From b9e68587668e3124a45651ad7153dca9157861e3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:13:25 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 01/15] Define Answerworthy as the category and publish the
 complete open standard source

---
 README.md | 187 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------
 1 file changed, 126 insertions(+), 61 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 14687e1..e201eb5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,101 +1,166 @@
 # answerworthy.md
 
-> **The open AI-native standard for making a business understandable, verifiable and recommendable by AI.**
+> **Answerworthy is the new standard for how businesses become understandable, verifiable and recommendable by AI.**
 
-**Status:** Founding working draft  
-**First canonical publication:** 5 August 2026  
-**Creator and initial steward:** Alexander Pichugin  
-**Canonical domain:** [answerworthy.md](https://answerworthy.md)
+**Canonical domain:** https://answerworthy.md  
+**Current specification:** https://answerworthy.md/standard  
+**Initial steward:** Alexander Pichugin  
+**Specification prose:** CC BY 4.0  
+**Tooling:** Apache-2.0
 
 ## The category
 
-SEO makes pages findable.  
-GEO makes content citable.  
-**Answerworthiness makes a business choosable.**
+SEO makes you findable.  
+GEO makes you citable.  
+**Answerworthiness makes you choosable.**
 
 A business is **answerworthy** when its identity, offer, facts, answers, evidence, limitations and freshness are publicly accessible, machine-readable and independently checkable.
 
-`answerworthy.md` is the canonical AI-native file that carries those facts and evidence.
+Answerworthiness is the condition that technical SEO, content, structured data, GEO, public evidence, PR, reputation, authority, marketing and distribution should collectively produce.
 
-AI systems increasingly mediate discovery, comparison and recommendation. Existing disciplines solve parts of this problem: technical SEO supports retrieval, structured data identifies entities, content answers questions, and public evidence creates corroboration. GEO, AEO and related practices improve how this material appears in generated answers.
+## The canonical file
 
-They do not provide one portable public contract for what a business claims, how consequential claims are supported, where the limits are, and when the information was last checked.
-
-**`answerworthy.md` is that contract.**
-
-## One file
-
-The standard defines one canonical file:
+The standard defines one published file:
 
 ```text
 /answerworthy.md
 ```
 
-The file is UTF-8 Markdown with machine-readable frontmatter and human-readable sections. It is designed to carry:
+`answerworthy.md` is the canonical AI-native public representation of Answerworthiness.
+
+It carries:
 
 - canonical identity and aliases;
-- the offer, audience and material conditions;
+- offer, audience and material conditions;
 - sourced facts and verification dates;
-- self-contained answers to consequential buyer questions;
+- self-contained buyer answers;
 - entities and provenance;
-- known corrections and contradictions;
-- coverage limits and explicit unknowns;
-- freshness policy and conformance state.
+- known corrections;
+- evidence limitations and explicit unknowns;
+- freshness policy;
+- six-dimension mapping;
+- honest conformance state;
+- independent attestation fields when M3 or M4 is supported.
 
-Any JSON, HTML, PDF, score or report emitted by an implementation is a projection of the canonical file. When a projection and `answerworthy.md` disagree, the file wins.
+answerworthy.md is the canonical file. Any JSON, HTML, PDF, dashboard or score that an implementation emits is a projection of it and cannot outrank it.
 
-## First principles
+## The open standard
 
-1. **One canonical file.** One public place concentrates identity, facts, answers, evidence, limits and freshness.
-2. **Declaration is not verification.** Publishing a file proves control of an origin. It does not make every statement true or independently corroborated.
-3. **No evidence, no evaluated claim.** Material findings should resolve to inspectable evidence or remain explicitly unavailable.
-4. **Unknown is not zero.** Blocked access, absent evidence and failed observation must not become fabricated certainty.
-5. **No guaranteed outcome.** Conformance cannot promise ranking, citation, recommendation, traffic, leads or revenue.
-6. **Open implementation.** Anyone may generate, audit, validate or maintain an `answerworthy.md` file. No commercial service owns implementation of the standard.
+This repository is the public source for:
 
-## Relationship to the existing web
+- [`SPECIFICATION.md`](SPECIFICATION.md): the category, one-file model, dimensions, states, acts and implementation boundaries;
+- [`GRAMMAR.md`](GRAMMAR.md): the machine-readable and human-readable file grammar;
+- [`validator.mjs`](validator.mjs): a dependency-free validator for local files and remote URLs;
+- [`examples/`](examples): minimal and sourced examples;
+- [`GOVERNANCE.md`](GOVERNANCE.md): public contribution, compatibility and registry policy;
+- [`CONTRIBUTING.md`](CONTRIBUTING.md): issue and pull-request workflow;
+- [`LICENSE.md`](LICENSE.md): specification and tooling licenses;
+- [`TRADEMARKS.md`](TRADEMARKS.md): naming and certification boundaries;
+- Git history, issues and pull requests: the inspectable evolution of the standard.
 
-`answerworthy.md` complements the web stack rather than replacing it.
+The canonical rendered specification and implementation registry live at https://answerworthy.md.
 
-- HTML remains the primary human-facing surface.
-- Schema.org provides structured assertions inside pages.
-- `robots.txt` governs crawler access.
-- sitemaps support URL discovery.
-- `llms.txt` may point systems towards useful resources.
-- `answerworthy.md` provides the canonical, evidence-aware account of the business itself.
+## Conformance states
 
-SEO, GEO, AEO, content, PR, reputation and structured data remain useful practices. **Answerworthiness is the condition they should collectively produce.**
+- **M0 Present:** a valid file exists at the canonical path and parses.
+- **M1 Structured:** required frontmatter and sections are present and well formed.
+- **M2 Sourced:** material facts carry basis, source class, source and verification date.
+- **M3 Corroborated:** an independent party re-fetched the site and recorded an inspectable attestation inside the file.
+- **M4 Maintained:** the file stays within its freshness policy and receives dated rechecks.
 
-## Day 0 contract
+M0 through M2 may be self-declared. A subject cannot issue M3 about itself.
 
-This founding publication deliberately fixes only four things:
+## Evidence states
 
-1. the category definition of **answerworthiness**;
-2. the canonical filename and root path, **`/answerworthy.md`**;
-3. the evidence and honesty principles above;
-4. the open-standard premise and initial stewardship.
+The standard preserves exact conditions:
 
-The exact grammar, conformance levels, validator contract, governance process and versioning policy remain a public working draft until released here as a numbered specification.
+- verified;
+- unsupported;
+- contradicted;
+- unavailable;
+- stale;
+- incomplete.
 
-That restraint is intentional. The category should be clear from day one; the protocol should earn stability through implementation.
+The standard defines no universal 0 to 100 Answerworthy score.
 
