Copyright © 2026 the Contributors to the Universal Manifest Specification. This document is published under the W3C Software and Document License.
The v0.4 specification is published as a conformance-tier stack: a breadth-first Primer, a Tier-0/Tier-1 Base, four companion profiles that a conformance claim adds by tier or by optional feature, and a Cookbook of worked examples. The question that decides what you read and build is "what level of assurance am I certifying to?"
v0.3 remains the stable published reference; v0.4 is the production-candidate milestone.
| # | Document | Role | Words | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | universal-manifest-primer.md | Primer — breadth-first overview: what UM is, the shape of a manifest, the lifecycle, the core guarantees, a one-glance map of tiers + extensions. Informative; no MUSTs. | ~2,300 | Informative |
| 2 | universal-manifest-tier0-tier1-core.md | Base — everything to build a conformant Tier-0/Tier-1 evaluator and holder, including a top-level manifest object/field map. Names advanced/optional features and points to the extensions for their mechanics. | ~11,000 | Production-candidate + PREVIEW-named |
| 3 | ext-t1-binding-profile.md | EXT-T1 — Tier-1 binding mechanics: holder binding, presentation proof, liveness, Stage-2 sub-steps, the 7-step claim-proof path, v0.3 backwards compat. | ~3,200 | Normative (T1.3.1–T1.3.3 PREVIEW) |
| 4 | ext-t2-crypto-binding-profile.md | EXT-T2 — Tier-2 ZKP proof profiles (2A/2B), the BBS+ unlinkable disclosure track, post-quantum migration. | ~2,400 | PREVIEW |
| 5 | ext-t3-ceremony-profile.md | EXT-T3 — Tier-3 multi-party ceremony: model, attester-role taxonomy, threshold-protocol guidance. | ~1,000 | PREVIEW |
| 6 | ext-opt-optional-features.md | EXT-OPT — tier-orthogonal optional features: abstract data model + CBOR-LD, statusRef protocol, receipts-as-class, bilateral sessions, federation, profile registration, scope registry, trustWeight/category trust, extended schemas, crypto summary, class registry. | ~6,400 | Mixed (PREVIEW-tagged per part) |
| 7 | universal-manifest-cookbook.md | Cookbook — all 24 worked examples, by scenario, tagged by tier. Informative. | ~2,600 | Informative |
Does: relocate and re-frame existing content into a tier-stack architecture; add three net-new artifacts (Primer, Cookbook, this index); apply a concision pass; preserve every normative requirement (moved/deferred, never silently dropped); keep the Base at "what conformance demands" altitude by naming advanced capabilities and specifying them in extensions — the same discipline that kept v0.3 digestible.
Does not: reword normative meaning, change any wire shape, or alter conformance semantics. The anchor discipline: each document owns its anchors; cross-citations between the Base and the extensions run in both directions and are verified by the rendered-anchor guard.
This set was restructured from the earlier single-file v0.4 draft into the Conformance-Tier Stack architecture (the "Strategy B" layout) in June 2026. The restructuring relocated and re-framed existing content into the tier-stack and added three net-new artifacts (Primer, Cookbook, this index); it preserved every normative requirement and changed no wire shape.