Vega Commons Project No. I

garp.tools

Governed Analytical Records Protocol

Implementation namespace April 2026
§I — What this is

A protocol for governing analytical records

GARP binds claims to the sources that support them, records to the lineage that produced them, and artifacts to the governance state that controls their lifecycle. It operates as the structural integrity layer beneath analytical systems whose outputs must withstand audit.

GARP is an implementation protocol subordinate to ARCS. Where ARCS defines what a governed record is, GARP specifies how systems produce, validate, and audit them.

§II — Status

Development status

This namespace is new; specifications exist, though most modules they describe are in early implementation. Schemas are being prepared for publication, and reference deployments are coming online.

This page documents an architecture under active construction and does not commit to delivery dates.

v0 · Specifications stabilizing · Implementations in progress
§III — Architecture

Subdomain architecture

The protocol is organized into six bounded operational surfaces, each governed by the GARP Tools Module Contract; modules belong to exactly one primary subdomain, and the roots themselves are reserved protocol infrastructure not assigned to product deployments.

ingest.garp.tools
Parsers, cleaners, the record compiler, corpus packagers, citation extraction. The boundary at which external materials enter a governed corpus.
digest.garp.tools
Formatters, renderers, packet generators, bundle exporters. Governed materials rendered into readable outputs.
index.garp.tools
Entity resolver, canonical registry, graph inspector, merge queue. The governed entity graph and its identity layer.
rag.garp.tools
Claim-aware chunking, embedding pipeline, retrieval evaluation, grounding checks. Retrieval over the governed corpus.
forum.garp.tools
Connection ingress, policy and retention mapping, receipt writing. Where external connection state enters the governed record model.
infra.garp.tools
Lint, conformance, provenance viewing, the audit workbench. The validation layer that mediates between ingest and digest.
All six subdomains reserved · Modules in early implementation
§IV — Schemas

Schemas and interchange formats

Canonical schemas are published at garp.tools/schemas/, covering JSON Schema definitions, manifest schemas, profile schemas, and interchange formats. Schema URLs are intended as durable references once published.

/schemas/ · Empty pending first publication
§V — Deployments

Reference implementations

Named subdomains under garp.tools outside the six protocol roots may host concrete deployments that implement, demonstrate, or evaluate a GARP profile. Deployment subdomains are not protocol module roots; they are governed by their own deployment specifications.

Deployment subdomains may be added only where a deployment implements, demonstrates, or evaluates a GARP profile.

rubric.garp.tools
Coursework triage and assessment, demonstrating a GARP profile applied to grading workflows. First reference deployment.
§VI — Related

Related standards and publications

GARP is part of a broader ecosystem of standards, publications, and infrastructure stewarded by Vega Commons Project, Inc.