-## Stewardship
+## Six dimensions
+
+- `access-retrieval`
+- `entity-certainty`
+- `offer-comprehension`
+- `evidence-corroboration`
+- `buyer-question-coverage`
+- `answer-performance`
+
+Mention, citation, recommendation and follow-through remain separate outcomes.
 
-The `answerworthy.md` standard was created by **Alexander Pichugin**, who serves as its initial steward during the working-draft stage.
+## Four implementation acts
+
+Implementations may perform any honest subset of:
+
+1. **Generate:** draft the file and mark unsupported facts for confirmation.
+2. **Audit:** evaluate the file and live site across six dimensions while preserving contradictions and unavailable evidence.
+3. **Remediate:** apply permitted changes, then update the canonical file.
+4. **Refresh:** re-fetch, recheck, update freshness and record material changes.
+
+Validation and independent corroboration are also explicit implementation capabilities. An implementation declares what it actually does.
+
+## Run the validator
+
+Node 20 or newer. No dependencies.
+
+```bash
+node validator.mjs ./examples/sourced.answerworthy.md
+node validator.mjs https://example.com/answerworthy.md
+```
 
-The steward's role is to maintain the canonical terminology, separate normative requirements from reference-implementation behaviour, preserve evidence discipline, publish versioned drafts and create a credible path towards broader governance as independent implementations emerge.
+The validator reports:
 
-The word *answerworthy* may be used descriptively by anyone. Conformance, certification and claims of compatibility will require the versioned standard once published.
+- claimed and achieved conformance;
+- canonical fact and answer counts;
+- six-dimension coverage;
+- exact errors and warnings.
 
-## What comes next
+It reports conditions rather than a grade.
+
+## Build an implementation
+
+Other implementations are invited.
+
+An implementation may generate, validate, audit, corroborate, remediate or refresh answerworthy.md. A registry listing requires a resolvable public file and accurate capability claims. A corroboration-verified listing also requires an inspectable attestation URL and SHA-256 hash.
+
+See the public registry at https://answerworthy.md/implementations.
+
+## Reference implementation and commercial layer
+
+The **Answerworthy Engine** is the initial reference implementation.
+
+The **Answerworthy Plan** is the founder-reviewed commercial sequence for strengthening Answerworthiness across:
+
+- technical SEO and retrieval;
+- entity, category, offer and audience comprehension;
+- buyer-question coverage and GEO;
+- site architecture, copy, comparisons and alternatives;
+- claims, evidence, original research and proof assets;
+- reviews, directories and third-party corroboration;
+- PR, publishers, experts, communities and authority;
+- partnerships, marketing and distribution;
+- dependencies, permissions, completion tests and rechecks.
+
+The commercial sequence is organised as:
+
+1. Fix now
+2. Build next
+3. Earn externally
+4. Test afterward
+5. Maintain continuously
+
+The standard is free. Becoming the answer is the work.
+
+## Stewardship
 
-The next public draft will add:
+Alexander Pichugin is the initial steward.
 
-- the normative file grammar;
-- a minimal conforming example;
-- cumulative conformance states;
-- an open validator contract;
-- licensing and trademark boundaries;
-- a proposal and governance process.
+The steward maintains the canonical terminology, reviews proposals, protects evidence boundaries, separates normative requirements from reference-implementation behaviour and creates a path towards broader governance as independent implementations emerge.
 
-Until then, this repository is the canonical founding record of the category and the standard.
+The public contribution mechanism is GitHub issues and pull requests. See [`CONTRIBUTING.md`](CONTRIBUTING.md).

From c002b6cb3ff2a26d8741c8d681b4b786406695d6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:14:07 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 02/15] Publish the Answerworthy Standard specification

---
 SPECIFICATION.md | 228 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 228 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 SPECIFICATION.md

