Adopt
Adopt it without asking us.
That is the point of an open protocol. The specification is public, the contracts are machine-readable, the vectors decide conformance, and the name rules are written down. Nothing here requires a contract, an account or our permission.
The path
Three ways in, by what you are
If you produce records
Issuer
- Verify a sample in the playground so the model is concrete.
- Pick a surface: Studio, the WordPress plugin, or a library.
- Publish your identity at .well-known/govp.txt — see the integration guide.
- Keep the signing key out of the web root; use a KMS/HSM for high-value signing.
- Show it: badge, shortcode or QR next to the claim.
If you rely on records
Verifier / auditor
- Verify anything, right now, in the browser verifier — nothing is uploaded.
- Read what each check means, especially canonical binding and asset hash.
- Know the limits: issuer-asserted time under GOVP-BASIC; comments are unsigned.
- Ask issuers for the record file, not a screenshot — the file is the evidence.
- Keep your own copy: durability is a surviving copy, not magic.
If you build software
Implementer
- Read the normative spec — or its plain-text edition.
- Wire the JSON Schema and OpenAPI into your codegen.
- Reproduce all 8 golden vectors exactly — bytes, IDs and verdicts.
- Keep the vectors in CI: conformance is a property of every build.
- Announce it (below), and we will list your implementation.
Machine-readable
Every contract, as a file
A protocol that only exists as prose can't be automated against. These are the canonical artifacts — stable URLs, free to fetch, CORS-open.
spec/govp-1.txtThe normative specification as archivable plain text — the copy to keep with your evidence.
spec
conformance/vectors.jsonThe 8 golden vectors: pinned canonical-byte hashes, IDs and per-check verdicts.
vectors
schemas/govp-1.schema.jsonJSON Schema for the record, the JSON bundle, verification results and SVL source states.
schema
schemas/openapi.yamlOpenAPI 3.1 for a node's HTTP surface: the .well-known contract plus the reference read API.
openapi
/llms.txtA structured summary for AI agents and crawlers — including what GOVP explicitly does not prove.
agents
/.well-known/govp.txtThis site's own identity record. The protocol's home is an issuer too.
live
Announce
Claiming conformance, accurately
When your implementation passes the suite, say so precisely — and tell us so it gets listed on the conformance page.
# the accurate form
Conforms to GOVP-1 (GOVP-CORE-CONFORMANCE-1: 8/8 pass)
# if you implement anchoring profiles too, name them — the core suite
# does not cover them
Conforms to GOVP-1 · profiles: GOVP-BASIC, GOVP-RFC3161
Brand kit
The mark, and how to use the name
accent
#3b6fd4
#3b6fd4
verified
#36a07a
#36a07a
ink
#080b11
#080b11
Typeface: IBM Plex Sans and IBM Plex Mono (SIL Open Font License).
Name-use rules
| ✓ You may | Say your implementation “conforms to GOVP-1” when it passes the vectors; call your product “GOVP-compatible”; use the name and mark to refer to the protocol in documentation, talks, articles and badges. |
| ✕ You may not | Call a non-conformant implementation “GOVP”; imply endorsement by the maintainers without it; use the name for a modified format that fails the vectors — fork freely, but under your own name. |
| ✕ Badges | A badge may say “verifiable” and link to verification. It must never say “approved”, “certified true” or “safe”. See the badge honesty rules. |
Full text in governance §8. Reference implementations are MIT-licensed and being prepared for the Free Software Foundation directory.