v1.0.123 August 2026

One record for an image and its embeddings.

VER defines a serialization format, a canonical pixel normalization pipeline, an identity model, an embedding-space declaration mechanism, a metadata preservation and trust model, and four conformance levels.

VER does not define, mandate, or prefer any particular embedding model.

Read the specification Schema and artifacts

RFC 2119 JSON Schema 2020-12 L0 – L3 CC BY 4.0

minimal-l0.json

{
  "ver_version": "1.0",
  "cpnp_version": "1.0",
  "record_id": "face7ae1-6ed8-5419-a481-00d76b6fd277",
  "created_at": "2026-08-22T09:14:20Z",
  "conformance_level": "L0",
  "identity": {
    "content_hash": {
      "alg": "sha-256",
      "value": "45656e3ec534f0e6993853cbe1c9645ce535741ddbb1a1fc69c8673c303a685b"
    },
    "pixel_hash": {
      "alg": "sha-256",
      "value": "c87ca9f2ee178aa90e590fa07f095e39dbc2165f4a6fbeeb0cd8028044fbc5b9",
      "width": 4032,
      "height": 3024
    }
  },
  "image": {
    "format": "jpeg",
    "width": 4032,
    "height": 3024,
    "animated": false,
    "alpha_present": false,
    "hdr_present": false
  },
  "spaces": [
    {
      "space_id": "org.verstandard.space.openclip-vit-l14-datacomp-xl/1.0",
      "kind": "visual",
      "model": {
        "family": "openclip",
        "architecture": "ViT-L/14",
        "checkpoint": "datacomp_xl_s13b_b90k",
        "weights_sha256": "808c5c3d755c7eee2f168b8432b5601067cd9467d759bd2ebe1f72265920a6a1"
      },
      "dim": 768,
      "dtype": "fp32",
      "normalization": "l2",
      "metric": "cosine",
      "preprocessing": {
        "resize": "shortest_side_224",
        "interpolation": "bicubic",
        "antialias": true,
        "crop": "center_224",
        "mean": [
          0.48145466,
          0.4578275,
          0.40821073
        ],
        "std": [
          0.26862954,
          0.26130258,
          0.27577711
        ],
        "channel_order": "rgb"
      },
      "reference": {
        "set_uri": "https://verstandard.org/refsets/openclip-vit-l14-datacomp-xl-1.0",
        "tolerance_cosine": 0.999
      },
      "provenance": {
        "publisher": "verstandard.org",
        "published_at": "2026-06-01T00:00:00Z",
        "license": "MIT"
      }
    }
  ],
  "embeddings": [
    {
      "role": "canonical_visual",
      "space_id": "org.verstandard.space.openclip-vit-l14-datacomp-xl/1.0",
      "dim": 768,
      "dtype": "fp32",
      "vector_ref": {
        "uri": "https://vectors.example.org/boardwalk-sunset/canonical-visual-openclip-vit-l14-datacomp-xl.bin",
        "sha256": "8d1fe99b503b9439f6d0b513a6da3418a6ae02302be69460ccd77cd2aa726ef8",
        "byte_length": 3072
      },
      "produced_at": "2026-08-22T09:14:10Z",
      "producer": "ver-producer/1.0.3 (onnxruntime-gpu 1.22, fp32)"
    }
  ]
}

The L0 floor, verbatim from the fixture corpus: identity, image facts, one fully described visual space and the canonical visual embedding it anchors. conformance/valid/minimal-l0.json

§3 Architecture

Four tiers of identity, each answering a different question

Every record carries up to four tiers. Each states what it survives and what it fails under, so no consumer has to guess which one to trust for which job.

Tier	Artifact	Survives	Fails under / Role
Byte	`content_hash — SHA-256 of Asset bytes`	Exact copies only	Any re-encode or metadata rewrite. Role: dedupe, C2PA binding.
Pixel	`pixel_hash — SHA-256 of Canonical Buffer`	Metadata stripping and rewriting	Recompression, resize, crop. Role: render identity.
Perceptual	`PDQ / pHash digests`	Mild recompression, resizing	Crops, heavy edits, adversaries. Role: near-duplicate clustering.
Semantic	`Canonical visual embedding`	Most benign transforms	Model change, adversarial perturbation. Role: similarity, retrieval.