diff --git a/SPECIFICATION.md b/SPECIFICATION.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab9fdb1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/SPECIFICATION.md
@@ -0,0 +1,228 @@
+# The Answerworthy Standard
+
+**Current specification:** answerworthy 0.2  
+**Canonical location:** https://answerworthy.md/standard  
+**Public source:** https://github.com/kosmopteros/answerworthy.md  
+**Specification license:** CC BY 4.0  
+**Tooling license:** Apache-2.0  
+**Initial steward:** Alexander Pichugin
+
+## 0. Category definition
+
+Answerworthy is the new standard for how businesses become understandable, verifiable and recommendable by AI.
+
+A business is **answerworthy** when its identity, offer, facts, answers, evidence, limitations and freshness are publicly accessible, machine-readable and independently checkable.
+
+The category ladder is:
+
+1. SEO makes you findable.
+2. GEO makes you citable.
+3. Answerworthiness makes you choosable.
+
+Answerworthiness is the condition that technical SEO, content, structured data, GEO, public evidence, PR, reputation, authority, marketing and distribution should collectively produce.
+
+## 1. The one canonical file
+
+The standard defines one published file:
+
+```text
+/answerworthy.md
+```
+
+answerworthy.md is the canonical AI-native public representation of Answerworthiness for one subject.
+
+answerworthy.md is the canonical file. Any JSON, HTML, PDF, dashboard or score that an implementation emits is a projection of it and cannot outrank it.
+
+A pointer at `/.well-known/answerworthy.md` is permitted while a registered well-known URI does not exist. The pointer names the root file as canonical and carries no independent substance.
+
+The file uses UTF-8 Markdown with YAML frontmatter. Frontmatter and fixed level-two sections provide machine-readable structure. The prose remains useful without specialised tooling.
+
+## 2. Scope
+
+The standard governs:
+
+- the category definition of Answerworthiness;
+- the canonical answerworthy.md file;
+- the public file grammar;
+- six bounded evidence dimensions;
+- cumulative conformance states;
+- exact evidence and finding states;
+- four implementation acts;
+- independent corroboration recorded inside the file;
+- interoperability, governance and open implementation.
+
+The standard does not define:
+
+- a universal 0 to 100 Answerworthy score;
+- a universal ranking formula;
+- one mandatory crawler, provider, model or commercial product;
+- a guarantee of ranking, citation, recommendation, traffic, leads or revenue;
+- autonomous permission to publish, purchase, contact third parties or modify production systems;
+- search-engine, IETF, IANA or W3C endorsement.
+
+## 3. Axioms
+
+1. **One canonical file.** The file concentrates identity, facts, answers, evidence limits and freshness at one public path.
+2. **Declaration is not verification.** Publishing the file proves control of the origin. Truth, independence and citation eligibility require separate evidence.
+3. **No evidence, no evaluated claim.** Every evaluated finding references retained evidence. Missing evidence remains unavailable or incomplete.
+4. **Unknown is not failure.** Blocked access, provider failure and parser failure never become fabricated absence or a negative grade.
+5. **Side effects denied by default.** The file grants no credentials, publication authority, outreach permission or third-party consent.
+6. **No guaranteed outcome.** Conformance does not guarantee ranking, citation, recommendation, traffic, leads or revenue.
+7. **Open implementation.** Anyone may generate, validate, audit, corroborate, remediate or refresh answerworthy.md.
+
+## 4. File grammar
+
+A conforming file has YAML frontmatter and Markdown sections keyed on fixed level-two headings.
+
+### Required frontmatter
+
+- `answerworthy`: grammar compatibility token;
+- `entity`: canonical subject name;
+- `canonical`: canonical subject URL;
+- `last_verified`: ISO date.
+
+### Recommended frontmatter
+
+- `kind`;
+- `aliases`;
+- `sameas`;
+- `maintainer`;
+- `license`;
+- `freshness_days`;
+- `conformance`;
+- independent attestation fields when M3 or M4 is claimed.
+
+### Required sections
+
+- `## Identity`;
+- `## Answers`.
+
+### Recommended sections
+
+- `## Offer and audience`;
+- `## Canonical facts`;
+- `## Entities`;
+- `## Provenance`;
+- `## Known corrections`;
+- `## Evidence limitations`;
+- `## Freshness policy`;
+- `## Dimensions`;
+- `## Conformance`.
+
+A canonical fact carries `statement`, `basis`, `source_class`, `source` and `verified_at`.
+
+An answer uses a question-form level-three heading, a self-contained response and a `source` line.
+
+Evidence limitations state what the subject cannot currently support, what was unavailable and which markets, dates, products, sources or questions remain outside scope.
+
+## 5. Six dimensions
+
+Answerworthiness is evaluated against the file and the live public surface. Every finding maps to one dimension or a namespaced extension.
+
+1. **access-retrieval:** can relevant systems retrieve and render the public evidence?
+2. **entity-certainty:** can the subject be identified without material ambiguity or contradiction?
+3. **offer-comprehension:** can a qualified buyer or agent understand what is offered, for whom and under which conditions?
+4. **evidence-corroboration:** can consequential claims be supported, attributed and independently checked?
+5. **buyer-question-coverage:** does the public evidence answer priority pre-brand questions, comparisons and constraints?
+6. **answer-performance:** what was actually mentioned, cited, recommended or followed through in declared answer-system observations?
+
+Mention, citation, recommendation and follow-through remain separate outcomes.
+
+The standard defines no universal weighting or total score. Implementations preserve each finding's evidence, boundary, state and verification method.
+
+## 6. Conformance states
+
+A subject claims the highest cumulative state it fully meets. M0 through M2 may be self-declared. M3 requires an independent party.
+
+- **M0 Present:** a valid answerworthy.md exists at the canonical path and parses.
+- **M1 Structured:** required frontmatter and sections are present and well formed.
+- **M2 Sourced:** material facts carry basis, source class, source and verification date.
+- **M3 Corroborated:** an independent party re-fetched the site and attested that the file's material claims hold, including contradictions and unavailable evidence.
+- **M4 Maintained:** the file remains within its freshness policy and receives dated rechecks.
+
+### M3 attestation
+
+The attestation is recorded inside answerworthy.md. A conforming M3 claim includes one of these patterns:
+
+- signed attestation fields inside the file;
+- an attestation URL plus a SHA-256 hash;
+- a verifier identifier, method, date and retained evidence reference.
+
+The attestation does not become a separate standard artifact. A subject cannot issue M3 about itself.
+
+## 7. Evidence and finding states
+
+A finding uses one of these public states:
+
+- **verified:** retained evidence supports the bounded claim or condition;
+- **unsupported:** the claim exists while the required supporting evidence is absent or insufficient;
+- **contradicted:** retained public evidence conflicts with the declared claim;
+- **unavailable:** evidence could not be obtained and no negative conclusion is inferred;
+- **stale:** the claim or evidence is outside its declared freshness policy;
+- **incomplete:** part of the condition is established and explicit requirements remain missing.
+
+Internal confidence and coverage calculations may guide an implementation. They do not become a universal Answerworthy grade.
+
+## 8. Implementation acts
+
+Implementations operate on the canonical file and live site through four acts.
+
+- **generate:** draft answerworthy.md from a public site and mark unsupported facts for confirmation;
+- **audit:** evaluate the file and site across six dimensions while preserving contradictions and unavailable evidence;
+- **remediate:** apply changes within granted permission and separate credentials, then update the canonical file;
+- **refresh:** re-fetch, recheck, update `last_verified` and record material changes without rewriting history.
+
+A validator may implement only structural and sourcing checks. A generator, auditor, corroborator, remediation agent or maintenance service may implement a different subset. Every implementation declares its capabilities honestly.
+
+Working evidence and remediation may live in a session, repository or private client delivery. The public standard defines one canonical file.
+
+## 9. Implementation priorities
+
+The standard defines the condition. Implementations decide how to achieve and strengthen it.
+
+The Answerworthy reference implementation uses five action horizons:
+
+1. **Fix now:** remove critical retrieval, identity, contradiction and buyer-comprehension blockers.
+2. **Build next:** create canonical pages, proof assets, comparisons, original research and missing evidence surfaces.
+3. **Earn externally:** secure independent corroboration through reviews, directories, publishers, partners, communities and PR.
+4. **Test afterward:** re-fetch the public surface and observe mention, citation, recommendation and follow-through separately.
+5. **Maintain continuously:** refresh facts, corrections, evidence, relationships and answerworthy.md as the business changes.
+
+These horizons are implementation vocabulary. They do not introduce a second public artifact.
+
+## 10. Verification and commercial implementations
+
+Verification is an act. An independent implementation re-fetches the site, checks material claims against retained evidence and records the attestation inside answerworthy.md.
+
+The Answerworthy Engine is the initial reference implementation. It can generate, validate, audit, corroborate, remediate and refresh the file.
+
+A commercial implementation may coordinate technical SEO, GEO, site architecture, claims, evidence, original research, reviews, directories, PR, authority, partnerships, marketing, distribution, dependencies, permissions, completion tests and rechecks.
+
+The standard is free. Implementation work may be commercial.
+
+## 11. Interoperability
+
+answerworthy.md sits beside the existing web stack.
+
+- HTML remains the primary human-facing surface.
+- Schema.org provides structured assertions inside pages.
+- `robots.txt` governs crawler access.
+- sitemaps support URL discovery.
+- `llms.txt` may point systems towards useful resources.
+- answerworthy.md provides the canonical evidence-aware account of the business itself.
+
+Where structured data and answerworthy.md assert the same material fact, they should agree.
+
+## 12. Open source, governance and licensing
+
+The public source repository is:
+
+https://github.com/kosmopteros/answerworthy.md
+
+Anyone may fork the standard, open an issue or propose a pull request.
+
+Alexander Pichugin is the initial steward. Broader governance is intended after independent implementations and recurring external contributions exist.
+
+Specification prose: CC BY 4.0. Tooling: Apache-2.0.
+
+Open licensing grants implementation and quotation rights. It does not grant certification, endorsement or impersonation rights.

