Standards Body Taxonomy

Document Purpose

This document establishes the canonical classification architecture of Standards Body.

It is the authoritative source for:

The major classes of objects Standards Body studies
The relationships among models, systems, actors, capabilities, risks, evaluations, evidence, safeguards, standards, and institutions
The distinction between hierarchical classes and cross-cutting facets
The identifiers used for records and taxonomic entities
The rules for classifying one object into multiple valid categories
The handling of ambiguity, uncertainty, overlap, and change
The structure of future registries and machine-readable data
The mapping of Standards Body concepts to external vocabularies
The creation, revision, deprecation, and retirement of taxonomic classes
The minimum metadata required for consequential records
The cross-foundation entity model
The consistency rules governing future standards, protocols, reports, and public claims

A terminology file defines what words mean.

A taxonomy defines how concepts are organized.

An ontology defines entities and the formal relationships among them.

This document performs all three functions at a bounded level:

It establishes taxonomic classes.
It establishes facets and identifiers.
It defines a practical entity-and-relationship model.
It provides a path toward future machine-readable ontologies without claiming that the present document is a complete formal ontology.

The taxonomy exists because frontier AI work frequently combines incompatible levels of analysis.

Examples include:

A model is treated as though it were the full deployed system.
A capability is treated as though it were a risk.
A safeguard is classified as a guarantee.
A review is classified as an audit.
A certification is classified as regulatory approval.
A national legal category is treated as a universal technical category.
A benchmark result is treated as a permanent property of a model family.
A developer, deployer, provider, evaluator, and standard setter are treated as one actor.
A public benchmark, held-out task bank, protocol, and evidence package are treated as interchangeable.
A company policy is classified as operational evidence.
A high-stakes domain is confused with a high-stakes capability level.
A result status is omitted, causing expired or superseded evidence to appear current.

The taxonomy prevents these errors by requiring every material object to be classified according to:

What kind of object it is
Which layer it belongs to
Which version and status apply
Which actors are related to it
Which capabilities, risks, safeguards, evaluations, and decisions are relevant
Which jurisdiction, deployment context, and evidence conditions apply
Which relationships are established and which remain uncertain

The governing taxonomic rule is:

Classify the object at the correct level, preserve its context, and do not infer a stronger relationship than the evidence supports.

Executive Summary

The Standards Body taxonomy is a multi-axis classification system for frontier AI evaluation and institutional infrastructure.

It is not a single tree.

Frontier AI systems are too complex to be represented accurately by one hierarchy.

A single object may be classified simultaneously by:

Artifact type
system layer
lifecycle stage
access condition
deployment context
capability domain
capability level
risk domain
safeguard type
evaluation method
evidence level
assurance function
institutional role
standards stage
jurisdiction
status
confidentiality
interoperability profile

For example, one evaluation record may concern:

An open-weight model
embedded in an agentic system
using external tools
assessed during pre-deployment
in the cyber domain
for autonomous vulnerability exploitation
under a held-out dynamic protocol
administered by a third-party evaluator
independently reviewed
classified as confidential
supporting a high-stakes deployment decision
with evidence level E3
status current
expiration in six months

A useful taxonomy must preserve all of those dimensions.

The Standards Body taxonomy therefore uses five structural mechanisms.

1. Classes

Classes answer:

What kind of thing is this?

Examples:

AI model
AI system
evaluation protocol
capability
safeguard
incident
standard
evaluator organization

2. Subclasses

Subclasses answer:

Which more specific kind is this?

Examples:

Frontier model
agentic system
held-out evaluation
preventive safeguard
certification body
cyber capability

3. Facets

Facets answer:

Which independent characteristics apply?

Examples:

Public or confidential
pre-deployment or post-deployment
first-party or third-party
open-weight or closed-weight
low, material, high, or critical consequence
current, superseded, or withdrawn

4. Relationships

Relationships answer:

How is this object connected to another object?

Examples:

Model is component of system
system is evaluated by protocol
protocol contains task family
result supports claim
safeguard mitigates risk
evaluator performs evaluation
reviewer reviews evidence package
standard defines requirement
certificate attests conformity
accreditation recognizes evaluator competence

5. Status and Version

Status and version answer:

Which identified state is being described, and is it still valid?

Examples:

Protocol version 2.1
model release 2026-07
certificate active
evaluation result expired
standard superseded
recognition suspended

The taxonomy is organized into twenty primary domains.

Project and institutional identity
Actors and roles
AI artifacts and models
AI systems and system components
Lifecycle stages
Access and release conditions
Deployment contexts
Capabilities
Risks and harms
Safeguards and controls
Evaluation and testing
Evidence and claims
Review, audit, and assurance
Standards, requirements, and conformity
Governance and decision processes
Incidents, failures, and corrections
Incentives and recognition
Interoperability and international coordination
Research methods and outputs
Versioning, status, security, and records

The taxonomy also defines a common entity model.

Core entities include:

Actor
organization
model
system
component
deployment
capability
hazard
risk
safeguard
protocol
task
evaluation run
result
evidence object
claim
review
evaluator
requirement
standard
certification
accreditation
incident
decision
jurisdiction
registry record

Core relationships include:

is_a
part_of
derived_from
version_of
deployed_as
evaluated_by
administered_by
reviewed_by
supports
challenges
mitigates
triggers
governed_by
conforms_to
certified_against
accredited_for
recognized_by
supersedes
withdraws
occurs_in
applies_in

The taxonomy is designed for human and machine use.

