Conformance

Overview

Conformance defines how implementations satisfy the normative requirements of HEXT Standard 1.0. This page summarizes Core conformance, optional implementation profiles, validation expectations, and the component maturity model.

The canonical normative text remains in SPECIFICATION.md §6. Core conformance does not require WebMCP, MCP transport, or Registry services.

Implementation Profiles

HEXT Profiles describe additive capability sets that implementations may support while remaining HEXT compliant. Profiles never redefine Core. They prepare implementers for HEXT Standard 1.1 without altering the frozen 1.0 normative baseline.

WebMCP is an additive profile planned for HEXT Standard 1.1. hextai.com is WebMCP Ready (discovery metadata published) but does not provide live WebMCP runtime integration or MCP transport.

RFC 2119

Conformance requirements in HEXT Standard use the key words SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, and MAY as defined in RFC 2119.

• SHALL — absolute requirement
• SHOULD — recommended but not mandatory
• MAY — optional capability

Normative Compliance Levels (HEXT Standard 1.0)

HEXT Standard 1.0 defines four normative compliance levels in SPECIFICATION.md §6. Higher levels include all requirements of lower levels unless stated otherwise. Implementation profiles above map to future releases and informative guidance on this site.

Core Conformance

An implementation claiming Core Conformance:

1. SHALL represent knowledge internally as a Semantic Object Graph.
2. SHALL support Canonical HEXT XML serialization as the primary exchange format.
3. SHALL preserve unique Object Identity during transmission and processing.
4. SHALL preserve cryptographic ledger integrity during state mutations.
5. SHALL preserve provenance metadata envelopes intact.
6. SHOULD expose JSON projections for lightweight API consumption.
7. MAY expose HTML renderings for human-readable exploration.

XML Schema Conformance

Core implementations SHALL produce and accept documents valid against hext-core.xsd. See Canonical XML rules for integrity verification prior to validation.

Validator Conformance

An implementation claiming Validator Conformance:

1. SHALL meet all criteria for Core Conformance.
2. SHALL perform full syntactic validation against the official HEXT XSD schema.
3. SHALL support error-handling pipelines that halt execution upon schema violation.

Registry Conformance

An implementation claiming Registry Conformance:

1. SHALL meet all criteria for Core Conformance.
2. SHALL support uniform object addressing and resolvable routing pathways.
3. SHALL maintain a queryable schema registry for schema discovery and relation traversal.

Maps to Registry Profile — planned for HEXT Standard 1.1. See Lifecycle.

MCP Conformance

An implementation claiming MCP Conformance:

1. SHALL meet all criteria for Core Conformance.
2. SHALL implement Model Context Protocol (MCP) services for autonomous agent interaction.
3. SHALL expose canonical tools for object retrieval, validation, and semantic querying.

Maps to MCP Profile — planned for HEXT Standard 1.1. See MCP Documentation (design only; no live transport on hextai.com).

SDK Conformance

SDK implementations SHALL meet Core Conformance and expose language bindings that preserve the five-field object model without semantic alteration. SDK packages are distributed across sister repositories under the HEXT-AI organization.

Language SDKs are in bootstrap phase. See SDK index.

Future Certification

Formal certification programs, conformance test suites, and public validator registries are planned for post-1.0 releases. Implementers SHOULD self-declare compliance levels and supported profiles until an official certification process is published.

Compliance Table

Related Resources

• Specification
• Schemas
• Examples
• Standard Lifecycle
• SPECIFICATION.md §6