ACGP Specifications

The Agentic Cognitive Governance Protocol is defined through a series of RFC-style specification documents. These specifications provide the authoritative reference for implementing ACGP-compliant systems.

Specification Status

All ACGP specifications are currently in Draft status and under active development.

[WARNING] Living Specifications These specifications are being actively refined. Breaking changes may occur before v1.0 release. Subscribe to our GitHub repository for updates.

For application developers building AI agents with ACGP, see the main documentation for usage guides, tutorials, and examples.

Reading Guide

For New Users

Start with: 1. ACGP-0000: Overview - High-level introduction to ACGP 2. ACGP-1001: Terminology - Key concepts and definitions 3. ACGP-1005: ARS Framework - Core governance model

Then explore implementation guides in the Guides section.

For Implementers

Follow this sequence: 1. ACGP-1000: Core Protocol - Core concepts 2. ACGP-1002: Architecture - System design 3. ACGP-1003: Messages - Message formats 4. ACGP-1004: Blueprints - Policy definitions 5. ACGP-1012: Blueprint Authoring Guide - Practical patterns for regulated and multi-agent systems 6. ACGP-1009: Conformance - Compliance requirements

For Integrators

Focus on: 1. ACGP-1008: Interoperability - Integration patterns 2. ACGP-1006: Registry - Component discovery 3. Integration Guides - Practical examples

For Security Teams

Review: 1. ACGP-1007: Security - Security considerations 2. Security Hardening Guide - Best practices

Specification Documents

Document Title Description Status
ACGP-0000 Overview High-level protocol overview Draft
ACGP-1000 Core Protocol Core protocol concepts and message flow Draft
ACGP-1001 Terminology Standard terminology and definitions Draft
ACGP-1002 Architecture System architecture and deployment patterns Draft
ACGP-1003 Messages Message formats and transport protocols Draft
ACGP-1004 Blueprints Governance blueprint schema Draft
ACGP-1005 ARS Framework Agent Risk Score assessment framework Draft
ACGP-1006 Registry Agent registry specification Draft
ACGP-1007 Security Security requirements and threat models Draft
ACGP-1008 Interoperability Protocol interoperability (MCP, A2A) Draft
ACGP-1009 Conformance Conformance levels and testing Draft
ACGP-1010 Governance Contracts Governance contracts (ACGP 1.1) Draft
ACGP-1011 Implementation Profiles Standard deployment profiles Draft
ACGP-1012 Blueprint Authoring Guide Practical guidance for regulated and multi-agent blueprints Draft

Conformance Levels

ACGP defines three conformance levels to support different use cases:

Level Description Use Case Implementation Time
Minimal Core message passing and basic interventions Development and testing ~2-4 hours
Standard Full ARS framework with audit logging Production systems ~1-2 days
Complete Advanced security, crypto proofs, consensus Mission-critical systems ~1-2 weeks

See ACGP-1009: Conformance for detailed requirements.

Specification Versioning

ACGP specifications follow semantic versioning:

  • Major version (X.0.0): Breaking changes to protocol or message formats
  • Minor version (0.X.0): New features, backward-compatible
  • Patch version (0.0.X): Bug fixes, clarifications

Current version: 0.1.0 (Pre-release)

Contributing to Specifications

We welcome feedback and contributions!

  1. Report issues - Found ambiguity or errors? Open an issue
  2. Propose changes - Submit pull requests with clarifications or improvements
  3. Join discussions - Participate in GitHub Discussions

See our Contributing Guide for details.

Specification Lifecycle

  1. Draft - Initial proposal, under active development
  2. Review - Community review and feedback period (30 days minimum)
  3. Stable - Approved, no breaking changes without major version bump
  4. Deprecated - Superseded by newer specification

License

These specifications are licensed under CC-BY-4.0.