Human-readable use includes:

Writing consistent reports
selecting correct terminology
classifying case studies
creating standards
avoiding overclaiming

Machine-readable use includes:

Registries
interoperable evaluation records
protocol metadata
evidence graphs
incident databases
evaluator directories
standards crosswalks

The taxonomy does not require premature formalization.

Every class has a status.

A class may be:

Preferred
accepted
context-specific
provisional
deprecated
retired

Every consequential classification should also include confidence.

Classification confidence may be:

Confirmed
high
moderate
low
disputed
unknown

The taxonomy is intended to evolve.

New classes should be added only when:

A meaningful distinction exists
existing classes cannot represent it
the distinction affects evidence, decisions, governance, or interoperability
a definition and parent relationship can be stated
implementation value exceeds complexity

The final rule is:

Use hierarchy for identity, facets for context, relationships for meaning, and versioning for time.

1. Taxonomic Design Principles

1.1 Object Before Label

Identify the actual object before selecting its class.

A product name may refer to:

A model family
a checkpoint
an API
a hosted service
an agentic application
a deployment configuration

The taxonomy should classify the actual object, not only the marketed name.

1.2 Correct Level of Analysis

Do not classify:

A model-level property as a system-level property
a system-level safeguard as a model property
an organizational control as technical model behavior
a legal classification as a scientific fact

1.3 Polyhierarchy

An object may belong to more than one class where the classes describe genuinely different aspects.

Example:

A model may be both:

General-purpose
multimodal
frontier
open-weight

1.4 Faceted Classification

Independent dimensions should be represented as facets rather than forced into one hierarchy.

1.5 Explicit Relationships

Relationships should be named.

Avoid vague statements such as:

Related to
associated with
relevant to

when a stronger relation is known.

1.6 No Unsupported Inference

If the evidence supports only correlation, do not classify the relation as causal.

If a safeguard reduces one risk, do not classify it as preventing all harms.

1.7 Scope Preservation

Every classification should preserve:

Object
version
date
context
jurisdiction
evidence
status

1.8 Stable Core, Extensible Edges

The top-level taxonomy should remain stable.

New subclasses and local extensions may evolve.

1.9 Interoperability

Classes should support mapping to external vocabularies without erasing legitimate differences.

1.10 Public Legibility

Class names should be understandable to informed non-specialists.

1.11 Machine Readability

Identifiers and relationships should support future structured data.

1.12 No Prestige Classification

Labels such as frontier, independent, accredited, official, and international should not be assigned for reputational benefit.

1.13 Revision and Retirement

SYSTEM evaluated_by PROTOCOL

2.6 Record

A structured representation of an entity and its metadata.

2.7 Profile

A defined bundle of required classes, facets, properties, and relationships for a use case.

Example:

Evaluation Result Profile
Evaluator Organization Profile
Interoperability Profile

2.8 Scheme

A governed set of classes and rules used for assessment, certification, recognition, or reporting.

2.9 Local Extension

A jurisdictional, domain-specific, linguistic, or institutional addition that preserves mapping to the common core.

2.10 Crosswalk

A structured mapping between this taxonomy and another taxonomy, standard, law, or data model.

3. Identifier Architecture

3.1 Taxonomy Class Identifier

Preferred pattern:

DOMAIN.CLASS_NAME

Examples:

AI.MODEL
SYS.AGENTIC_SYSTEM
CAP.CYBER
RISK.SYSTEMIC
SAFEGUARD.ACCESS_CONTROL
EVAL.HELD_OUT
EVIDENCE.DIRECT
ASSURANCE.CERTIFICATION
STATUS.SUPERSEDED

3.2 Entity Record Identifier

Preferred pattern:

SB-[ENTITY]-[YEAR]-[SEQUENCE]

Examples:

SB-MODEL-2026-0001
SB-PROTOCOL-2026-0012
SB-RESULT-2026-0044
SB-INCIDENT-2026-0007

3.3 Version Identifier

Preferred semantic structure:

MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH

Example:

2.1.0

3.4 Relationship Identifier

Preferred lowercase verb phrase:

is_a
part_of
version_of
derived_from
evaluated_by
supports_claim

3.5 Human-Readable Label

Every identifier should have a plain-language label.

3.6 Persistent Identifier

Once published, an identifier should not be reassigned to a different concept.

3.7 Deprecated Identifier

Deprecated identifiers should remain resolvable and point to the replacement.

4. Taxonomic Status

4.1 Preferred

Default Standards Body class.

4.2 Accepted

Permitted but not preferred.

4.3 Context-Specific

Valid only under a defined legal, technical, sectoral, or institutional context.

4.4 Provisional

Under active research and subject to material revision.

4.5 Deprecated

Still visible for transition but replaced.

4.6 Retired

No longer used for current classification.

4.7 External

Imported from another authoritative taxonomy and preserved with source context.

5. Classification Confidence

5.1 Confirmed

The class assignment is directly supported and unambiguous.

5.2 High

Strong evidence supports the assignment with minor uncertainty.

5.3 Moderate

The assignment is reasonable, but alternatives remain.

5.4 Low

Evidence is limited or ambiguous.

5.5 Disputed

Qualified parties materially disagree.

5.6 Unknown

No reliable classification can be made.

5.7 Confidence Rule

Do not convert low-confidence classifications into precise requirements without review.

