# OKF v0.2 support — plan Status: **committed implementation track.** Standing policy (operator, 2026-07-26): *the library always supports the current latest version of Google OKF.* v0.2 is out, so v0.2 support is committed work — not conditional on a consumer requesting it. Read with: `docs/plan/execution-order.md` (sequencing), `docs/plan/phase-3-configurable-contract.md` (the profile object that carries this), `docs/phase-3-split-table.md` (the profile/guard/consumer column discipline). ## What "support the latest version" means here It means **additive**: the library can read, validate, materialize, and index v0.2-shaped bundles. It does **not** mean migrating existing profiles onto v0.2. That distinction is the whole design, and it is what makes a standing always-latest policy implementable rather than a recurring crisis: - `DEFAULT` states commons' ingest-spec §5 layer. Its shape is commons' authorship, and editing it locally is a standing non-goal. - `STRICT_V1` mirrors the proving consumer's contract, ratified by their operator on 2026-07-25. Changing another repo's contract from here violates O2. - So v0.2 support arrives as **a new profile**, alongside the existing two. The phase-3 profile object is exactly the seam that makes this possible; this is the first time that abstraction pays for itself against an external forcing function rather than a second consumer. The upper bound is set upstream, not by ambition: v0.2 **defers the receipt and verdict wire formats and the full attestation runtime protocol to a future revision**. The *format* is fully supportable; an unspecified runtime is not. See D4. ## Provenance of the facts below Read from `GoogleCloudPlatform/knowledge-catalog`, `okf/SPEC.md` at **`main` on 2026-07-26** — a branch, not a tag. **First implementation step is to re-read the spec at a pinned commit and record it**, exactly as assumption C2 pins the proving consumer's validator to `9ee5a8e`. An enumeration read off a moving branch is a premise, not a fact. ## What v0.2 actually changes Two supersessions — the only backward-breaking changes, both with a documented consumer fallback (§13.1): | v0.1 | v0.2 | Fallback the spec grants | |---|---|---| | `timestamp` | `generated.at` | Consumers **MAY** fall back to legacy `timestamp` **when `generated` is absent** | | body `# Citations` list | `sources` frontmatter | Consumers **SHOULD** read `sources`, **MAY** still parse legacy `# Citations` | Additive, all optional upstream (§5) — and all in scope for us under the standing policy: `sources` (per-source credibility signals — `author`, `usage_count`, `last_modified`, framed by `usage_window`), `generated { by, at }`, `verified [ { by, at } ]`, `status` (`draft`/`stable`/`deprecated`, absent means `stable`), `stale_after` (absolute `YYYY-MM-DD`). Also new: - **Actor convention (§7).** `/` for an agent or tool, `human:`, `process:`. Consumers that classify trust key off the `human:` prefix, so producers **MUST** use it for hand-authored or human-confirmed content. Trust tiers (unverified / machine-confirmed / human-reviewed) are *derived* advisory signals, never a stored field. - **`Attested Computation`** concept type, with `runtime`, `parameters`, `computation`, `executor`, `attester`. - **`okf_version`** stays root-`index.md`-only and is a **MAY**: a declaration of the version a bundle *targets*, with no conformance checkpoint tying the declaration to compliance. - **Consumer tolerance is unchanged and broad.** A consumer MUST NOT reject a bundle for missing optional fields, unknown `type` values, unknown frontmatter keys, broken cross-links, or missing `index.md`. One additional MUST: a bare `verified` mapping must be read as a one-element list. One YAML detail that sizes the parser work: the canonical form for `generated` and a single `verified` is an **inline flow mapping** on one line (`generated: { by: …, at: … }`), which the existing scalar parser already round-trips as an opaque string. Only a multi-verifier `verified` and `sources` are **block lists**, and those are what force a richer frontmatter model. ## Exposure audit — measured against the tree, not reasoned | Surface | Status under v0.2 | Decision owner | |---|---|---| | `DEFAULT` emits `generated: "true"` (`materialize.py:164`, `inbox.py:127`) | **Malformed for a v0.2 field**: `generated.by` is REQUIRED within `generated`. `generated` was *not* reserved in v0.1, so this was legal when written — v0.2 claimed the name | **commons** (ingest-spec §5) | | `_is_ingest_owned` requires `generated == "true"` (`materialize.py:143-149`) | **Fail-safe.