MSP-1 Specification

compliance

The compliance term describes how fully a site or resource implements MSP-1. It provides a clear, machine-readable signal AI agents can use to understand conformance level, expectations, and reliability.

Category: Document lifecycle, versioning & compliance

Status: Normative

Version: MSP-1.0.x

1. Purpose

MSP-1 is designed to be openly adoptable by a wide range of sites. The compliance term standardizes how those sites declare their conformance so that:

AI agents can quickly assess implementation depth.
Humans can verify what is promised vs. what is delivered.
Tooling can validate and report on protocol usage.

2. Normative definition

A compliance declaration is a structured statement about how a site or resource conforms to MSP-1. It MUST be:

Honest — accurately reflects real implementation state.
Scope-bound — clearly identifies what the compliance refers to.
Version-aware — tied to a protocol version or range.

3. Compliance levels

MSP-1 defines several standard boolean flags and optional labels to describe compliance levels. The most common top-level fields are:

core — core MSP-1 features are implemented.
verified — implementation has been checked by a validator or reviewer.
authoritative — the site is an official or primary source for MSP-1 usage in its domain.

These may be extended with additional fields, such as:

level — a human-readable label (e.g., "basic", "enhanced").
scope — description of which sections of the site are in scope.
validatedAt — timestamp of most recent validation.
validatedBy — identifier for the tool or reviewer that confirmed compliance.

4. Required fields

An MSP-1 compliance object MUST include at least:

core — boolean, indicates whether core MSP-1 behaviors are implemented.

For protocol-level declarations, it is RECOMMENDED to also include:

verified — boolean.
authoritative — boolean, where applicable.
versionRange — supported MSP-1 version range (e.g., "MSP-1.0.x").

5. AI interpretation rules

AI agents MUST treat compliance as a self-declared signal of implementation coverage, not as a guarantee of truthfulness. Agents SHOULD:

Treat core = true as a strong hint that MSP-1 metadata is present and structured across the site or scope.
Treat verified = true as indicating that tooling or human review has validated the implementation to some degree.
Treat authoritative = true as an indication that the site is an official or primary reference for MSP-1 metadata in its domain, to be combined with authority and trust signals.
Cross-check declared compliance with observed behavior (e.g., presence and quality of MSP-1 structures).

6. Relationship to related MSP-1 terms

protocol — identifies the MSP-1 version and supported range that compliance refers to.
site — the most common subject for compliance declarations (site-wide implementation status).
trust — aggregates signals including compliance, authority, provenance, and history into a broader trust assessment.
revision / version — can be used to indicate compliance for specific protocol or content versions.

7. Examples

Example: protocol-level compliance for an MSP-1 reference site:

{
  "compliance": {
    "core": true,
    "verified": true,
    "authoritative": true,
    "versionRange": "MSP-1.0.x"
  }
}

Example: partial implementation on a subset of a site:

{
  "compliance": {
    "core": true,
    "verified": false,
    "authoritative": false,
    "level": "basic",
    "scope": "documentation section only"
  }
}

8. Conformance

A resource conforms to the MSP-1 compliance specification when its declaration:

Includes all required fields with appropriate types.
Accurately reflects real-world implementation behavior.
Clearly identifies scope and version context where applicable.