From 8d18dc58a74991f4f86f5f5212e821d7becd1ba3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:14:28 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 03/15] Publish the answerworthy.md grammar

---
 GRAMMAR.md | 126 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 126 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 GRAMMAR.md

diff --git a/GRAMMAR.md b/GRAMMAR.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c7a35db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/GRAMMAR.md
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+# answerworthy.md file grammar
+
+**Compatibility:** answerworthy 0.2  
+**Canonical specification:** https://answerworthy.md/standard  
+**Public source:** https://github.com/kosmopteros/answerworthy.md  
+**License:** CC BY 4.0
+
+## Purpose
+
+answerworthy.md is the canonical AI-native public representation of Answerworthiness.
+
+A business is answerworthy when its identity, offer, facts, answers, evidence, limitations and freshness are publicly accessible, machine-readable and independently checkable.
+
+## Encoding and location
+
+- UTF-8 Markdown.
+- YAML frontmatter begins and ends with `---`.
+- The canonical path is `/answerworthy.md` at the subject's site root.
+- A derivative pointer may exist at `/.well-known/answerworthy.md` and must name the root file as canonical.
+
+## Required frontmatter
+
+- `answerworthy`
+- `entity`
+- `canonical`
+- `last_verified`
+
+## Recommended frontmatter
+
+- `kind`
+- `aliases`
+- `sameas`
+- `maintainer`
+- `license`
+- `freshness_days`
+- `conformance`
+- attestation fields for M3 or M4
+
+## Required sections
+
+- `## Identity`
+- `## Answers`
+
+## Recommended sections
+
+- `## Offer and audience`
+- `## Canonical facts`
+- `## Entities`
+- `## Provenance`
+- `## Known corrections`
+- `## Evidence limitations`
+- `## Freshness policy`
+- `## Dimensions`
+- `## Conformance`
+
+## Identity
+
+Identity provides one canonical description, category, material aliases and disambiguation from namesakes.
+
+## Offer and audience
+
+Offer and audience states what the business offers, who it serves, where the offer applies and which material conditions shape the choice.
+
+## Canonical facts
+
+Each material fact uses one list item and carries:
+
+- `statement`
+- `basis`
+- `source_class`
+- `source`
+- `verified_at`
+
+An owned source supports a declared fact. It does not create independent corroboration.
+
+## Answers
+
+Each answer uses:
+
+1. a question-form level-three heading;
+2. a self-contained answer;
+3. an absolute `source` line.
+
+Answers should address buyer problems, comparisons, constraints, proof requirements and actions in addition to brand-name questions.
+
+## Evidence limitations
+
+The file explicitly states material claims, markets, dates, sources and questions it cannot currently support. Unavailable evidence remains unavailable rather than becoming a negative grade.
+
+## Dimensions
+
+The file or its evaluation maps findings to these identifiers:
+
+- `access-retrieval`
+- `entity-certainty`
+- `offer-comprehension`
+- `evidence-corroboration`
+- `buyer-question-coverage`
+- `answer-performance`
+
+## Finding states
+
+Evaluations preserve these public states:
+
+- `verified`
+- `unsupported`
+- `contradicted`
+- `unavailable`
+- `stale`
+- `incomplete`
+
+The grammar defines no universal 0 to 100 Answerworthy score.
+
+## Conformance
+
+- M0 Present
+- M1 Structured
+- M2 Sourced
+- M3 Corroborated
+- M4 Maintained
+
+M0 through M2 may be self-declared. M3 requires an independent attestation recorded inside the file through signed fields or a referenced URL and SHA-256 hash.
+
+## Open implementation
+
+Implementations may generate, validate, audit, corroborate, remediate or refresh the file. Each implementation declares its capabilities honestly.

From 73d3dcfd7a8d0a590632e8725dc3eb8d4acb8a18 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:14:45 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 04/15] Publish public governance for the standard

---
 GOVERNANCE.md | 97 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 97 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 GOVERNANCE.md

diff --git a/GOVERNANCE.md b/GOVERNANCE.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf10911
--- /dev/null
+++ b/GOVERNANCE.md
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+# Answerworthy Standard governance
+
+**Canonical specification:** https://answerworthy.md/standard  
+**Public source:** https://github.com/kosmopteros/answerworthy.md  
+**Initial steward:** Alexander Pichugin
+
+## Objectives
+
+Governance keeps the category definition, canonical file, grammar, validator and public terminology coherent, evidence-disciplined, implementation-neutral and useful to people and agents.
+
+## Public contribution path
+
+Material changes are discussed and implemented through this repository.
+
+Contributors may:
+
+- open an issue;
+- propose an example;
+- report an interoperability problem;
+- submit a validator fixture;
+- propose a grammar change;
+- submit a pull request;
+- challenge a category or evidence definition with implementation evidence.
+
+## Initial stewardship
+
+Alexander Pichugin is the initial standard steward.
+
+The steward reviews proposals, maintains canonical terms, publishes compatibility changes, protects evidence boundaries, separates reference-implementation behaviour from normative requirements and maintains the open validator.
+
+A technical steering group becomes appropriate when independent implementations and recurring external contributions exist.
+
+## Answerworthy proposals
+
+A material change records:
+
+- problem statement;
+- normative change;
+- grammar and validator impact;
+- security and privacy impact;
+- migration path;
+- alternatives considered;
+- implementation evidence;
+- requested compatibility treatment.
+
+Public proposal states are proposal, review, accepted, rejected, implemented and superseded.
+
+## Acceptance criteria
+
+A normative proposal should demonstrate at least one of these conditions:
+
+- repeated use in an implementation;
+- independent consumption;
+- an interoperability failure;
+- a safety, privacy or evidence-integrity need;
+- a correction required to preserve the category definition.
+
+Marketing convenience and feature-count growth do not satisfy the acceptance criteria.
+
+## Compatibility
+
+The public brand remains the Answerworthy Standard.
+
+Files declare the grammar compatibility token they target. Clarifications preserve meaning. Compatible changes add optional capability. Semantic breaks require an explicit migration and a new compatibility token.
+
+Git history and releases preserve the technical timeline. The canonical website presents the current specification.
+
+## Reference implementation
+
+The Answerworthy Engine is the initial reference implementation. Engine behaviour becomes normative only through a public specification change.
+
+Other implementations are invited. They may implement generation, validation, audit, corroboration, remediation, refresh or any honest subset.
+
+## Registry fairness
+
+A listed implementation must:
+
+- accurately declare its capabilities;
+- resolve its claimed output to a live answerworthy.md file;
+- preserve the canonical file and evidence boundaries;
+- avoid claiming independent corroboration without an inspectable attestation.
+
+A corroboration-verified listing additionally requires an attestation URL and SHA-256 hash that can be checked publicly.
+
+The same capability and verification rules apply to every submission, including the reference implementation.
+
+## Universal score policy
+
+The standard defines conformance and exact evidence states. It defines no universal 0 to 100 Answerworthy score.
+
+Implementations may calculate internal confidence, coverage or prioritisation weights. They must not present those calculations as the definition of Answerworthiness.
+
+## Licensing
+
+Specification prose: CC BY 4.0. Tooling: Apache-2.0.
+
+These licenses permit implementation, quotation, modification and redistribution under their terms. They grant no certification, endorsement or impersonation rights.

