Certification Claims

AIEP defines three machine-readable certification claims. Each claim is cumulative: making a higher claim implies all lower claims are also met.

The three claims

ClaimWhat it assertsRequired proofWho it is forTrust grade
AIEP CompatibleCan read and write AIEP artefacts in a schema-conformant wayNone — self-declaredAny builder consuming or publishing AIEP artefactsBaseline
AIEP Mirror EnabledOperates a live Machine Mirror with valid discovery files at /.well-known/aiep/index.json and metadata.json passing schema validationAny publisher wanting AI retrievabilityRegistry-listed
AIEP CertifiedMeets the full certification standard: valid issuer DID, unexpired certificate, conjunction trust-eligiblecert_id, issuer DID in registry, cert_hash, policy_ref, within expiry windowRegulated entities, enterprise compliance, operators requiring machine-verifiable trustFail-closed

What “fail-closed” means for the certified claim

The “AIEP Certified” claim is fail-closed. This means:

  • If the certificate artefact is missing, the claim is invalid — not downgraded
  • If the certificate is expired, the claim is invalid — not downgraded
  • If the issuer DID cannot be resolved from the registry, the claim is invalid
  • There is no “partially certified” state

A system checking for the AIEP Certified claim treats any ambiguity as a failure. This is intentional and documented in GB2519711.2.

What no claim does NOT mean

Making no claim does not mean an artefact is untrustworthy. An artefact published without any certification claim:

  • Can still carry evidence references
  • Can still be hash-verified
  • Can still conform to canonical schemas
  • Cannot be used in a conjunction trust chain where a certified issuer is required

The claim system governs trust chains and machine-verifiable assertions about the publisher, not the validity of individual evidence.

Making a claim in your artefact

Claims are declared in the artefact’s certification field:

{
  "certification": {
    "claim": "aiep_certified",
    "cert_id": "cert-2025-gb-00042",
    "issuer_did": "did:aiep:gb:abc123",
    "cert_hash": "sha256:abc...",
    "policy_ref": "https://aiep.io/policy/v1",
    "expires": "2026-11-30"
  }
}

A retriever encountering this artefact can independently verify the claim by resolving the issuer_did from the Registry and checking cert_hash against the published certificate artefact.