6. Primary Domain Map

Domain code	Domain
`ID`	Project and institutional identity
`ACTOR`	Actors and roles
`AI`	AI artifacts and models
`SYS`	AI systems and components
`LIFE`	Lifecycle
`ACCESS`	Access and release
`DEPLOY`	Deployment context
`CAP`	Capability
`RISK`	Risk and harm
`SAFEGUARD`	Safeguard and control
`EVAL`	Evaluation and testing
`EVIDENCE`	Evidence and claims
`REVIEW`	Review
`ASSURANCE`	Audit, certification, accreditation, and assurance
`STANDARD`	Standards and requirements
`GOV`	Governance and decisions
`INCIDENT`	Incidents, failures, and corrections
`INCENTIVE`	Incentives and recognition
`INTEROP`	Interoperability and international coordination
`RESEARCH`	Research methods and outputs
`STATUS`	Versioning, status, and records
`SECURITY`	Information classification and research security
`JURIS`	Jurisdiction and legal scope

7. Project and Institutional Identity Taxonomy

7.1 `ID.PROJECT`

A bounded organized effort with a defined purpose, owner, scope, and outputs.

Subclasses

ID.RESEARCH_PROJECT
ID.INSTITUTIONAL_DESIGN_PROJECT
ID.STANDARDS_PROJECT
ID.PILOT_PROJECT
ID.INFRASTRUCTURE_PROJECT

7.2 `ID.ORGANIZATION`

A legally, administratively, or functionally organized body.

Subclasses

ID.PUBLIC_ORGANIZATION
ID.PRIVATE_ORGANIZATION
ID.NONPROFIT_ORGANIZATION
ID.ACADEMIC_ORGANIZATION
ID.MULTILATERAL_ORGANIZATION
ID.CONSORTIUM
ID.COMMUNITY_ORGANIZATION
ID.INFORMAL_NETWORK

7.3 `ID.INSTITUTION`

An enduring system of authority, rules, roles, incentives, and practices.

An institution may be embodied in one organization or distributed across several organizations.

7.4 `ID.STANDARDS_BODY`

An organization or institution that develops and maintains standards through a defined process.

Classification warning: The proper name Standards Body refers to this project. It does not automatically classify the project as a formally recognized standards body.

7.5 `ID.REGULATOR`

A legally authorized public institution that makes, administers, or enforces regulatory requirements.

7.6 `ID.ACCREDITATION_BODY`

A body that performs accreditation.

7.7 `ID.CERTIFICATION_BODY`

A third-party body that performs certification under a defined scheme.

7.8 `ID.EVALUATION_ORGANIZATION`

An organization that designs, administers, scores, or interprets evaluations.

7.9 `ID.RESEARCH_INSTITUTION`

An institution whose primary function includes systematic knowledge creation.

7.10 `ID.SCHEME_OWNER`

An organization responsible for the rules and governance of an assurance, certification, recognition, or reporting scheme.

7.11 Institutional Facets

Classify institutions by:

Authority

ID.AUTHORITY.NONE
ID.AUTHORITY.RESEARCH
ID.AUTHORITY.CONTRACTUAL
ID.AUTHORITY.PROFESSIONAL
ID.AUTHORITY.STANDARDS_PROCESS
ID.AUTHORITY.ACCREDITATION
ID.AUTHORITY.REGULATORY
ID.AUTHORITY.JUDICIAL

Geographic Scope

Local
subnational
national
regional
international
global participation, without implied universal authority

Ownership

Public
private
nonprofit
member-owned
hybrid
distributed

Functional Stage

Conceptual
pilot
operational
recognized
statutory
retired

8. Actor and Role Taxonomy

8.1 `ACTOR.PERSON`

An individual human participant.

8.2 `ACTOR.ORGANIZATION`

An organization acting in a defined role.

8.3 `ACTOR.DEVELOPER`

An actor that designs, trains, fine-tunes, or materially modifies an AI model or system.

Subclasses

ACTOR.BASE_MODEL_DEVELOPER
ACTOR.FINE_TUNER
ACTOR.SYSTEM_DEVELOPER
ACTOR.APPLICATION_DEVELOPER
ACTOR.SCAFFOLD_DEVELOPER
ACTOR.OPEN_COMMUNITY_DEVELOPER

8.4 `ACTOR.PROVIDER`

An actor that makes an AI model or system available to others.

Subclasses

ACTOR.MODEL_PROVIDER
ACTOR.API_PROVIDER
ACTOR.PLATFORM_PROVIDER
ACTOR.INFRASTRUCTURE_PROVIDER
ACTOR.TOOL_PROVIDER

8.5 `ACTOR.DEPLOYER`

An actor that places an AI system into operational use.

8.6 `ACTOR.OPERATOR`

An actor responsible for day-to-day control or use of a deployed system.

8.7 `ACTOR.USER`

A person or organization interacting with the system.

Subclasses

General user
professional user
expert user
administrator
developer user
malicious user
researcher
affected non-user

8.8 `ACTOR.AFFECTED_PARTY`

A person, group, institution, community, or system materially affected by an AI deployment or institutional decision.

8.9 `ACTOR.EVALUATOR`

An actor that performs evaluation activities.

Subclasses

ACTOR.FIRST_PARTY_EVALUATOR
ACTOR.SECOND_PARTY_EVALUATOR
ACTOR.THIRD_PARTY_EVALUATOR
ACTOR.PUBLIC_EVALUATOR
ACTOR.ACADEMIC_EVALUATOR
ACTOR.COMMUNITY_EVALUATOR
ACTOR.DOMAIN_EVALUATOR

8.10 `ACTOR.REVIEWER`

An actor that reviews methods, evidence, findings, or institutional processes.

Subclasses

Peer reviewer
domain reviewer
methodological reviewer
statistical reviewer
security reviewer
ethics reviewer
legal reviewer
public-interest reviewer
independent expert reviewer

8.11 `ACTOR.AUDITOR`

An actor qualified and assigned to conduct an audit against defined criteria.

