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ARD Alignment Notes

Status: tracks the ARD v0.9 draft proposal; reviewed against open ards-project/ard-spec issues on July 7, 2026. ARD integration in TypeFerence is optional (--emit-ard), excluded from core composition/compilation semantics, and may require changes in a future TypeFerence schema version as the draft evolves.

TypeFerence should remain a typed authoring and compilation layer. ARD should remain the discovery, registry, publication, and deployed-resource metadata layer. The current ARD issue backlog reinforces that split.

That leaves TypeFerence in distinct territory: it models reusable agent source before runtime artifacts exist. ARD can advertise an AGENTS.md bundle, an MCP server, an A2A card, an API, or a workflow; it does not define the high-level language that produced a family of host-native agent instruction artifacts.

Keep Out of TypeFerence Core

The following ARD proposals are adjacent to TypeFerence output, but should not become TypeFerence source semantics:

ARD issue Topic TypeFerence stance
#55, #45 Release policy, lifecycle, deprecation, migration windows TypeFerence resource IDs include versions and compiled entries carry versions. Discovery-time lifecycle policy belongs to ARD catalog metadata or a future ARD extension.
#44 Deployment metadata, instances, regions, environments TypeFerence emits static target artifacts and an MCP dispatch package. It must not model runtime instances, replicas, regions, or environment availability.
#42, #21, #20, #22 Dependencies, auth hints, access, monetization, filter dimensions TypeFerence can reference local context and preserve skill contracts. It should not define discovery-time credential feasibility, commercial terms, external dependency manifests, or registry filter semantics.
#43 Install-time safety envelope TypeFerence target bundles are installable artifacts, but consent, revocation, smoke checks, kill switches, and scope grants belong to an install manifest or host installer.
#53 Registry federation, mutual trust, cross-registry provenance TypeFerence provenance links compiled bundles back to canonical TypeFerence source. It should not define registry federation handshakes, trust state machines, or canonical registry selection.
#47, #24 DID methods, domainless publishers, relay-addressed resources TypeFerence may validate declared identity syntax for emitted catalog entries. DID method resolution, DNS/relay naming semantics, and publisher authority rules belong to ARD and identity ecosystems.
#41, #52 Attestation types and trust/compliance caveats TypeFerence may carry publisher-supplied trust manifest metadata. It must not interpret attestations as compliance, safety, SLSA, or runtime-governance verdicts.
#37, #27 Recognized media types for skills and bundles TypeFerence package media types are experimental. Standard ARD-recognized media types should be adopted when ARD or the relevant artifact spec settles them.
#40, #34, #23, #19, #18 Registry implementation, API conformance, AI Catalog relationship, governance TypeFerence should consume stable ARD/AI Catalog behavior and keep its own compiler spec scoped to source resources, resolution, target artifacts, and optional publication.

Reference publisher issues such as #51, #14, #13, #11, and #10 are useful examples of deployed catalogs. They do not change TypeFerence's core boundary unless they expose a recurring packaging need for compiled static agent bundles.

Positive Integration Points

TypeFerence should integrate with ARD only at clear publication boundaries:

  1. Emit a canonical TypeFerence source-package catalog entry for audit and reproducible compilation.
  2. Emit separately versioned target-bundle entries for concrete compiled artifacts.
  3. Preserve derivedFrom provenance from each target bundle to the canonical source package.
  4. Preserve publisher-supplied AI Catalog Trust Manifest fields without dereferencing or judging them.
  5. Adopt ARD-standard media types, lifecycle fields, dependency fields, install envelopes, and federation metadata only as catalog-entry metadata when those proposals stabilize.

This lets TypeFerence avoid duplicating ARD while still producing artifacts that ARD can advertise.