** A v0.2 mapping is not the string `"true"`, so the predicate returns False → target not ours → collision → refuse to overwrite. No safety hole | this repo | | `STRICT_V1` emits `timestamp`, and **no** `generated` | **Conformant** via the §13.1 legacy fallback, which applies precisely *because* `generated` is absent. No action is forced on the wiki | wiki | | `parse_frontmatter` is scalar-only (`partition(":")` → `dict[str, str]`) | Inline flow mappings round-trip as opaque strings. Block lists are unreachable, so `sources` and multi-verifier `verified` need a richer model — **now in scope** (D1) | this repo | | Fixtures and tests pin `okf_version: 0.1` | Accurate for the v0.1 profiles. The new v0.2 profile declares `"0.2"` | **catalog** (E1: `okf_version` tracks the upstream Google version) | | catalog's gate checks `okf_version` on **form** (`/^\d+(\.\d+)*$/`), not membership | `"0.2"` passes unchanged — an upstream bump breaks no gate | catalog | Two results that cut against the first reading of the change: 1. **`STRICT_V1`'s `timestamp` is not broken.** It sits on the documented legacy path. An earlier framing of it as a required-field defect was wrong. 2. **`DEFAULT` is the only surface with a real shape problem**, and it is the one surface this repo may not unilaterally change. Under the additive design this stops being on our critical path (D2, V1). The interaction that keeps (1) true and must never be violated: the `timestamp` fallback is granted only when `generated` is **absent**. A profile emitting both a `timestamp` and a malformed `generated` would have neither a valid `generated.at` nor an eligible fallback. No current profile does this — `DEFAULT` has no `timestamp`, `STRICT_V1` has no `generated` — and no profile may be allowed to reach that combination. This becomes a profile-construction invariant (V-A7). ## The sequencing rule we impose on ourselves **Conform first, claim after.** No bundle declares an `okf_version` its shape has not earned. The spec does not require this — §12 is a MAY with no conformance checkpoint, so declaring `"0.2"` early would be permitted. We adopt the rule anyway, for the same reason as *measure first, widen after* on the guard pin: a version claim that is literally permitted but not earned is the true-sounding misleading claim, and that class of mistake has already cost this repo a session. Concretely, the v0.2 profile declares `"0.2"` only once D1–D3 and their fixtures are green. ## Deliverables **D1 — A frontmatter model that carries block lists.** The single largest piece, and the one that must be designed rather than improvised: `parse_frontmatter` returns `dict[str, str]` today, and `sources` / multi-verifier `verified` cannot be expressed in it. Three directions: - (a) Widen the value type in place (`str | Mapping | list`). Cheapest to write, worst to consume: every existing caller must newly narrow, and `mypy --strict` makes that cost visible everywhere at once. - (b) A typed frontmatter model for all profiles. Cleanest end state, but it rewrites the v0.1 read path and puts C1 (default-profile behavior neutrality) at risk for no v0.1 benefit. - (c) **Recommended.** Keep the scalar reader as the v0.1 path, untouched, and add a structured reader selected by the profile. C1 stays trivially true (`DEFAULT` and `STRICT_V1` do not change code paths at all), the new complexity is reachable only from the new profile, and the two readers share the same byte-level guarantees. **D2 — An `OKF_V0_2` profile.** Frontmatter schema covering the §5 families; `generated: { by: "llm-ingestion-okf/", at: }` using the §7 actor convention; `sources` emission from the manifest's source; `status` and `stale_after` expressible; root-index `okf_version: "0.2"`. Also an `OKF_LATEST` alias, which is how the standing policy becomes visible in code. **Document the tradeoff rather than hiding it:** an alias that moves means a consumer bound to `OKF_LATEST` inherits upstream's breaking changes on a library upgrade. The versioned constants are the stable binding and are what consumers should pin; `OKF_LATEST` is for callers who have explicitly opted into tracking. `OKF_LATEST` means *the latest version supported as stable*, not the latest version present in the tree. During the pilot it therefore keeps pointing at the v0.1 semantics, and **flipping it to v0.2 is the GA event** — a single, auditable action rather than a side effect of a merge. This is what keeps the alias from becoming the footgun that drags tracking consumers into a provisional surface. `at` binds to the already-validated required `ingested_at` argument, so no wall-clock default is introduced and determinism holds. **D3 — Door C accepts any v0.2 bundle.