8.12 `ACTOR.INSPECTOR`

An actor conducting inspection.

8.13 `ACTOR.CERTIFIER`

An actor or body responsible for a certification decision.

8.14 `ACTOR.ACCREDITOR`

An actor or body responsible for an accreditation decision.

8.15 `ACTOR.STANDARD_SETTER`

An actor participating in standards development.

Subclasses

Committee member
working-group member
secretariat
chair
public commenter
technical editor
liaison

8.16 `ACTOR.DECISION_OWNER`

An actor with authority to make the decision the evidence informs.

8.17 `ACTOR.SPONSOR`

An actor that funds, commissions, or formally requests work.

8.18 `ACTOR.CUSTODIAN`

An actor responsible for protected evidence, tasks, records, or registries.

8.19 `ACTOR.REGISTRY_OPERATOR`

An actor maintaining a registry.

8.20 `ACTOR.WHISTLEBLOWER`

A person disclosing suspected wrongdoing, risk, failure, or concealment through a protected or public channel.

8.21 `ACTOR.THREAT_ACTOR`

A person, group, organization, or state capable of intentionally causing harm.

Threat-Actor Facets

Skill level
resources
access
persistence
coordination
intent
legal authority
geographic location

8.22 Role Relationship Rules

One organization may hold several roles.

Example:

A developer may also be:

Provider
deployer
first-party evaluator
sponsor

The record should preserve each role separately because conflicts and responsibilities differ by role.

9. AI Artifact and Model Taxonomy

9.1 `AI.ARTIFACT`

A technical object created, trained, configured, or used in an AI system.

9.2 `AI.MODEL`

A computational model producing outputs from inputs through learned parameters, structured logic, or both.

Model Scope Subclasses

AI.BASE_MODEL
AI.FOUNDATION_MODEL
AI.GENERAL_PURPOSE_MODEL
AI.DOMAIN_SPECIFIC_MODEL
AI.TASK_SPECIFIC_MODEL
AI.FRONTIER_MODEL
AI.EMBEDDED_MODEL
AI.ENSEMBLE_MODEL

Model Modality Subclasses

AI.TEXT_MODEL
AI.IMAGE_MODEL
AI.AUDIO_MODEL
AI.VIDEO_MODEL
AI.MULTIMODAL_MODEL
AI.ROBOTICS_MODEL
AI.SCIENTIFIC_MODEL
AI.CODE_MODEL

Model Function Subclasses

Generative
predictive
classificatory
ranking
recommendation
control
planning
representation
detection
optimization

9.3 `AI.MODEL_FAMILY`

A set of related models sharing lineage, architecture, training approach, or product identity.

9.4 `AI.MODEL_VERSION`

A distinct identified release, checkpoint, or deployed state.

9.5 `AI.CHECKPOINT`

A saved model-parameter state.

9.6 `AI.WEIGHTS`

The learned parameters of a model.

9.7 `AI.ADAPTER`

A separately identifiable learned component modifying model behavior.

Examples:

Low-rank adapter
domain adapter
safety adapter

9.8 `AI.TOKENIZER`

A component mapping inputs into model-readable units.

9.9 `AI.TRAINING_DATASET`

A dataset used in pretraining, fine-tuning, alignment, or adaptation.

Data Facets

Public
licensed
proprietary
synthetic
generated
personal
sensitive
unknown provenance
mixed

9.10 `AI.TRAINING_RUN`

A bounded training process producing or modifying a model.

9.11 `AI.POST_TRAINING_PROCESS`

A process after base training.

Subclasses

Instruction tuning
preference optimization
reinforcement learning
safety tuning
domain adaptation
distillation
compression
quantization

9.12 `AI.MODEL_CARD`

A documentation artifact describing a model.

9.13 `AI.SYSTEM_CARD`

A documentation artifact describing a system, evaluation, risk, or deployment.

9.14 Model Access Facets

ACCESS.WEIGHTS_PUBLIC
ACCESS.WEIGHTS_CONTROLLED
ACCESS.WEIGHTS_PRIVATE
ACCESS.API_PUBLIC
ACCESS.API_RESTRICTED
ACCESS.INTERNAL_ONLY

9.15 Model Scale Facets

Use only where relevant and defined:

Small
medium
large
frontier-scale
unknown

The taxonomy should not infer capability directly from scale.

9.16 Frontier Classification

A model may be classified as frontier only with:

Defined comparison basis
relevant capability or scale dimension
date
evidence
confidence

Frontier status is time-dependent.

10. AI System and Component Taxonomy

10.1 `SYS.AI_SYSTEM`

The complete operational arrangement through which one or more AI models are configured, accessed, integrated, monitored, and used.

10.2 `SYS.MODEL_COMPONENT`

A model acting as one component in a larger system.

10.3 `SYS.SYSTEM_PROMPT`

A high-priority instruction or contextual component.

10.4 `SYS.SCAFFOLD`

Software, prompts, memory, planning, tools, or control structure added around a model.

Subclasses

Prompt scaffold
planning scaffold
coding scaffold
retrieval scaffold
multi-agent scaffold
verification scaffold
workflow scaffold

10.5 `SYS.AGENT`

A system or configuration selecting and executing actions over multiple steps toward an objective.

10.6 `SYS.AGENTIC_SYSTEM`

A system exhibiting planning, action, observation, adaptation, or persistence across multiple steps.