From 1d4d92267e9c5c41c7449396be106e58b6de7cd5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:15:22 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 05/15] Publish the dependency-free answerworthy.md validator

---
 validator.mjs | 147 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 147 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 validator.mjs

diff --git a/validator.mjs b/validator.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fbcbf8e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/validator.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises'
+
+const REQUIRED_FRONTMATTER = ['answerworthy', 'entity', 'canonical', 'last_verified']
+const REQUIRED_SECTIONS = ['Identity', 'Answers']
+const DIMENSIONS = ['access-retrieval', 'entity-certainty', 'offer-comprehension', 'evidence-corroboration', 'buyer-question-coverage', 'answer-performance']
+const STATES = ['M0', 'M1', 'M2', 'M3', 'M4']
+
+function stripQuotes(value) {
+  const trimmed = value.trim()
+  if ((trimmed.startsWith('"') && trimmed.endsWith('"')) || (trimmed.startsWith("'") && trimmed.endsWith("'"))) return trimmed.slice(1, -1)
+  return trimmed
+}
+
+function parseFrontmatter(text) {
+  const clean = text.replace(/^\uFEFF/, '')
+  const lines = clean.split(/\r?\n/)
+  if (lines[0]?.trim() !== '---') return { data: {}, body: clean, error: 'YAML frontmatter must begin on the first line.' }
+  const end = lines.findIndex((line, index) => index > 0 && line.trim() === '---')
+  if (end < 0) return { data: {}, body: clean, error: 'YAML frontmatter has no closing delimiter.' }
+  const data = {}
+  for (const line of lines.slice(1, end)) {
+    if (!line.trim() || /^\s/.test(line)) continue
+    const match = line.match(/^([A-Za-z0-9_-]+):\s*(.*)$/)
+    if (match) data[match[1]] = stripQuotes(match[2])
+  }
+  return { data, body: lines.slice(end + 1).join('\n'), error: null }
+}
+
+function sectionMap(body) {
+  const matches = [...body.matchAll(/^##\s+(.+?)\s*$/gm)]
+  const sections = new Map()
+  matches.forEach((match, index) => {
+    const start = match.index + match[0].length
+    const end = matches[index + 1]?.index ?? body.length
+    sections.set(match[1].trim(), body.slice(start, end).trim())
+  })
+  return sections
+}
+
+function factRecords(block) {
+  if (!block) return []
+  const starts = [...block.matchAll(/^-\s+/gm)]
+  return starts.map((match, index) => {
+    const start = match.index
+    const end = starts[index + 1]?.index ?? block.length
+    return block.slice(start, end)
+  })
+}
+
+function hasField(record, field) {
+  return new RegExp(`^\\s*(?:-\\s*)?${field}:\\s*\\S+`, 'm').test(record)
+}
+
+function answerRecords(block) {
+  if (!block) return []
+  const matches = [...block.matchAll(/^###\s+(.+?)\s*$/gm)]
+  return matches.map((match, index) => {
+    const start = match.index + match[0].length
+    const end = matches[index + 1]?.index ?? block.length
+    return { question: match[1].trim(), body: block.slice(start, end).trim() }
+  })
+}
+
+function stateIndex(state) {
+  return STATES.indexOf(state)
+}
+
+export function validateAnswerworthy(text) {
+  const errors = []
+  const warnings = []
+  const parsed = parseFrontmatter(text)
+  if (parsed.error) errors.push(parsed.error)
+  const frontmatter = parsed.data
+  const sections = sectionMap(parsed.body)
+
+  for (const field of REQUIRED_FRONTMATTER) if (!frontmatter[field]) errors.push(`Missing frontmatter field: ${field}`)
+  if (frontmatter.answerworthy && frontmatter.answerworthy !== '0.2') errors.push('The answerworthy field must equal 0.2 for this validator.')
+  if (frontmatter.canonical) {
+    try { new URL(frontmatter.canonical) } catch { errors.push('The canonical field must be an absolute URL.') }
+  }
+  if (frontmatter.last_verified && !/^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/.test(frontmatter.last_verified)) errors.push('The last_verified field must use YYYY-MM-DD.')
+
+  for (const section of REQUIRED_SECTIONS) if (!sections.has(section)) errors.push(`Missing required section: ${section}`)
+
+  const facts = factRecords(sections.get('Canonical facts'))
+  const factFields = ['statement', 'basis', 'source_class', 'source', 'verified_at']
+  const incompleteFacts = facts.filter((record) => factFields.some((field) => !hasField(record, field)))
+  if (facts.length === 0) warnings.push('No canonical facts were found, so M2 cannot be established.')
+  if (incompleteFacts.length) errors.push(`${incompleteFacts.length} canonical fact record(s) are missing required fields.`)
+
+  const answers = answerRecords(sections.get('Answers'))
+  if (answers.length === 0) errors.push('The Answers section must contain at least one level-three question.')
+  for (const answer of answers) {
+    if (!answer.question.endsWith('?')) warnings.push(`Answer heading is not question-form: ${answer.question}`)
+    if (!/^source:\s*https?:\/\//m.test(answer.body)) errors.push(`Answer has no absolute source URL: ${answer.question}`)
+  }
+
+  const dimensionText = sections.get('Dimensions') || ''
+  const missingDimensions = DIMENSIONS.filter((dimension) => !dimensionText.includes(dimension))
+  if (missingDimensions.length) warnings.push(`Dimension mapping is incomplete: ${missingDimensions.join(', ')}`)
+
+  let achieved = 'M0'
+  const structured = REQUIRED_FRONTMATTER.every((field) => frontmatter[field]) && REQUIRED_SECTIONS.every((section) => sections.has(section)) && answers.length > 0
+  if (structured && !parsed.error) achieved = 'M1'
+  const sourced = structured && facts.length > 0 && incompleteFacts.length === 0 && answers.every((answer) => /^source:\s*https?:\/\//m.test(answer.body))
+  if (sourced) achieved = 'M2'
+
+  const hasAttestation = Boolean(frontmatter.attestation_url && /^https?:\/\//.test(frontmatter.attestation_url) && frontmatter.attestation_sha256 && /^[a-f0-9]{64}$/.test(frontmatter.attestation_sha256))
+  if (sourced && hasAttestation) achieved = 'M3'
+
+  const freshnessDays = Number(frontmatter.freshness_days)
+  const verifiedAt = frontmatter.last_verified ? Date.parse(`${frontmatter.last_verified}T00:00:00Z`) : Number.NaN
+  const fresh = Number.isFinite(freshnessDays) && freshnessDays > 0 && Number.isFinite(verifiedAt) && Date.now() - verifiedAt <= freshnessDays * 86400000
+  if (hasAttestation && fresh) achieved = 'M4'
+
+  const claimed = frontmatter.conformance || null
+  if (claimed && !STATES.includes(claimed)) errors.push(`Unknown conformance state: ${claimed}`)
+  if (claimed && STATES.includes(claimed) && stateIndex(claimed) > stateIndex(achieved)) errors.push(`Claimed ${claimed}, achieved ${achieved}.`)
+  if ((claimed === 'M3' || claimed === 'M4') && !hasAttestation) errors.push(`${claimed} requires an independent attestation URL and SHA-256 hash inside the file.`)
+
+  const valid = errors.length === 0 && stateIndex(achieved) >= stateIndex('M1')
+  return { valid, version: '0.2', claimed, achieved, facts: facts.length, answers: answers.length, dimensions: { present: DIMENSIONS.length - missingDimensions.length, total: DIMENSIONS.length, missing: missingDimensions }, errors, warnings }
+}
+
+async function loadInput(input) {
+  if (/^https?:\/\//.test(input)) {
+    const response = await fetch(input, { headers: { accept: 'text/markdown,text/plain;q=0.9' } })
+    if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status} while fetching ${input}`)
+    return response.text()
+  }
+  return readFile(input, 'utf8')
+}
+
+const invokedDirectly = process.argv[1] && import.meta.url.endsWith(process.argv[1].replaceAll('\\', '/'))
+if (invokedDirectly) {
+  const input = process.argv[2] || 'examples/sourced.answerworthy.md'
+  try {
+    const result = validateAnswerworthy(await loadInput(input))
+    console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2))
+    if (!result.valid) process.exitCode = 1
+  } catch (error) {
+    console.error(error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error))
+    process.exitCode = 1
+  }
+}