** This is where "we support v0.2" is most user-visible: the §14 consumer tolerance MUST NOTs, plus the bare-`verified` coercion. Measured with one test per rule — Door C is a consumer in the OKF sense and either honours these or does not. **D4 — `Attested Computation`: format yes, runtime no.** Support the type and its fields (`runtime`, `parameters`, `computation`, `executor`, `attester`) for parse, validate, round-trip, and index. Do **not** implement execution or attestation: the receipt and verdict wire formats are explicitly deferred upstream, so there is no contract to build against, and "did this run produce the value the sanctioned way" sits against the guard's boundary rather than this library's plumbing. When upstream specifies the protocol, the standing policy brings it back into scope — and the boundary question goes to the operator first. **D5 — v0.2 golden fixtures.** A byte-exact v0.2 bundle in `examples/`. This is what converts "we support v0.2" from a claim into a test, and in phase 4 it becomes the cross-runtime conformance oracle for the Node half too. **D6 — Keep the policy from decaying.** "Always latest" silently rots unless something checks. Two mechanisms, both cheap: the spec commit is pinned and recorded in this doc (V-A1), and the release checklist gains one item — re-check upstream for a newer OKF version and record the result, even when unchanged. A standing policy with no detection mechanism is an intention, not a policy. ## Rollout — pilot before general availability Operator directive 2026-07-26: consumers are better served by getting the latest version early, testing it, and reporting back than by us holding it until we judge it finished. So v0.2 ships to a small pilot set first, and general availability is what happens *after* the findings are addressed. This closes a gap the plan otherwise had. Every test in the suite — including V-A8 against upstream's reference implementation — asks whether the output is *conformant*. None asks whether it is *usable*: whether a real bundle is awkward to construct, whether a rejection message tells the consumer anything actionable, whether the profile can express what their actual data needs. Only a consumer running real data surfaces that. ### The pilot set, chosen for signal rather than convenience Three repos, each exercising a different axis, and deliberately cheap for them: | Repo | Axis under test | What we ask of them | Their cost | |---|---|---|---| | `portfolio-optimiser-claude` | **Producer path.** Real Door A ingestion emitting v0.2 from a real manifest | Pin the pre-release tag, run one real manifest, report | one run | | `catalog` | **Gate acceptance.** Does a bundle *declaring* `okf_version: "0.2"` actually pass their gate — measured against their gate, not our reading of its regex | Run their existing gate on our fixture. No code change | one gate run | | `claude-code-llm-wiki` | **Expressiveness.** Can the profile object express a strict consumer at v0.2, over 522 real documents | Nothing. We read their bundle and send them the report | zero | The wiki entry is the important design detail: **most of the pilot is read-only on our side.** We run the v0.2 reader over real consumer bundles and report what we find. That needs no adoption, no writes into their tree (O2 holds), and no change to a contract their operator ratified. Only the *producer* axis requires a consumer to do anything. Deliberately excluded, with reasons: `okr` (Node side, not yet lifted — wrong time); `linkedin-studio` (their `ingest/published/` provenance grammar is deliberately not normalized, and v0.2's provenance families would put implicit pressure on exactly that carve-out); `portfolio-optimiser-commons` (they are deciding V1 — a participant, not a test site); `llm-ingestion-pipeline-security` (not an OKF consumer in this sense). ### Stages - **P1 — read-only sweep (us).** Run the v0.2 reader over real bundles from the pilot set. Finds parser gaps, tolerance-rule violations, and expressiveness gaps at zero risk to anyone. Runs as soon as D1–D3 are green. - **P2 — one producer, opt-in.