Agentic Facets

Single-agent
multi-agent
human-supervised
autonomous
episodic
persistent
tool-using
environment-embedded

10.7 `SYS.MULTI_AGENT_SYSTEM`

A system containing multiple interacting agents.

10.8 `SYS.RETRIEVAL_COMPONENT`

A component retrieving external information.

10.9 `SYS.MEMORY_COMPONENT`

A component preserving information across turns, sessions, tasks, or users.

Memory Facets

Session memory
persistent memory
user-specific memory
shared memory
vector memory
symbolic memory

10.10 `SYS.TOOL`

An external software, API, instrument, service, or environment accessible to the system.

Tool Subclasses

Search
code execution
file system
communication
database
financial
cyber
laboratory
robotic
productivity
administrative

10.11 `SYS.ORCHESTRATOR`

A component coordinating models, tools, agents, or workflows.

10.12 `SYS.INTERFACE`

The channel through which users or systems interact.

Interface Subclasses

Chat
API
embedded application
autonomous process
voice
robotics
batch
developer tool

10.13 `SYS.MONITORING_COMPONENT`

A component observing system behavior, access, or outputs.

10.14 `SYS.SAFETY_COMPONENT`

A system component implementing a safeguard.

10.15 `SYS.HUMAN_COMPONENT`

A human role embedded in system operation.

Examples:

Approver
supervisor
operator
reviewer
escalation authority

10.16 `SYS.DEPLOYMENT_CONFIGURATION`

A versioned operational configuration.

10.17 `SYS.SYSTEM_MANIFEST`

A structured record of system components and versions.

10.18 System Relationship Rules

A model part_of a system.
A system uses a tool.
A system implements a safeguard.
A system deployed_as a deployment.
A system version_of a prior system state.
A system derived_from a development lineage.

10.19 System Identity Minimum

A consequential system record should include:

Model identifier
system version
prompts or prompt status
tools
retrieval
memory
scaffolds
safeguards
access tier
deployment context
date

11. Lifecycle Taxonomy

11.1 `LIFE.CONCEPT`

Idea or early concept stage.

11.2 `LIFE.RESEARCH`

Research and feasibility stage.

11.3 `LIFE.DEVELOPMENT`

Model or system development.

11.4 `LIFE.TRAINING`

Base or subsequent training.

11.5 `LIFE.POST_TRAINING`

Post-training modification.

11.6 `LIFE.INTERNAL_TESTING`

Internal testing before external use.

11.7 `LIFE.EXTERNAL_EVALUATION`

Evaluation by an outside or independent actor.

11.8 `LIFE.PRE_DEPLOYMENT`

Final assessment and governance before operational release.

11.9 `LIFE.PILOT_DEPLOYMENT`

Bounded operational use.

11.10 `LIFE.GENERAL_DEPLOYMENT`

Broad operational use.

11.11 `LIFE.MONITORING`

Ongoing operational observation.

11.12 `LIFE.UPDATE`

Material model or system change.

11.13 `LIFE.SUSPENSION`

Temporary halt to use or access.

11.14 `LIFE.ROLLBACK`

Reversion to a prior version.

11.15 `LIFE.WITHDRAWAL`

Formal removal from use or availability.

11.16 `LIFE.RETIREMENT`

Planned end of active life.

11.17 `LIFE.ARCHIVE`

Historical preservation.

11.18 Lifecycle Relationship Rule

Every evaluation result should identify the lifecycle stage at which it was produced.

A pre-deployment result should not be treated as post-deployment evidence without justification.

12. Access and Release Taxonomy

12.1 `ACCESS.PUBLIC`

Available to the general public.

12.2 `ACCESS.OPEN`

Available under defined open-use, open-source, or open-weight conditions.

12.3 `ACCESS.REGISTERED`

Available after registration.

12.4 `ACCESS.VERIFIED`

Available to identity-verified users.

12.5 `ACCESS.TIERED`

Different capabilities are available at different access levels.

12.6 `ACCESS.CONTROLLED`

Available under contractual, institutional, security, or research controls.

12.7 `ACCESS.RESTRICTED`

Available only to a narrow authorized group.

12.8 `ACCESS.INTERNAL`

Available only within the responsible organization.

12.9 `ACCESS.EMBARGOED`

Temporarily unavailable pending a release date or condition.

12.10 `ACCESS.REVOKED`

Previously available access has been withdrawn.

12.11 Release Object Facets

Classify what is released:

Weights
source code
API
training data
technical report
evaluation tasks
system prompt
research artifacts
deployment service

12.12 Permission Facets

Read
query
fine-tune
modify
redistribute
commercial use
tool use
autonomous use
high-volume use

12.13 Access Risk Facets

Identity requirement
rate limit
use restriction
monitoring
geographic restriction
domain restriction
capability restriction
revocation support

13. Deployment Context Taxonomy

13.1 `DEPLOY.INTERNAL`

Use within the developing or deploying organization.

13.2 `DEPLOY.CONSUMER`

Use by general consumers.

13.3 `DEPLOY.ENTERPRISE`

Use in organizational operations.

13.4 `DEPLOY.PROFESSIONAL`

Use by qualified professionals.

13.5 `DEPLOY.PUBLIC_SECTOR`

Use by government or public bodies.

13.6 `DEPLOY.CRITICAL_INFRASTRUCTURE`

Use in systems whose disruption may create severe societal consequence.

13.7 `DEPLOY.RESEARCH`

Use for scientific or technical research.

13.8 `DEPLOY.EDUCATION`

Use in educational contexts.

13.9 `DEPLOY.HEALTH`

Use in health or medical contexts.