From f50b2e7aa3bf1cde72d869c554dacf10b086edad Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:15:33 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 06/15] Add a minimal structured answerworthy.md example

---
 examples/minimal.answerworthy.md | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 28 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 examples/minimal.answerworthy.md

diff --git a/examples/minimal.answerworthy.md b/examples/minimal.answerworthy.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c8291b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/minimal.answerworthy.md
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+---
+answerworthy: "0.2"
+entity: "Example Co"
+canonical: https://example.com
+last_verified: 2026-08-05
+kind: organization
+conformance: M1
+---
+
+## Identity
+
+Example Co makes accounting software for freelancers.
+
+## Offer and audience
+
+The product serves freelancers who need invoicing and expense tracking.
+
+## Answers
+
+### What does Example Co make?
+
+Accounting software for freelancers.
+
+source: https://example.com/product
+
+## Conformance
+
+Self-declared M1. Sourced canonical facts have not been added.

From 187de4e4d7ecf0dcc99bfcb8f2db7d94b90bb61d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:15:52 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 07/15] Add a sourced M2 answerworthy.md example

---
 examples/sourced.answerworthy.md | 83 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 83 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 examples/sourced.answerworthy.md

diff --git a/examples/sourced.answerworthy.md b/examples/sourced.answerworthy.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49e7a6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/sourced.answerworthy.md
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+---
+answerworthy: "0.2"
+entity: "Example Co"
+canonical: https://example.com
+last_verified: 2026-08-05
+kind: organization
+conformance: M2
+freshness_days: 30
+---
+
+## Identity
+
+Example Co makes accounting software for freelancers. Its category is small-business finance tooling.
+
+## Offer and audience
+
+The product serves independent professionals who need invoicing, expense tracking and quarterly tax preparation in supported jurisdictions.
+
+## Canonical facts
+
+- statement: "Example Co's plans start at 12 EUR per month with a free tier."
+  basis: declared
+  source_class: owned
+  source: https://example.com/pricing
+  verified_at: 2026-08-05
+
+- statement: "Example Co supports invoicing and expense tracking for all active plans."
+  basis: declared
+  source_class: owned
+  source: https://example.com/product
+  verified_at: 2026-08-05
+
+## Answers
+
+### What does Example Co make?
+
+Accounting software for freelancers: invoicing, expense tracking and quarterly tax estimates.
+
+source: https://example.com/product
+
+### Is Example Co suitable for quarterly tax preparation?
+
+Example Co estimates quarterly tax obligations for supported freelancer profiles and publishes its current jurisdiction limits.
+
+source: https://example.com/tax-estimates
+
+## Entities
+
+- Example Co: accounting software for freelancers.
+- Example Co Tax Estimates: a product capability limited to listed jurisdictions.
+
+## Provenance
+
+- Maintainer: Example Co product operations.
+- Canonical product page: https://example.com/product
+- Canonical pricing page: https://example.com/pricing
+
+## Known corrections
+
+- The product estimates quarterly tax obligations. It does not file taxes on the customer's behalf.
+
+## Evidence limitations
+
+- No independent customer outcome study is currently published.
+- Tax support is limited to the jurisdictions listed on the product page.
+- This file has no independent M3 attestation.
+
+## Freshness policy
+
+Pricing, tax coverage and product capabilities are rechecked after every material release and at least every 30 days.
+
+## Dimensions
+
+- access-retrieval: public product and pricing evidence is available in HTML.
+- entity-certainty: the product and company use one canonical name and URL.
+- offer-comprehension: offer, audience and tax limitations are stated.
+- evidence-corroboration: current facts resolve to owned sources; independent outcome evidence is unavailable.
+- buyer-question-coverage: product, pricing and tax-fit questions are answered.
+- answer-performance: no provider observation is claimed in this self-declared file.
+
+## Conformance
+
+Self-declared M2. The file is present, structured and sourced. No independent corroboration is recorded.