** `portfolio-optimiser-claude` emits a v0.2 bundle against the pre-release tag. - **P3 — gate check.** `catalog` runs their real gate on P2's output. - **P4 — fix, then GA.** Address findings, then flip `OKF_LATEST` as its own release. ### Shipping a provisional surface without owing stability The install channel is a direct git reference, so consumers pin a tag explicitly and nothing reaches anyone implicitly. The pilot therefore ships as a **pre-release tag** (`v0.5.0a1`), and the marker lives in the tag name so a pin is self-documenting. Three rules make the provisional status real rather than stated: 1. `OKF_LATEST` does not point at v0.2 until GA (above). 2. The v0.2 profile's docstring and the CHANGELOG entry both say the surface may change on pilot feedback, and name the pilot repos. 3. Breaking changes during the pilot are expected and do **not** get a deprecation cycle. Saying this up front is what buys the freedom to act on feedback; discovering it later is what makes a pilot a de-facto release. ### Test specifications — stated before the run, with expected results A pilot that asks "run it and tell us how it went" returns a description. A pilot that states the expected result first returns a *measurement*, because only then can the consumer see that something differed. So each test below ships with its expected outcomes numbered, plus an explicit list of what would surprise us — naming the surprises is what lets someone else's run falsify our model instead of merely confirming it. All three read their inputs from this repo at the pre-release tag (`v0.5.0a1`); nothing is transported through the mailbox except the specification itself. #### Test A — producer path (`portfolio-optimiser-claude`) **Procedure.** In a scratch venv, install the package at the `v0.5.0a1` tag. Take **one manifest they have already run under `DEFAULT`**, so the existing v0.1 output is the baseline. Materialize it twice with the *same* explicit `ingested_at`: once with `profile=DEFAULT`, once with `profile=OKF_V0_2`. Diff. **Expected:** - **A-E1** The `DEFAULT` run is byte-identical to what their currently pinned version produces. Support is additive; if this fails we have broken a v0.1 consumer and the pilot stops here. - **A-E2** The v0.2 run differs from `DEFAULT` **only inside the frontmatter block**. Body bytes identical, filenames identical. - **A-E3** `generated` is an inline flow mapping `{ by: llm-ingestion-okf/, at: }` — not the string `true` — and `at` equals the `ingested_at` argument **exactly**. - **A-E4** `sources` is present as a block list carrying at least a `resource` derived from the manifest's source. - **A-E5** Re-running with the same `ingested_at` is byte-identical. - **A-E6** The root `index.md` declares `okf_version: "0.2"`. **What would surprise us — report immediately:** any diff outside the frontmatter block (the profile seam leaks); `at` differing from the `ingested_at` they passed (a wall-clock crept in — a determinism defect); a collision refusal on a target file that **is** theirs (`_is_ingest_owned` mis-firing under the new `generated` shape — we predict fail-safe refusal of *foreign* files, so a false refusal of their *own* is the failure mode); and anything about constructing the profile that required reading our source to work out. #### Test B — gate acceptance (`catalog`) **Procedure.** Run their **existing, unmodified** gate on two bundles from `examples/` at the tag: the v0.2 fixture, and the same fixture with `okf_version` set to `"0.1"` as a control. No pin, no code change, two gate runs. **Expected:** - **B-E1** Both pass. The form regex accepts both values, so the two runs should be indistinguishable. - **B-E2** No gate emits a WARNING or ERROR mentioning the version. - **B-E3** No gate *other than* the version gate behaves differently between the two runs. **What would surprise us:** any gate anywhere in their chain that keys off the version **value** rather than its form — a membership list, an equality comparison, a switch. We asserted from reading their regex that none exists; B-E3 is what converts that assertion into a measurement. Also: a gate requiring `timestamp` on a concept (superseded in v0.2), or anything downstream of the gate — their re-pin flow, the discovery mechanism — that assumes `0.1`. #### Test C — expressiveness (`claude-code-llm-wiki`, run by us) **Procedure (ours).