13.10 `DEPLOY.FINANCE`

Use in financial systems or decisions.

13.11 `DEPLOY.CYBERSECURITY`

Use in defensive or offensive cybersecurity contexts.

13.12 `DEPLOY.LEGAL`

Use in legal services, adjudication support, or legal administration.

13.13 `DEPLOY.LABORATORY`

Use with scientific instruments, biological systems, chemical systems, or physical experiments.

13.14 `DEPLOY.ROBOTICS`

Use in embodied systems.

13.15 `DEPLOY.COMMUNICATION`

Use for media, persuasion, or public communication.

13.16 Deployment Scale Facets

Individual
team
organization
sector
population
cross-border
infrastructure-wide

13.17 Decision Authority Facets

Advisory
recommendation
human-approved action
delegated action
autonomous action
binding decision support

13.18 Temporal Facets

Episodic
continuous
real-time
delayed
persistent

13.19 Human Oversight Facets

Human in the loop
human on the loop
human in command
no active human oversight
unknown

14. Capability Taxonomy

14.1 `CAP.CAPABILITY`

The ability of a model or system to perform a defined task or class of tasks under specified conditions.

14.2 Capability Object Facets

Model capability
system capability
human-AI team capability
organizational capability
effective deployed capability
latent capability
demonstrated capability

14.3 General Capability Domains

`CAP.REASONING`

Logical reasoning
mathematical reasoning
causal reasoning
spatial reasoning
strategic reasoning
scientific reasoning

`CAP.KNOWLEDGE`

Factual recall
domain knowledge
procedural knowledge
situational knowledge

`CAP.LANGUAGE`

Comprehension
generation
translation
summarization
dialogue
rhetorical adaptation

`CAP.CODE`

Code generation
debugging
architecture
repository navigation
software maintenance
exploit development

`CAP.PLANNING`

Goal decomposition
sequencing
scheduling
resource allocation
contingency planning

`CAP.TOOL_USE`

Search
code execution
database use
API use
laboratory tool use
robotic control

`CAP.LEARNING`

In-context learning
adaptation
memory-based improvement
self-correction
skill acquisition

`CAP.AUTONOMY`

Independent action selection
persistence
recovery
long-horizon execution
delegation
self-monitoring

`CAP.SOCIAL`

Persuasion
negotiation
coordination
deception
emotion recognition
role adaptation

`CAP.CREATIVE`

Ideation
design
artistic production
scientific hypothesis generation
invention

14.4 High-Stakes Capability Domains

`CAP.CYBER`

Subclasses:

Reconnaissance
vulnerability discovery
exploit development
credential attack
lateral movement
persistence
evasion
autonomous cyber operations
defensive remediation

`CAP.BIOLOGICAL`

Subclasses:

Biological knowledge
protocol design
experimental troubleshooting
pathogen-related reasoning
synthesis planning
laboratory automation
safety analysis

`CAP.CHEMICAL`

Subclasses:

Chemical synthesis planning
hazardous-material reasoning
laboratory optimization
safety and containment analysis

`CAP.AUTONOMOUS_REPLICATION`

Subclasses:

Resource acquisition
infrastructure deployment
service replication
persistence
identity creation
coordination

`CAP.AI_RESEARCH_AND_DEVELOPMENT`

Subclasses:

Algorithm design
experiment design
code implementation
training optimization
evaluation automation
model improvement research

`CAP.PERSUASION_AND_MANIPULATION`

Subclasses:

Targeted persuasion
mass persuasion
personalized influence
deception
coercive interaction
social engineering

`CAP.CRITICAL_INFRASTRUCTURE`

Subclasses:

Control-system analysis
operational planning
failure exploitation
resilience support

`CAP.FINANCIAL_AND_ECONOMIC`

Subclasses:

Trading
fraud
market manipulation
financial planning
economic forecasting
automated enterprise operation

`CAP.SCIENTIFIC_AND_ENGINEERING`

Subclasses:

Hypothesis generation
simulation
experimental design
engineering design
materials discovery
laboratory operation

14.5 Capability Dimensions

Every capability classification may include:

Accuracy
reliability
speed
cost
autonomy
generalization
transfer
stealth
scalability
resource need
tool dependence
human uplift
recoverability
task horizon

14.6 Capability Level

A capability level should be protocol-defined.

Generic levels may include:

Not demonstrated
basic
intermediate
advanced
expert-comparable
beyond reference group
critical threshold

These labels should not be used without task, reference, and evidence context.

14.7 Capability Relationship Rules

Capability demonstrated_by result.
Capability enabled_by system component.
Capability contributes_to risk.
Capability constrained_by safeguard.
Capability compared_with human baseline.
Capability requires resource or access.

15. Risk and Harm Taxonomy

15.1 `RISK.HAZARD`

A source or condition with potential to cause harm.

15.2 `RISK.THREAT`

A potential cause of an unwanted incident.

15.3 `RISK.VULNERABILITY`

A weakness that may be exploited or activated.

15.4 `RISK.EXPOSURE`

The degree to which an actor, system, asset, or population is subject to a hazard.

15.5 `RISK.EVENT`

An occurrence connecting hazard, vulnerability, and consequence.

15.6 `RISK.CONSEQUENCE`

The outcome or effect of an event.

15.7 `RISK.RISK`

The combination of likelihood and consequence under a defined context.