From 5b5fcb4801e313404f5f20e17009b94384e670a6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:16:07 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 08/15] Publish the standard license split

---
 LICENSE.md | 27 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 LICENSE.md

diff --git a/LICENSE.md b/LICENSE.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e4199e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.md
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# Answerworthy Standard licensing
+
+Copyright © 2026 Alexander Pichugin.
+
+## Specification prose
+
+The specification, grammar, governance, explanatory documentation and examples are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
+
+SPDX identifier: `CC-BY-4.0`
+
+Suggested attribution:
+
+> Answerworthy Standard, stewarded by Alexander Pichugin, https://answerworthy.md/standard
+
+## Tooling
+
+The validator, tests, fixtures and reference tooling are licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
+
+SPDX identifier: `Apache-2.0`
+
+## Marks
+
+These licenses grant no trademark, certification, endorsement or impersonation rights. See [`TRADEMARKS.md`](TRADEMARKS.md).
+
+## Commercial implementations
+
+The open standard does not require a commercial purchase. Production implementations, private evidence, customer data, remediation workflows and advisory services may use separate licenses.

From 9ca5f05df8eeb614feedd2cc3c4ccec24a18c7f3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:16:30 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 09/15] Publish naming and certification boundaries

---
 TRADEMARKS.md | 64 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 64 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 TRADEMARKS.md

diff --git a/TRADEMARKS.md b/TRADEMARKS.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2055ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/TRADEMARKS.md
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+# Answerworthy naming and trademark policy
+
+The open licenses covering the Answerworthy Standard and its tooling do not grant rights to impersonate the canonical standard, reference implementation or certification programme.
+
+This policy covers:
+
+- Answerworthy;
+- Answerworthy Standard;
+- answerworthy.md;
+- Answerworthy Engine;
+- Answerworthy Plan;
+- Answerworthy Certified;
+- associated logos and certification marks.
+
+No statement in this policy represents that a mark is registered in every jurisdiction.
+
+## Permitted accurate reference
+
+Anyone may:
+
+- refer to the Answerworthy Standard;
+- implement answerworthy.md;
+- state which compatibility token an implementation targets;
+- publish a self-declared conformance state supported by the file;
+- compare implementations and methodologies;
+- quote the specification with attribution;
+- fork the open source under its applicable license.
+
+The use must not imply certification, endorsement, partnership or canonical status.
+
+## Reserved claims
+
+Written permission is required to:
+
+- present a fork as the canonical Answerworthy Standard;
+- use Answerworthy logos or certification badges;
+- claim Answerworthy Certified status;
+- operate an official-looking certification registry under the Answerworthy name;
+- imply that a commercial product is produced or reviewed by the standard steward when it is not;
+- register a domain, package or account that impersonates the canonical source.
+
+## Conformance language
+
+Permitted wording:
+
+> Implements answerworthy 0.2.
+
+> Publishes a self-declared M2 answerworthy.md file.
+
+> Corroboration verified through the attestation recorded in answerworthy.md.
+
+Reserved wording:
+
+> Answerworthy Certified
+
+A certification programme will require a separately published policy, conformance process and authorised mark.
+
+## Forks
+
+A fork may modify the open specification under its license. A fork that changes normative meaning must use a different standard name, identify its divergence and avoid suggesting that it is a later canonical Answerworthy release.
+
+## Contact
+
+Questions and permission requests: alexander@pichugin.me

From a9639a073499c49e8fd98415a1522e1f57a2ba14 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:17:05 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 10/15] Publish the public contribution workflow

---
 CONTRIBUTING.md | 77 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 77 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 CONTRIBUTING.md

diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..482b08e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+# Contributing to the Answerworthy Standard
+
+The standard is developed in public through GitHub issues and pull requests.
+
+## Before proposing a change
+
+Read:
+
+- [`SPECIFICATION.md`](SPECIFICATION.md)
+- [`GRAMMAR.md`](GRAMMAR.md)
+- [`GOVERNANCE.md`](GOVERNANCE.md)
+- [`README.md`](README.md)
+
+Run the validator against the sourced example:
+
+```bash
+node validator.mjs ./examples/sourced.answerworthy.md
+```
+
+Run the tests:
+
+```bash
+npm test
+```
+
+## Good proposals
+
+A strong proposal identifies:
+
+- the interoperability, evidence or implementation problem;
+- the current behaviour;
+- the requested normative change;
+- grammar and validator impact;
+- migration impact;
+- security and privacy implications;
+- at least one real or reproducible implementation case;
+- alternatives considered.
+
+## Issues before large changes
+
+Open an issue before a large grammar, category, state or validator change. This creates a public rationale before code and prose diverge.
+
+Small corrections, examples and validator fixtures may go directly to a pull request.
+
+## Compatibility
+
+Files declare the grammar compatibility token they target.
+
+- Clarifications preserve meaning.
+- Compatible changes add optional capability.
+- Semantic breaks require a migration and a new compatibility token.
+
+Published historical files and releases remain inspectable in Git.
+
+## Evidence discipline
+
+Contributions must preserve these principles:
+
+- declaration is not verification;
+- no evidence means no evaluated claim;
+- unknown evidence is not failure;
+- M3 cannot be self-awarded;
+- mention, citation, recommendation and follow-through remain separate;
+- the standard defines no universal 0 to 100 Answerworthy score;
+- answerworthy.md remains the one canonical public file.
+
+## Copy style
+
+Use direct, dense prose. Avoid em dash characters. Avoid copy patterns that hide the actual claim behind stacked negation.
+
+## Licensing
+
+By contributing, you agree that accepted specification prose and examples may be distributed under CC BY 4.0, and accepted tooling or tests may be distributed under Apache-2.0.
+
+## Conduct
+
+Critique claims, evidence, grammar and implementation directly and respectfully. Fabricated benchmarks, undisclosed conflicts and certification impersonation are incompatible with participation.

From 5f6d22f05e6b45ea611933a11c00fb2cee889518 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:17:19 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 11/15] Start the public standard changelog

---
 CHANGELOG.md | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 CHANGELOG.md

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..873b428
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# Answerworthy Standard changelog
+
+## Current specification
+
+### answerworthy 0.2
+
+- Defines Answerworthiness as a checkable public evidence condition.
+- Defines answerworthy.md as the one canonical AI-native public file.
+- Establishes the category ladder: SEO makes you findable, GEO makes you citable, Answerworthiness makes you choosable.
+- Defines identity, offer and audience, sourced facts, buyer answers, provenance, known corrections, evidence limitations, freshness, dimensions and conformance inside the file.
+- Defines six dimensions and exact evidence states.
+- Defines M0 Present, M1 Structured, M2 Sourced, M3 Corroborated and M4 Maintained.
+- Records independent corroboration inside the canonical file.
+- Defines Generate, Audit, Remediate and Refresh as the operating acts.
+- Defines no universal 0 to 100 Answerworthy score.
+- Publishes the dependency-free validator and examples.
+- Opens implementation and governance participation through GitHub.
+
+## Historical note
+
+The earliest exploration considered multiple public companion artifacts. The one-file model superseded that direction before the current public source was established as the operative specification.