** Construct a v0.2 variant of `STRICT_V1` here, read their bundle **read-only at a recorded commit**, validate all 522 documents, send them the report. They run nothing. **Expected:** - **C-E1** All 522 documents pass the v0.2 variant while keeping `timestamp` and emitting no `generated` — the §13.1 legacy path. - **C-E2** The variant requires **no** change to their eight required keys. - **C-E3** Everything a v0.2 posture would add is optional: `generated`, `verified`, `status`, `stale_after`, `sources`. - **C-E4** Their per-directory index policy and root frontmatter (`okf_version` / `bundle_profile` / `okf_spec_commit`) are expressible unchanged. **What we ask them to check in our report** — the parts we cannot measure from outside: whether any field we classified as an optional addition is in fact load-bearing in their pipeline; whether our reading of their contract still holds at their current HEAD; and whether "no change required" is true *operationally* and not just formally, since they know their consumers and we do not. ### Feedback shape Unstructured feedback is not comparable across three repos, so ask for a **per-expectation verdict plus five things by name**. First, one line per numbered expectation — `A-E1: as expected` / `A-E3: differed, `. That is the part that makes three independent runs comparable and that turns a disagreement into a located one. Then: 1. What was run, against which tag. 2. What failed — with the bytes or the actual error, not a summary. 3. **What was awkward but worked.** The workarounds are the highest-value signal and the one that never shows up as a failure. 4. What was needed that the profile could not express. 5. Whether they would adopt it as-is. **An expectation we got wrong is a better result than a clean run**, and the request says so explicitly — otherwise a consumer who sees something odd but passing has no reason to mention it. A clean run confirms what we already believed; a differed expectation is the only thing that can change the design. ### GA exit criteria 1. Every P1–P3 finding is either fixed or explicitly accepted with the reason recorded in this doc. 2. Golden fixtures byte-exact; V-A8 green. 3. The two existing profiles unchanged byte-for-byte, existing tests unmodified (V-A6). 4. `mypy --strict src/`, ruff, and the boundary grep-gate clean. 5. At least one consumer has *emitted* and one has *consumed* a v0.2 bundle end-to-end. 6. `OKF_LATEST` flips to v0.2 in its own release, with a CHANGELOG entry stating what changed for anyone bound to the alias. **One honest limit on what GA can mean.** A three-repo pilot exercises only what those three repos use. `sources` with `usage_window`, multi-verifier `verified`, and `Attested Computation` will very likely go unexercised. Those stay marked provisional at GA rather than being silently promoted: "stable" applies to the surface the pilot actually covered, and claiming more would be the same unearned-claim pattern that "conform first, claim after" exists to prevent. ## Open questions **V1 — `generated`'s shape in `DEFAULT` (commons').** *No longer blocks our v0.2 support*, because D2 puts v0.2 in a new profile. Still raised with commons, because `DEFAULT` keeps emitting a v0.2-reserved key with a v1-era value. Recommendation to carry: `generated: { by: "llm-ingestion-okf/", at: }`, deriving the machine-generated predicate from `generated.by` instead of a bespoke boolean — spec-native, removes a hand-rolled key, costs a `_is_ingest_owned` change and a fixture regeneration. If commons declines, the deviation is documented, not patched here. **V2 — Which D1 direction?** (c) recommended above; needs a decision before code because it determines whether `mypy --strict` churn lands across the existing call sites or stays confined to the new path. **V3 — Do we add v0.2 families at all?** **Answered: yes**, by the standing policy. Superseded — kept here to record that the earlier default answer ("no until a named consumer asks") was overridden deliberately, not forgotten. **V4 — `okf_version` values.** Policy, not constant. E1 gives the value to catalog. Our obligation is narrower and testable: no profile hard-codes a version, and the root-frontmatter policy expresses any value. **V5 — Attestation scope.** Answered by D4: format in, runtime out, on upstream's own deferral rather than our preference. ## TDD order Steps 1–3 add tests and change no behavior, so they are safe first and de-risk everything after. 