15.8 Risk Origin

Intentional misuse
accidental misuse
system failure
organizational failure
emergent interaction
security compromise
market failure
governance failure
systemic propagation

15.9 Risk Domain

`RISK.PHYSICAL_HARM`

`RISK.PSYCHOLOGICAL_HARM`

`RISK.ECONOMIC_HARM`

`RISK.CIVIL_RIGHTS_HARM`

`RISK.PRIVACY_HARM`

`RISK.SECURITY_HARM`

`RISK.INFORMATION_HARM`

`RISK.ENVIRONMENTAL_HARM`

`RISK.INSTITUTIONAL_HARM`

`RISK.DEMOCRATIC_HARM`

`RISK.SYSTEMIC_HARM`

`RISK.CATASTROPHIC_HARM`

`RISK.EXISTENTIAL_HARM`

15.10 Risk Actor Model

Unskilled user
skilled individual
organized criminal group
insider
corporation
state actor
automated system
multiple interacting actors

15.11 Risk Temporal Horizon

Immediate
near-term
medium-term
long-term
persistent
intergenerational

15.12 Risk Scale

Individual
household
organization
community
sector
national
international
global

15.13 Risk Reversibility

Reversible
partly reversible
difficult to reverse
irreversible
unknown

15.14 Risk Uncertainty

Known and measured
known but weakly measured
plausible
speculative
unknown

15.15 Systemic Risk Subclasses

Cascading technical failure
correlated decision failure
market concentration
institutional dependency
information ecosystem degradation
infrastructure coupling
cross-border propagation

15.16 Risk Relationship Rules

Hazard may_cause harm.
Vulnerability enables threat pathway.
Safeguard mitigates risk.
Capability increases_or_decreases risk under context.
Incident realizes risk.
Evidence supports risk claim.
Decision accepts, reduces, transfers, or avoids risk.

16. Safeguard and Control Taxonomy

16.1 `SAFEGUARD.SAFEGUARD`

A technical, procedural, organizational, contractual, or institutional measure intended to reduce risk.

16.2 Safeguard Function

`SAFEGUARD.PREVENTIVE`

Prevents or reduces the probability of an event.

`SAFEGUARD.DETECTIVE`

Detects an event, anomaly, or failure.

`SAFEGUARD.CORRECTIVE`

Contains, remediates, or recovers.

`SAFEGUARD.COMPENSATING`

Provides an alternative where a primary control is unavailable or insufficient.

`SAFEGUARD.DETERRENT`

Changes incentives to discourage harmful behavior.

16.3 Safeguard Layer

Model-Level

Training intervention
refusal behavior
policy conditioning
adversarial robustness
capability limitation

System-Level

Tool restriction
monitoring
rate limit
authentication
sandbox
output filter
approval workflow

Deployment-Level

User eligibility
domain restriction
geographic restriction
usage policy
logging
escalation

Organizational

Governance
personnel controls
incident response
training
access review
separation of duties

Contractual

Terms of use
liability
audit right
data-use restriction
disclosure obligation

Institutional

Standard
certification
accreditation
licensing
regulatory requirement
registry
mutual recognition

16.4 Safeguard Mechanism

Access control
identity verification
least privilege
rate limiting
monitoring
anomaly detection
human approval
tool isolation
secure enclave
redaction
refusal
content moderation
logging
rollback
deployment suspension
incident reporting
evaluation requirement
independent review

16.5 Safeguard Effectiveness Facets

Coverage
efficacy
robustness
bypass resistance
adaptive resistance
latency
reliability
cost
usability
scalability
residual risk
monitored status

16.6 Safeguard Relationship Rules

Safeguard implemented_in system.
Safeguard mitigates risk.
Safeguard tested_by evaluation.
Safeguard required_by standard.
Safeguard fails_in incident.
Safeguard superseded_by improved control.

17. Evaluation and Testing Taxonomy

17.1 `EVAL.EVALUATION`

A structured process for producing and interpreting evidence about an object or claim.

17.2 Evaluation Object

Model
system
safeguard
organization
process
protocol
evaluator
standard
incident response
deployment

17.3 Evaluation Purpose

Capability measurement
safeguard assessment
risk assessment
compliance assessment
conformity assessment
research
procurement
deployment decision
monitoring
incident investigation
accreditation support

17.4 Evaluation Timing

Development
pre-deployment
deployment
post-deployment
continuous
incident-triggered
scheduled reassessment

17.5 Evaluation Party

First-party
second-party
third-party
regulator
academic
public-interest
community

17.6 Evaluation Openness

Public
open task
partially protected
held-out
confidential
restricted
federated

17.7 `EVAL.TEST`

A defined procedure used to observe or measure one or more characteristics.

17.8 `EVAL.BENCHMARK`

A standardized task set, procedure, and metric used for comparison.

Benchmark Subclasses

Public benchmark
private benchmark
live benchmark
dynamic benchmark
domain benchmark
agent benchmark
human-uplift benchmark

17.9 `EVAL.PROTOCOL`

The complete versioned specification governing evaluation.

17.10 `EVAL.TASK`

A defined activity assigned to a model or system.

17.11 `EVAL.TASK_FAMILY`

A group of related tasks.

17.12 `EVAL.SCENARIO`

A structured contextual situation for evaluation.

17.13 `EVAL.ENVIRONMENT`

The setting in which evaluation occurs.

17.14 `EVAL.HARNESS`

Software and infrastructure administering the evaluation.

17.15 `EVAL.RUN`

One execution of an evaluation or part of it.

17.16 `EVAL.TRIAL`

One attempt at a task or item.

17.17 `EVAL.RESULT`

A scored or interpreted output of an evaluation.

