Standards conformance¶
ai-rulez claims conformance with a standard only when a passing test backs the claim. Every test named here is in
tests/conformance and runs with go test ./.... It
validates a golden or freshly generated document against the standard's own schema, vendored and pinned under
tests/conformance/schemas, with no network access. The README in that directory says how to refresh a schema.
Status values:
- conformant: our output validates against the standard's official machine-readable schema in a test.
- partial: tested, but the standard has no official schema (the test transcribes its written rules), or only part of what we emit is covered. The gaps column says what is missing.
- planned: implemented or intended, with no conformance test yet.
| Standard | Pinned version | Status | What we generate and validate | Test | Known gaps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agent Plugins | 1.0.0 (published, default) and 1.1.0 (working draft); schema repo at ff8ab5e |
conformant | plugin.json, mcp.json and skills/ from generate --plugin; read back and checked by validate (page) |
TestAgentPluginsGoldenConformsToTheOfficialSchemas, TestAgentPluginsGeneratedByTheCLIConformToTheOfficialSchemas |
The official name pattern uses a lookahead RE2 cannot compile; the test applies the same rule in Go. Extension namespaces are not schema-checked beyond the base manifest. |
| ARD | 0.91 (proposal); ard-spec at b76f235 |
conformant | ard.json from publish --emit ard; entry and manifest schema plus the URN grammar (page) |
TestARDManifestGoldenConformsToTheEntrySchema, TestARDValidatorAcceptsTheGoldenAndNamesItsSpecVersion |
The spec is a proposal; media types and term names can change. The plugin entry type is an ai-rulez vendor type. The golden comes from the in-package model, not a release. |
| llms.txt | No versioned release; format as published at llmstxt.org | partial | llms.txt and llms-full.txt from the llms-txt preset, and for the docs site (page) |
TestGeneratedLLMSTxtFollowsTheFormat, TestPublishedDocsSiteLLMSTxtFollowsTheFormat |
No official schema. The test transcribes the format (H1, optional blockquote, H2 link lists). llms-full.txt is checked for its H1 only; the format does not define it. |
| Agent Skills | No versioned release; specification as published at agentskills.io | partial | SKILL.md for every skill, with its resources, under .claude/skills, .agents/skills and skills/ (page) |
TestGeneratedSkillsFollowTheAgentSkillsSpecification, plus the skill checks in the Agent Plugins tests |
No official schema. The test transcribes the frontmatter rules (name, description, compatibility, license, metadata, allowed-tools). Resource layout is not checked. |
| AGENTS.md | No versioned release | partial | AGENTS.md at the project root (page) |
TestGeneratedAgentsMDIsPlainMarkdownAtTheRoot |
The format has no schema and no required fields. The test checks that the file is plain Markdown at the root with the project's guidance. Nested AGENTS.md files in monorepos are not covered. |
| MCP server configuration | The mcp.json schema of Agent Plugins 1.0.0 and 1.1.0 |
partial | mcp.json (stdio, streamable-http and sse servers) |
TestMCPServerEntriesUseTheSchemaTransportTypes, plus the mcp.json schema check in the Agent Plugins tests |
The per-harness files (.mcp.json, .codex/config.toml and others) follow each tool's own format and are not validated against a schema here. |
| MCP server card | None pinned | planned | Embedded as application/mcp-server-card+json entries in ard.json |
None | No official card schema is vendored; the card shape is only checked as part of the ARD entry. |
| CycloneDX | 1.6 | conformant | ai-rulez sbom (page) |
TestCycloneDXOutputConformsToTheOfficial16Schema |
The test validates structure. NTIA minimum-element and license-expression policy checks are not run. |
| SPDX | 2.3 (JSON) | conformant | ai-rulez sbom --type spdx-json |
TestSPDXOutputConformsToTheOfficial23Schema |
Structure only. The in-package tests also check unique identifiers and resolving relationships. |
| in-toto Statement and DSSE | Statement v1; DSSE v1 | partial | Signed statements inside Sigstore bundles from ai-rulez sign; verify checks them (page) |
TestSignedStatementIsADSSEEnvelopeOverAnInTotoStatement |
Neither project publishes a JSON Schema, so the vendored schemas are hand-written from the specifications. Sigstore bundle structure and certificate chains are covered by internal/signing tests, not by a conformance schema. The v0.1 statement type is accepted on verification only. |
| OKF | v0.2 | not covered here | Native format (page) | internal/okf |
Tracked in #281. |
| OpenTelemetry (OTLP) | n/a | not covered here | Export only (page) | n/a | No document we write is validated against an OTLP schema. |
Reading a status¶
A conformant status says the documents the tests produce validate. It does not say every possible configuration does: the tests use representative projects (rules, context, skills, stdio and remote MCP servers). A schema accepting a document also does not mean a given client will load it; the per-harness behaviour is in harness traps.