1. **Characterize what already holds.** `parse_frontmatter` round-trips an inline flow mapping opaquely; `_is_ingest_owned` returns False for a v0.2 `generated` mapping. The second converts today's fail-safe from an accident into a documented guarantee. 2. **Audit Door C against the tolerance rules** (D3): one test per MUST NOT plus the bare-`verified` MUST. Failures here are real defects, not plan revisions. 3. **Assert no hard-coded version** anywhere a profile should decide (V4), and the no-`timestamp`-plus-malformed-`generated` construction invariant (V-A7). 4. **D1** — the structured reader, behind the profile seam, with the v0.1 scalar path untouched and the full existing suite as the net. 5. **D2** — the `OKF_V0_2` profile and `OKF_LATEST` alias. 6. **D5** — v0.2 golden fixtures; `okf_version: "0.2"` is declared only here, once 1–5 are green (conform first, claim after). 7. **P1** — read-only sweep over real pilot bundles. Cheap, zero-risk, and the first point where a finding can come from outside our own assumptions. 8. **Pre-release tag `v0.5.0a1`**, then **P2** (producer) and **P3** (gate). 9. **D4** — `Attested Computation` round-trip. Placed after the pilot on purpose: nothing in the pilot set uses it, so building it earlier would add surface the feedback cannot reach. 10. **P4** — address findings, then GA: flip `OKF_LATEST`, its own release. 11. **V1 to commons** in parallel throughout; **D6** lands with the GA release. ## Key assumptions, each with its test | # | Assumption | Test | |---|---|---| | V-A1 | The spec enumeration here is complete | Re-read `okf/SPEC.md` at a **pinned commit**, record the commit, diff against this doc before step 4 | | V-A2 | Inline flow mappings survive the scalar parser unmodified | Step 1 characterization; byte-exact round-trip | | V-A3 | v0.2 input cannot cause an unowned overwrite | Step 1: `_is_ingest_owned` False on a `generated` mapping | | V-A4 | Door C meets the v0.2 consumer tolerance rules | Step 2, one test per MUST NOT | | V-A5 | No profile hard-codes an upstream version | Step 3 | | V-A6 | Adding v0.2 support is behavior-neutral for v0.1 profiles | Golden suite byte-for-byte under `DEFAULT` **and** `STRICT_V1`; existing tests unmodified and green (C1 extended) | | V-A7 | No profile can emit `timestamp` together with a malformed `generated` | Named construction-time test, same shape as C3's verdict reservation | | V-A8 | A v0.2 bundle we emit is accepted by an independent v0.2 consumer | Validate the D5 fixture against upstream's reference implementation, not only against our own reader | V-A8 is the one that keeps this honest. Every other test asks whether we agree with ourselves. ## Non-goals - Implementing attestation execution — executors, attesters, receipts, verdicts (D4, on upstream's deferral). - Migrating `DEFAULT` or `STRICT_V1` onto v0.2. Support is additive; those two contracts belong to commons and the wiki. - Editing commons' ingest-spec locally. V1 is raised there. - Declaring `okf_version: "0.2"` on any bundle whose shape has not earned it. - Config-file/DSL profile loading — still a phase-3 extension point. ## Coordination — who needs to know what - **commons** — V1. `generated`'s shape in ingest-spec §5. No longer blocking us, still theirs to decide. - **catalog** — form owner. Upstream moved to v0.2; their form-not-membership gate absorbs the bump with no change; V4 is theirs; and a new profile now declares `"0.2"`, which is the first bundle shape in this repo to do so. - **wiki** — informational. Their `timestamp` is legacy-but-readable under §13.1; nothing is required of them, and the earlier reading that called it a defect was wrong. - **okr** — before the reference-implementation lift, so the Node half ports a contract that already knows about v0.2 rather than a v0.1 shape. ## Verification 1. Spec re-read at a pinned commit; hash recorded in this doc. 2. `pytest` green; `mypy --strict src/`; `ruff check .` and `ruff format --check .` clean. 3. V-A6: golden suite byte-for-byte under both existing profiles; zero fixture changes outside the new v0.2 fixtures (`git diff --stat examples/` shows additions only). 4. V-A7 and V-A5 named tests present and failing-by-construction if removed. 5. V-A8: the v0.2 fixture validates under upstream's reference implementation. 6. Boundary grep-gate still empty (`sanitize|quarantine|lexicon` absent outside guard imports). 7. D6: release checklist contains the upstream-version re-check item.