Operating Standard Registry — Formal Specification, v0.1

1. Status

v0.1 — draft. Spec text is CC-BY-4.0. Reference code is Apache-2.0. Breaking changes are expected before v1.0.

v1.0 ships when 50 task definitions are published with reference implementations and at least one third-party fork has merged.

2. Conformance

A registry implementation is conformant with v0.1 if and only if it satisfies all of the following:

• Stores TaskDefinitions as content-addressed objects with semver IDs of the form ucg:insurance.<line>.<action>.v<N>.
• Resolves any past version of a definition by URI + version.
• Publishes canonical input/output fixtures alongside each definition.
• Verifies signatures on published definitions before serving them.
• Exposes a fork lineage graph: a definition's parent_uri identifies its ancestor.

A task execution is conformant if it emits the artifacts declared in the definition's outputs.schema, with the audit-trail and joule-meter fields populated.

3. TaskDefinition IR

The canonical representation is YAML. JSON-Schema and Protobuf equivalents ship in the reference repo.

TaskDefinition:
  id: "ucg:insurance.servicing.coi.issue.v1"   # stable URI; semver
  content_hash: blake3(...)
  signed_by: did:...

  inputs:
    schema: JSON-Schema
    required_fields: [insured, holder, addl_insured?, policy_id, lob]
    provenance_per_field: required

  outputs:
    schema: ArtifactSchema
    artifacts:
      - kind: signed_pdf
        spec: COI per ACORD 25 (2016/03)
      - kind: issuance_receipt
        spec: { carrier_of_record, policy_id, issued_at, signing_key_id }

  allowed_actors:
    - ai.deterministic
    - ai.bounded_llm           # LLM with diff-review gate
    - human.licensed: { state: "*", line: "*", premium_bearing: false }
    - offshore.unlicensed: { hours: 24x7 }

  compliance_gates:
    state_license_required: false      # by state + line + premium-bearing flag
    e_and_o_principal: "issuing_broker"

  sla:
    p50: 5min
    p95: 30min

  cost_model:
    target_unit_cost_usd: 2.00
    billable_to: agency_or_insured
    components: [compute, audit, human_time]

  audit_requirement:
    signed_log: true
    ir_version_pinned: true
    actor_attestation: true

  joule_meter:
    enabled: true
    breakdown: [compute_joules, signing_joules, storage_joules, human_minutes_joules?]

  pillar_owner: "insuranceos.distribution"
  ams_adapters: [vertafore.ams360, applied.epic, ezlynx, hawksoft, nowcerts]

4. Categories & URI prefixes

Twelve top-level categories cover the surface of insurance distribution work. New top-level categories require a governance proposal; sub-prefixes are open.

5. Forking & governance

Any party may publish a TaskDefinition under their own DID. Forks declare parent_uri to preserve lineage. Conformance fixtures must be carried forward unless explicitly diverged.

Promotion to the canonical registry is by PR-style governance: a definition is canonical only after at least two independent implementations pass the conformance fixtures.

Definitions are immutable once signed. New versions are new objects with the next semver.

6. Routing primitive

A conformant router accepts a TaskDefinition and a request, evaluates compliance gates against the actor pool, and dispatches to a single actor. Bounded LLM is permitted for intake triage only.

Routing inputs: task_type, license_requirement (state × line × premium-bearing), complexity_tier, cost_budget.

Routing output: one of ai.deterministic · ai.bounded_llm · human.licensed · offshore.unlicensed. The decision is logged with rule version, inputs, output actor, outcome.

7. Joule meter schema

Every task execution records an energy breakdown:

joule_meter:
  compute_joules:        float    # model inference + deterministic-step CPU/GPU
  signing_joules:        float    # cryptographic envelope cost
  storage_joules:        float    # artifact + audit-trail persistence
  human_minutes_joules:  float?   # licensed/offshore time, converted via published rate
  total:                 float    # sum, signed
  rate_table_hash:       string   # the human-minutes → joules conversion table used

8. Versioning

TaskDefinitions are semver-versioned. The version is part of the URI: ucg:insurance.servicing.coi.issue.v1.

Breaking changes (added required fields, changed actor permissions, changed artifact schemas) bump the major version. Definitions are immutable; new versions are separate signed objects.