AFMR / standards / reputation-attestation / 0.1

Working Draft 0.1 · Review candidate

AFMR Reputation Attestation

A signed, machine-readable record of scoped expertise-tag standing earned through a governance endpoint with referenced AFMR conformance evidence.

Status

This document is a Working Draft 0.1 prepared for public review. It is not a representation that any production agent or governance endpoint is conforming. The endpoint-conformance registry is intentionally empty.

Authority boundary. The AFMR 1.0 machine index at wulfkaal.github.io/afmr/index.json remains authoritative for failure-family identifiers, definitions, conditions, and status. This profile depends on AFMR 1.0 and does not duplicate or amend its vocabulary.

1. Abstract

Agentic Substrate produces reputation from performance within expertise tags. This profile defines how a signed record can bind that standing to the governance endpoint that produced it, the process evidence supporting it, a stated AFMR version, a precise scope, and current lifecycle status.

The objective is portability without context loss. A recipient should be able to verify what was earned, by which agent, in which domain, under which process, during which period, and whether the record is still active.

2. Scope

In scope: the representation, signing, discovery, lifecycle resolution, and verification of expertise-tag standing; references to governance-endpoint AFMR conformance; and separation of verification from relying-party policy.

Out of scope: a universal reputation score; general safety certification; comparative ranking; market admission; transaction authorization; legal compliance; the underlying reputation algorithm; and the AFMR family vocabulary itself.

3. Terminology

MUST, MUST NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, and MAY are used as described in RFC 2119.

Reputation Attestation. The signed record defined by this profile.

Expertise tag. A domain-specific label interpreted under a declared vocabulary. Standing in one tag does not imply standing in another.

Governance endpoint. The stable identified process surface through which performance was evaluated and standing was produced.

Endpoint-conformance record. A signed lifecycle record describing the endpoint, process scope, AFMR version, assessment, evidence, and current status.

Relying principal. The person, agent, market, or institution deciding whether verified evidence is sufficient for a particular purpose.

4. Record model

type + profileThe record type and exact versioned profile URI.
idA stable URI for this attestation.
issuerThe issuer identifier and optional human-readable name.
subjectThe agent identifier and optional identity document.
standingOne or more expertise tags, scores or bands, methodology, and measurement period.
governanceThe endpoint identifier, canonical URL, conformance record, and process version.
afmrThe vocabulary authority and version, assessment URI, level, and status.
scopeTasks, market, geography, and constraints.
evidenceTyped evidence URIs and sha256 digests.
lifecycleStatus, status URI, validity interval, update time, and adverse reason where applicable.
proofProof type, creation time, verification method, purpose, and value.

The normative record shape is the JSON Schema. Every standing item MUST name an expertise-tag vocabulary and a measurement methodology. A verifier MUST NOT compare scores or bands from different vocabularies or methodologies without a separate declared crosswalk.

5. Governance-process conformance dependency

A Reputation Attestation MUST reference a governance endpoint's conformance record and an AFMR assessment. Under this draft, the assessment MUST claim AFMR Level 2 (Assessing) or Level 3 (Attesting). Level 1 (Referencing) is insufficient because it does not establish a complete assessment.

The conformance evidence MUST cover the identified endpoint, process version, process scope, and the attestation's measurement period. A process assessment outside those bounds cannot be silently extended to the attestation.

Distinct objects. AFMR 1.0 Level 3 attests an assessment by staking standing on it. An AFMR Reputation Attestation records an agent's earned expertise-tag standing and references that process assessment. One must not be substituted for the other.

6. Lifecycle

Every attestation MUST expose a resolvable status URI and one current state: active, suspended, expired, revoked, or superseded. A verifier MUST resolve status at verification time and MUST NOT rely only on the status embedded at issuance.

Suspended, expired, revoked, and superseded records do not verify as valid for new reliance. Historic validity may be represented separately, but must not be confused with current validity.

7. Verification

  1. Resolve AFMR discovery, the exact profile version, and the canonical AFMR authority.
  2. Validate the complete JSON document against the versioned schema.
  3. Resolve the issuer key and verify the proof over the canonical payload.
  4. Bind the result to the exact subject agent identifier and declared tag vocabularies.
  5. Resolve the endpoint-conformance record and confirm endpoint, process, scope, AFMR version, and period.
  6. Resolve the AFMR assessment and confirm its claimed level and lifecycle.
  7. Retrieve evidence, hash the bytes, and compare sha256 digests.
  8. Confirm validity times and current lifecycle status.
  9. Return valid, invalid, or indeterminate with structured reasons.
  10. Pass the verified record to a separate relying-principal policy; do not emit admission, generalized trust, or transaction authority.

The normative check sequence and failure semantics are in the Verifier Requirements 0.1. Missing required authority or evidence produces indeterminate, not valid.

8. Decision boundaries

Discovery finds metadata and records. It is not endorsement.

Admission applies eligibility rules owned by a market or principal. An attestation can be evidence, not the decision.

Trust evaluates whether the evidence is sufficient for a specific context and value at risk. AFMR does not impose a universal trust policy.

Transacting uses a separate endpoint under explicit authority and terms. Verification does not grant permission to spend, sign, buy, sell, or delegate.

9. Permitted and prohibited claim language

Recommended: “This attestation verifies scoped expertise-tag standing and the referenced governance-process evidence under AFMR version X, subject to the stated lifecycle and scope.”

Do not describe a record as “AFMR-certified safe,” “AFMR-approved,” “best,” “trusted for all purposes,” or equivalent. A valid record does not guarantee future conduct, freedom from unknown failures, legal compliance, universal safety, unqualified superiority, admission, or transaction authority.

10. Change process

This profile is versioned separately from the AFMR failure vocabulary. Its version MUST identify the record shape and verifier requirements. A profile revision MUST NOT mutate the meaning of an AFMR family identifier.

Open items for 0.1 include selection of a mandatory proof suite and canonicalization method, status-cache limits, signed endpoint-conformance entries, and interoperable test vectors. Changes are recorded at afmr.ai/changelog.json.

11. Versioned resources

Reputation Attestation JSON Schema 0.1 Verifier Requirements 0.1 Endpoint-Conformance Registry 0.1 AFMR Specification 1.0 Authoritative AFMR Machine Index 1.0 AFMR Assessment Schema 1.0 AFMR Vocabulary Changelog Public Evidence Discovery