Aeonite

Neutral specifications and test suites for meaning-aware data interchange.

Aeonite governance model

Aeonite exists to host, publish, and preserve neutral specifications and test suites for meaning-aware data interchange. This page explains its structural model and operating principles. For operational details and answers to specific questions, see How Aeonite Operates.

Purpose

Its role is custodial and editorial. Its function is definitional, not promotional. Aeonite exists so that specifications can outlive implementations, companies, and individuals.

What Aeonite is

  • a neutral specification host,
  • a publisher of conformance test suites,
  • a naming commons for related specifications,
  • a long-lived reference point for implementers.

Aeonite provides specifications, normative test suites, scope documents, and immutable artifacts.

What Aeonite is not

  • not a software vendor,
  • not a foundation or membership organisation,
  • not a standards body with voting or representation,
  • not a certification authority,
  • not a registry of implementations,
  • not a community forum, roadmap owner, or advocacy group.

Aeonite does not endorse implementations, approve or reject tools, arbitrate disputes, enforce adoption, or define best practices beyond the specification itself.

Current custodian

Aeonite is currently maintained by Patrik Fagard as custodian of the publication surface and specification archive.

The custodian role is editorial and archival: it preserves published artifacts, maintains clarity across documents, and publishes new versions when ready. It does not certify implementations or act as a membership, standards, or certification body.

Custodial governance

Aeonite is custodian-governed, not ownerless or consensus-governed. The custodian has editorial authority over publication, versioning, scope boundaries, and preservation of specification and CTS artifacts.

Altopelago may propose, incubate, implement, or test work that later informs Aeonite publications. Once work enters Aeonite, the authoritative source is the published specification and CTS artifact, not the originating implementation or company context.

Custodial governance does not include enforcing adoption, interpreting implementations, declaring winners, or adjudicating implementation disputes.

Conformance and permanence

Conformance is test-defined: passing the relevant test suite establishes conformance. There is no certification, approval, or compliance process beyond the tests themselves.

Aeonite artifacts are versioned and immutable. Older versions remain valid indefinitely and may coexist permanently with newer versions.

Neutrality and longevity

Aeonite is structured to resist capture and persist beyond trends, individuals, and organizations.

  • No central authority to seize.
  • No registry to control.
  • No certification power to acquire.

Aeonite is designed to persist beyond individual authors, companies, trends, and implementations.

For more details

See How Aeonite Operates for comprehensive answers to questions about: how feedback is handled, how ambiguity is resolved, how versions are versioned, how you can implement specifications, and why Aeonite resists roadmaps and capture risks.