Perceptual digests and embeddings are similarity signals. They MUST NOT be used for authentication, integrity, or provenance claims — those belong to the byte tier and to signatures.

The record

Four layers, and a determinism claim that survives them

Layers 1–3 carry embeddings, metadata and context. Layer 0 is what makes Layer 1's determinism claim true: metadata availability is never a precondition for computing a canonical visual embedding.

Layer 0

Identity and normalization

CPNP-1 resolves render-affecting metadata into the Canonical Buffer and computes the identity gradient.

Layer 1

Canonical visual embeddings

Vectors computed from the Canonical Buffer only, each bound to a declared Embedding Space.

Layer 2

Metadata and provenance

Byte-exact preservation, a reconciled view, availability states, trust tiers, redaction and C2PA binding.

Layer 3

Contextual embeddings

Optional text-derived vectors, provenance-tagged by source class, never fused into Layer 1.

§11 Conformance levels

What a record must carry, level by level

L0 is deliberately minimal and is the thesis's own rule made testable: nothing but pixels is required to produce a conformant record.

Capability	L0	L1	L2	L3
CPNP-1, content_hash, pixel_hash	M	M	M	M
≥ 1 canonical_visual embedding + full space descriptor	M	M	M	M
Byte-exact raw metadata preservation	—	M	M	M
Availability states per family	—	M	M	M
Reconciled view, precedence, conflicts[]	—	—	M	M
Trust tiers; redaction-with-proof	—	—	M	M
Acquisition + chain; C2PA validation	—	—	—	M
Contextual embeddings w/ source provenance	—	—	—	M
Record signature (JWS/COSE over JCS)	—	—	—	S

Conformance and the validatorM = mandatory · S = SHOULD · — = not required

Conformance profile vera-profile/1.0

The profile is executable, not illustrative

Every issue code has exactly one fixture registered against it, or an explicit exemption saying why it cannot have one. A validator either reproduces the manifest exactly or it disagrees with the standard.

83Issue codes67 error · 16 warning

95Fixtures14 conformant · 81 not

17StagesParse through lineage

Browse the issue codes Validator reference

shell

# validate a record against the published profile
pip install -e packages/ver-validator
ver-validate --schema 1.0.1 record.vera.json
# the corpus is the contract: 95 fixtures, 81 of them seeded
# with exactly one defect each
ver-validate --format json conformance/valid/minimal-l0.json

ver-conformance/1.1-draftvera-profile/1.1-draftgenerated 2026-08-25

Governed artifacts

Numbers the working group can be held to

A registry snapshot addressed by its own digest, a decoder corpus re-derived on every commit, and reference sets whose every vector digest was measured rather than asserted.

Snapshot 1 · 2026-08-25

The VER Registry

Four value spaces. 16 provenance action tokens are registered; one space is open and three are seeded-closed.

4 namespaces

verd-pillow/1

Decoder reference corpus

21 Assets that pin what a conformant decoder must produce, each with its content digest, dimensions and pixel hash.

ver-decoder-corpus/1

3 embedding spaces

Reference sets

10 images per set, 30 measured vector digests. A tolerance claim now has something to be measured against.

reference_set_version 1

Releases

Two planes, versioned separately

The record format and the artifact release move independently. A corrective release never edits a published document in place; it annotates it.

v1.0.0frozen

21 August 2026 · record version 1.0

The first published artifact set, frozen with its defects. Nothing in the directory may be modified.

v1.0.1current

23 August 2026 · record version 1.0

A corrective release over the 1.0.0 artifact set: three schema constraints, five example edits, and the normative errata annex.

v1.1-draftdraft

25 August 2026 · record version 1.1

Unratified. Adds the registry, lineage, model bundle manifests and redaction commitments. Producers must not emit 1.1 records to third parties.

Release history Versioning policy

What VER does not claim

A record that passes is well-formed, never verified

A signature attests that a producer published a record — not that what the record claims about the world is so. The vector suite checks that a record round-trips, not that a model is accurate.

The v1.1-draft track is unratified: producers MUST NOT emit 1.1 records to third parties outside an agreed ratification trial.

Security considerations Decision records

Current schemahttps://verstandard.org/schemas/ver-record-1.0.1.json

ver_versionMUSTconst

cpnp_versionMUSTconst

record_idMUSTstring (uuid)

created_atMUSTstring (date-time)

generatorMAYobject

conformance_levelMAYenum

All 12 top-level members