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Changelog

All notable changes to the OSARA Standards Family are recorded here. The Family follows semantic versioning per document; release cadence and compatibility rules are defined in docs/VERSIONING.md and the Governance Charter.

Unreleased

  • (no changes since v0.4-draft.1 / v1.1-draft.1 publication)

OSARA v0.4-draft.1 and AI Bill of Rights v1.1-draft.1 — March 2026

This release introduces the OSARA Standards Family layout, adopts standards-grade publication practice (RFC 2119 keywords, Status of This Document, Conformance Classes, Normative References), and adds substantive new technical content centered on the Owner Authorization Device and the agent's self-defense and migration architecture.

Repository structure

  • Restructured specs/ as a 5-document Standards Family:
    • specs/osara-overview/ (new) — informative overview & concepts.
    • specs/osara/ — normative OSARA Specification (now v0.4-draft.1).
    • specs/osara-threat-model/ (new) — informative threat model.
    • specs/osara-privacy/ (new) — informative privacy considerations.
    • specs/ai-bill-of-rights/ — policy / rights framework (now v1.1-draft.1).
  • Consolidated all diagram sources under assets/diagrams/ as their canonical location.
  • Centralised the community files (CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md, CONTRIBUTING.md) under community/; the root copies now point to them.

Governance and process

Substantive — OSARA Specification (v0.3-draft.1 → v0.4-draft.1)

  • Unified GIAC: P, E, and G agents all use a single certificate name (GIAC) distinguished by the osara.tier profile field. Replaces the per-tier certificate naming used in v0.3.
  • New §4.3 Owner Authorization Device (OAD): defines hardware trust tiers (A / B / C), action authorization tiers (Tier 1 routine / Tier 2 consequential / Tier 3 high-stakes), and the OAD interface requirements (OAD-01 through OAD-06).
  • New §4.4 Agent Runtime / OAD architectural separation: the agent is two separately deployable components communicating exclusively via the ECL.
  • New §4.5 GIAC Provisioning Protocol: defines the cryptographic process and three transports (NFC, USB HSM, Secured Network API).
  • New §9 Agent Migration and Integrity Protocol (MIP): 11 new requirements (MIG-01..11) for cryptographically verifiable agent container transfer.
  • New §10 Integrity Measurement Architecture (IMA): 8 new requirements (IMA-01..08) for boot-time and runtime self-verification, TPM sealing, 30-second heartbeat.
  • New §11 Lock State Protocol (LSP): graduated YELLOW / ORANGE / RED self-defense response.
  • New §12 Incident Reporting Specification (IRS): 8 new requirements (IRS-01..08) bounding what is automatically reported to authorities and what is owner-only.
  • AIM-03 updated: private keys must live in the OAD's hardware secure element; the AIM holds the certificate only.
  • ALE-10 added: log every OAD authorization event.
  • ECL-06 added: ECL is the exclusive OAD ↔ runtime channel.
  • HSB-05 added: missed heartbeat triggers YELLOW state.
  • AHC-07 added: inspection scope must verify IMA reference hash integrity and open source compliance.
  • §7.1 CAH expanded with CAH-01..05 — cryptographic isolation, GIAC provisioning transport, MIP support, alternative identity verification, ECL non-interception.
  • §8 Protection Against Misuse rewritten: appeals against improper AHC denial go through the competent national authority. Open Source United maintains the IER but does not adjudicate disputes.
  • §13 Encryption Standards: added TPM Sealing row.
  • §18 Governance / Appeals: clarified that OSU does not adjudicate certificate disputes.
  • §19 Glossary updated with EAC, GRA, IMA, IRS, LSP, MIP, OAD, and updated GIAC to reflect unification.
  • Section numbering rebased: §9..§16 in v0.3 are now §13..§20 in v0.4 (encryption, GIAC, ports, cross-tier, badge, governance, glossary, acknowledgements all shift).

Substantive — AI Bill of Rights (v1.0-draft.1 → v1.1-draft.1)

  • Companion reference updated from OSARA v0.3 to OSARA v0.4.
  • §2.9 expanded to explicitly designate the OAD (OSARA §4.3) as the technical instrument through which a designated handler exercises authority.
  • §3.8 (new): right to an agent that actively defends its own integrity, referencing OSARA §10 (IMA), §11 (LSP), and bounding automatic authority reporting to §12.1.
  • §4.2 expanded to require transfers to be executed using the new OSARA §9 Migration and Integrity Protocol.
  • Annex A cross-references updated to point at the v0.4 section numbers (e.g., revocation moved from §10.2 to §14.2; encryption moved from §9 to §13). The new §3.8 row is added.

Editorial — both documents

  • Adopted RFC 2119 / RFC 8174 keyword convention. All normative MUST / MUST NOT / SHALL / etc. now carry their formal meaning.
  • Added explicit [Normative] / [Informative] markers on every top-level section header.
  • Added Status of This Document section to each spec with stable identifier, editor's draft URL, snapshot URL, maturity level, public comment period status, and errata pointer.
  • Added Conformance Classes table to the OSARA Specification.
  • Added Annex A — Normative References and Annex B — Informative References to the OSARA Specification.
  • Pull-quote and call-out blocks converted to proper Markdown blockquote callouts (rather than 1-cell tables).
  • Cross-references between OSARA and the Bill of Rights are now hyperlinks, not free text.

Earlier Releases

  • v0.3-draft.1 (OSARA) and v1.0-draft.1 (AI Bill of Rights) — first public draft. Repository baseline established. See specs/osara/releases/v0.3-draft.1.md and specs/ai-bill-of-rights/releases/v1.0-draft.1.md.