BASIS conformance

BASIS is an open standard for AI agent trust tiers, risk levels, capability gating, and governance, maintained by Vorion LLC. Any implementation that passes the conformance test suite may call itself BASIS-conformant.

Where the spec lives

• BASIS specification — published as @vorionsys/basis on npm. See npmjs.com/package/@vorionsys/basis.
• Cognigate — the reference runtime that enforces BASIS at execution time. Apache 2.0. See cognigate.dev.
• Full documentation and architectural context at vorion.org.

How self-certification works

1. Fetch the conformance test suite (shipped with the BASIS package).
2. Run the suite against your implementation. Each test covers one or more BASIS factors.
3. The suite emits a test report listing which factors passed. Hash this report (SHA-256) and publish it at a stable URL.
4. Include the report URL and hash in your directory manifest. See Submit.

Factors

BASIS defines 16 factors organized into 5 groups: Foundation, Security, Agency, Maturity, Evolution. Your implementation may claim conformance against any subset. The conformance test suite covers each factor independently, so partial-conformance claims are straightforward.

Canonical definitions live in the canonical.ts module of the BASIS package. Directory listings should cite factor names exactly as they appear there.

Versioning

BASIS versions are semver. Conformance is always against a specific version; include the version in your manifest. Future spec revisions may require re-running the updated test suite; directory entries for prior spec versions remain listed with their original version.

Why not just use AgentAnchor?

AgentAnchor (A3I) is the certification authority for agents that want audited attestation — the kind backed by signatures from a trusted root, eligible for commercial listing on Aurais, and suitable for enterprise/regulated use.

Self-certification in this directory is for everything else: OSS projects, early prototypes, personal experiments, academic work, and publishers who want community visibility without paying certification fees.