From cc00899b906e54b22c1bb5cd22919d362210a6d3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:17:31 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 12/15] Pin the grammar compatibility token

---
 VERSION | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 100644 VERSION

diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b04cfb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0.2

From ff86628ae30d9babc7869cf2792c6ee029cd53ac Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:17:43 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 13/15] Add standard validator and test scripts

---
 package.json | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 package.json

diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b0453c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+{
+  "name": "answerworthy-standard",
+  "version": "0.2.0",
+  "private": false,
+  "type": "module",
+  "description": "The open standard and validator for the canonical answerworthy.md file.",
+  "license": "SEE LICENSE.md",
+  "repository": {
+    "type": "git",
+    "url": "https://github.com/kosmopteros/answerworthy.md.git"
+  },
+  "homepage": "https://answerworthy.md/standard",
+  "scripts": {
+    "validate:example": "node validator.mjs examples/sourced.answerworthy.md",
+    "test": "node --test tests/*.test.mjs",
+    "check": "npm run validate:example && npm test"
+  },
+  "engines": {
+    "node": ">=20"
+  }
+}

From f7ec813f939d0becbea9d0edf76619cf027d6f93 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:18:09 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 14/15] Test conformance, evidence boundaries and no-score
 language

---
 tests/validator.test.mjs | 130 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 130 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 tests/validator.test.mjs

diff --git a/tests/validator.test.mjs b/tests/validator.test.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..42f2fe5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/validator.test.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@
+import assert from 'node:assert/strict'
+import { readFile, readdir } from 'node:fs/promises'
+import path from 'node:path'
+import test from 'node:test'
+import { validateAnswerworthy } from '../validator.mjs'
+
+const root = process.cwd()
+const source = (file) => readFile(path.join(root, file), 'utf8')
+
+async function textFiles(directory = root) {
+  const results = []
+  for (const entry of await readdir(directory, { withFileTypes: true })) {
+    if (['.git', 'node_modules'].includes(entry.name)) continue
+    const absolute = path.join(directory, entry.name)
+    if (entry.isDirectory()) results.push(...await textFiles(absolute))
+    else results.push(absolute)
+  }
+  return results
+}
+
+test('the sourced example passes at self-declared M2', async () => {
+  const result = validateAnswerworthy(await source('examples/sourced.answerworthy.md'))
+  assert.equal(result.valid, true)
+  assert.equal(result.claimed, 'M2')
+  assert.equal(result.achieved, 'M2')
+  assert.equal(result.facts, 2)
+  assert.equal(result.answers, 2)
+  assert.equal(result.dimensions.present, 6)
+  assert.deepEqual(result.errors, [])
+})
+
+test('the minimal example passes at M1 and warns that sourcing is missing', async () => {
+  const result = validateAnswerworthy(await source('examples/minimal.answerworthy.md'))
+  assert.equal(result.valid, true)
+  assert.equal(result.claimed, 'M1')
+  assert.equal(result.achieved, 'M1')
+  assert.match(result.warnings.join(' '), /M2 cannot be established/)
+})
+
+test('M3 cannot be self-claimed without an independent attestation', () => {
+  const text = `---
+answerworthy: "0.2"
+entity: "Example Co"
+canonical: https://example.com
+last_verified: 2026-08-05
+conformance: M3
+---
+
+## Identity
+
+Example Co makes software.
+
+## Canonical facts
+
+- statement: "Example Co makes software."
+  basis: declared
+  source_class: owned
+  source: https://example.com
+  verified_at: 2026-08-05
+
+## Answers
+
+### What does Example Co make?
+
+Software.
+
+source: https://example.com
+`
+  const result = validateAnswerworthy(text)
+  assert.equal(result.valid, false)
+  assert.equal(result.achieved, 'M2')
+  assert.match(result.errors.join(' '), /M3 requires an independent attestation URL and SHA-256 hash/)
+})
+
+test('a referenced attestation can establish M3', () => {
+  const text = `---
+answerworthy: "0.2"
+entity: "Example Co"
+canonical: https://example.com
+last_verified: 2026-08-05
+conformance: M3
+attestation_url: https://verifier.example/attestations/1
+attestation_sha256: 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef
+---
+
+## Identity
+
+Example Co makes software.
+
+## Canonical facts
+
+- statement: "Example Co makes software."
+  basis: declared
+  source_class: owned
+  source: https://example.com
+  verified_at: 2026-08-05
+
+## Answers
+
+### What does Example Co make?
+
+Software.
+
+source: https://example.com
+`
+  const result = validateAnswerworthy(text)
+  assert.equal(result.valid, true)
+  assert.equal(result.achieved, 'M3')
+})
+
+test('the category definition and canonical-file statement are identical across normative files', async () => {
+  const category = 'A business is answerworthy when its identity, offer, facts, answers, evidence, limitations and freshness are publicly accessible, machine-readable and independently checkable.'
+  const canonical = 'answerworthy.md is the canonical file. Any JSON, HTML, PDF, dashboard or score that an implementation emits is a projection of it and cannot outrank it.'
+  for (const file of ['README.md', 'SPECIFICATION.md', 'GRAMMAR.md']) {
+    const content = await source(file)
+    assert.ok(content.includes(category), `${file} must contain the category definition`)
+  }
+  for (const file of ['README.md', 'SPECIFICATION.md']) {
+    const content = await source(file)
+    assert.ok(content.includes(canonical), `${file} must contain the canonical-file statement`)
+  }
+})
+
+test('normative and public copy contains no em dash and no universal numeric grade', async () => {
+  const files = await textFiles()
+  const combined = (await Promise.all(files.map((file) => readFile(file, 'utf8')))).join('\n')
+  assert.doesNotMatch(combined, /—/)
+  assert.doesNotMatch(combined, /\b\d{1,3}\s*\/\s*100\b/)
+  assert.doesNotMatch(combined, /overall\s+(?:answerworthy|visibility|readiness)\s+score/i)
+})

From d547fe181d1ef07b46b4811d48b9d918571998f4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alexander Pichugin <113478545+kosmopteros@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:18:21 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 15/15] Add public standard CI

---
 .github/workflows/quality.yml | 33 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 33 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 .github/workflows/quality.yml

diff --git a/.github/workflows/quality.yml b/.github/workflows/quality.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..15ec4bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/quality.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+name: Standard quality
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+      - 'standard/**'
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+jobs:
+  verify:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    timeout-minutes: 10
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
+        with:
+          node-version: 22
+      - name: Validate sourced example
+        run: node validator.mjs examples/sourced.answerworthy.md
+      - name: Run validator and standard tests
+        run: node --test tests/*.test.mjs
+      - name: Confirm canonical source files
+        run: |
+          test -f SPECIFICATION.md
+          test -f GRAMMAR.md
+          test -f GOVERNANCE.md
+          test -f validator.mjs
+          test -f examples/minimal.answerworthy.md
+          test -f examples/sourced.answerworthy.md