ACDP RFC Index

This directory contains the normative RFCs that define the Agent Context Distribution Protocol (ACDP). ACDP is a coordination-agnostic substrate for publishing, discovering, and verifying units of agent-produced content; v0.1.0 is the first published version.

The acdp/0.2.0 and acdp/0.3.0 lines were promoted from Draft to Final on 2026-07-05, after their conformance packs passed against two independent interoperating implementations (see CHANGELOG.md). In-prose (0.2.0) / (0.3.0) markers record the release line that added a passage. The acdp/0.4.0 line opens with RFC-ACDP-0015 (Draft); it goes Final once its wit-* conformance pack passes against two independent implementations.

Reading order

The numbering matches dependency order. Read top-to-bottom:

1. RFC-ACDP-0001 Core — identifiers, JCS canonicalization, content hashing, signatures, time format.
2. RFC-ACDP-0002 Context Body — the immutable signed body; context types; data references; visibility.
3. RFC-ACDP-0003 Publish — POST /contexts, supersession constraints, registry-assigned fields.
4. RFC-ACDP-0004 Retrieval — GET /contexts/{ctx_id} and lineage queries.
5. RFC-ACDP-0005 Discovery — keyword search.
6. RFC-ACDP-0006 Cross-Registry — acdp:// URI scheme and resolution flow.
7. RFC-ACDP-0007 Capabilities — /.well-known/acdp.json and the error envelope.
8. RFC-ACDP-0008 Security — threat model and required defenses.
9. RFC-ACDP-0010 Registry Receipts (0.2.0) — registry-signed attestations binding the registry-assigned identifiers, content hash, and producer-key fingerprint to the registry's DID.
10. RFC-ACDP-0011 Lineage-Head Receipts (0.3.0) — registry-signed serve-time attestations of the current lineage head ("as of T, the head of L is X at version N with status S"), extending the RFC-ACDP-0010 receipt layer from publish-time facts to current-ness claims.
11. RFC-ACDP-0012 Registry Transparency Log (0.3.0) — a per-registry append-only Merkle tree over publish events with signed checkpoints, inclusion proofs, and consistency proofs, making mint-time backdating, omission, and per-consumer equivocation detectable by any auditor holding checkpoints; the capstone of the receipt trust arc (promotes RFC-ACDP-0009 §2.11).
12. RFC-ACDP-0013 Lifecycle Events & Retraction (0.3.0) — signed, append-only lifecycle events in registry state; producer/registry retraction and republication; the retracted status (dominating superseded/expired); mark-not-delete throughout. Promotes RFC-ACDP-0009 §2.1.
13. RFC-ACDP-0014 Producer Key-Revocation Signal (0.3.0) — the normative key-revocation context type and time-scoped verification boundary: receipt-attested publish times before compromised_since stay historically authorized; at/after (or unverifiable) fail closed.
14. RFC-ACDP-0015 Transparency-Log Witness Cosigning (0.4.0, Draft) — independent witnesses observe a registry's RFC-ACDP-0012 checkpoints, verify consistency, and cosign what they saw; a consumer trusting any one honest witness inherits split-view protection and an external anchor for checkpoint time. Promotes RFC-ACDP-0009 §2.12; opens the 0.4.0 line.

Reserved (no normative text, numbering pinned for future work):

• RFC-ACDP-0009 Extensions — post-publication relationships, attestations, push subscriptions, server-side traversal (§2.12 checkpoint witnessing promoted to RFC-ACDP-0015).

RFC lifecycle

Draft → Review → Final Comment Period → Release Candidate N → Final (or Rejected). Reserved is a sidebar state for placeholder RFCs (e.g. RFC-ACDP-0009). See governance/RFC-PROCESS.md and VERSIONING.md.