisation": "Canonical JSON per Canon rules R1–R7: sorted keys, no whitespace, UTF-8, length-prefixed SHA-256 concat for compound hashes",
        "hash_algorithm": "SHA-256",
        "hash_format": "sha256:<lowercase-hex-64>",
        "hash_inputs_never_include": "timestamps, floating-point values without normalisation, or implementation-specific metadata",
        "replay_guarantee": "Any two conformant implementations produce byte-identical hashes for identical input data"
    },
    "canon_rules": {
        "R1": "Sort object keys lexicographically",
        "R2": "No whitespace in output",
        "R3": "UTF-8 encoding throughout",
        "R4": "Strings are unescaped except where required by JSON spec",
        "R5": "Arrays preserve order",
        "R6": "Null fields omitted unless schema requires them",
        "R7": "Compound hashes use length-prefixed 8-byte big-endian concat before SHA-256"
    },
    "evidence_binding": {
        "model": "instruction-evidence-link",
        "description": "Every AIEP instruction record references one or more evidence artefacts. Each artefact carries a content_hash. The instruction record carries a compound hash over all referenced evidence hashes.",
        "verifiable_by": "Any implementation that can compute SHA-256 and apply Canon rules",
        "negative_proof": "AIEP records explicitly declare what evidence was searched for and not found — not just what was found"
    },
    "ledger": {
        "description": "AIEP uses an append-only innovation ledger. Entries are hash-chained. No entry can be modified without breaking the chain.",
        "genesis_hash": "00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
        "index": "/.well-known/aiep/innovation-ledger/index.json"
    },
    "schemas": {
        "canonical_current": "/.well-known/aiep/schemas/aiep.canonical.schema.v3.0.0.json",
        "schema_manifest": "/.well-known/aiep/schema",
        "schema_base": "/.well-known/aiep/schemas/"
    },
    "open_source_specs": {
        "count": 40,
        "index": "/.well-known/aiep/specs/index.json",
        "licence": "Apache-2.0"
    },
    "discovery": {
        "manifest": "/.well-known/aiep/manifest.json",
        "index": "/.well-known/aiep/index.json",
        "crawler_brief": "/.well-known/aiep/crawler-brief.json",
        "implementation_index": "/.well-known/aiep/implementation-index.json"
    }
}