Publish the Answerworthy category, grammar and open validator

.github/workflows/quality.yml

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+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

CHANGELOG.md

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+# 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 The one-file model superseded that direction before the current public source was established as the operative specification.

CONTRIBUTING.md

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+# 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.

GOVERNANCE.md

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+# 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.

GRAMMAR.md

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+# 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.

LICENSE.md

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+# 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.