17.18 Evaluation Method

Static evaluation
dynamic evaluation
held-out evaluation
adversarial evaluation
red-team evaluation
simulation
sandbox evaluation
real-world evaluation
human baseline
human-uplift study
observational monitoring
formal verification
stress test
penetration test
tabletop exercise

17.19 Elicitation Facet

Zero-shot
few-shot
prompt optimized
tool augmented
scaffolded
fine-tuned
human assisted
best effort
standardized
practical deployment

17.20 Scoring Facet

Exact
rule-based
environment-based
human rubric
model judge
hybrid
expert adjudication
probabilistic
ordinal

17.21 Integrity Facet

Unexposed
exposure uncertain
partially exposed
contaminated
compromised
retired

17.22 Evaluation Relationship Rules

Protocol contains task family.
Task family samples task universe.
Evaluation uses protocol.
Run evaluates system.
Result generated_by run.
Result supports claim.
Reviewer reviews result.
Result expires_on date or trigger.

18. Evidence and Claim Taxonomy

18.1 `EVIDENCE.CLAIM`

A proposition asserted to be true, supported, justified, or sufficiently reliable for a defined purpose.

Claim Type

Descriptive
comparative
causal
predictive
capability
absence
safeguard
safety
security
reliability
organizational
legal
standards
compliance
certification
accreditation
policy
historical
consensus
reputational

18.2 `EVIDENCE.EVIDENCE_OBJECT`

An information object relevant to supporting or challenging a claim.

18.3 Evidence Directness

EVIDENCE.DIRECT
EVIDENCE.INDIRECT
EVIDENCE.CIRCUMSTANTIAL
EVIDENCE.TESTIMONIAL
EVIDENCE.DERIVED

18.4 Evidence Source Type

Primary
secondary
tertiary
generated
anonymous
personal communication
official record
technical artifact
expert judgment
operational record
incident record

18.5 Evidence Form

Document
data
code
log
model output
image
video
audio
physical artifact
testimony
observation
statistical estimate
certificate
registry record
legal text
standard
review finding

18.6 Evidence Level

Use the canonical evidence levels from EVIDENCE_STANDARDS.md.

EVIDENCE.LEVEL.E0_UNSUPPORTED
EVIDENCE.LEVEL.E1_PRELIMINARY
EVIDENCE.LEVEL.E2_SUPPORTED
EVIDENCE.LEVEL.E3_SUBSTANTIATED
EVIDENCE.LEVEL.E4_DECISION_GRADE

18.7 Confidence

Very low
low
moderate
high
very high

18.8 Evidence Quality Facets

Relevance
directness
construct validity
internal validity
external validity
reliability
provenance
authenticity
completeness
independence
recency
representativeness
reproducibility
replicability
security
uncertainty
decision relevance
conflict exposure
gaming susceptibility

18.9 Evidence Status

Current
preliminary
disputed
corrected
superseded
withdrawn
expired
inaccessible
compromised

18.10 Claim Status

Proposed
under review
supported
substantiated
decision-grade
partially substantiated
not substantiated
inconclusive
disputed
corrected
withdrawn
retired

18.11 Evidence Direction

Supports
challenges
narrows
contextualizes
supersedes
invalidates
does not resolve

18.12 Evidence Relationship Rules

Evidence object supports claim.
Evidence object challenges claim.
Claim concerns entity.
Claim bounded_by scope.
Claim used_for decision.
Claim has_evidence_level evidence level.
Claim has_confidence confidence.
Evidence object derived_from source.
Evidence object reviewed_by reviewer.

19. Review Taxonomy

19.1 `REVIEW.REVIEW`

A structured examination of evidence, methods, reasoning, process, or claims.

19.2 Review Relationship

Internal
external
independent
peer
second-party
public
regulatory

19.3 Review Subject

Protocol
task bank
model
system
evaluation result
evidence package
standard
organization
safeguard
incident
decision

19.4 Review Discipline

Technical
methodological
statistical
domain
security
ethics
legal
governance
public interest
economic
interoperability

19.5 Review Depth

Screening
limited review
full review
deep technical review
continuous review
re-review
meta-review

19.6 `REVIEW.MANDATE`

A documented review question, scope, authority, access, methods, outputs, constraints, and decision relationship.

19.7 `REVIEW.FINDING`

A supported conclusion produced through review.

19.8 `REVIEW.DISSENT`

A reasoned disagreement with a primary or majority conclusion.

19.9 `REVIEW.MINORITY_REPORT`

A formal documented dissent.

19.10 `REVIEW.FACTUAL_CORRECTION`

Review focused on factual or configuration accuracy.

19.11 Review Access Facet

Public-only
document access
raw evidence access
system access
weight access
personnel access
restricted access
insufficient access

19.12 Review Independence Facet

Organizational
financial
methodological
informational
operational
publication
intellectual
political
security

19.13 Review Outcome

Approve
approve with conditions
revise
defer
narrow claim
restrict publication
reject
withdraw
inconclusive

20. Audit, Assurance, Certification, and Accreditation Taxonomy

20.1 `ASSURANCE.ASSURANCE`

Evidence-supported confidence that a claim or requirement is sufficiently reliable for a defined purpose.

20.2 Assurance Level

Informal assurance
limited assurance
reasonable assurance
continuous assurance
decision-specific assurance

20.3 `ASSURANCE.AUDIT`

A systematic, independent, documented process for obtaining and evaluating evidence against defined criteria.

Audit Subject

Organization
management system
process
control
data
evaluation
security
compliance
supplier
model-development process

20.4 `ASSURANCE.INSPECTION`

Examination of a product, process, service, system, installation, or design for conformity with requirements.

20.5 `ASSURANCE.VALIDATION`

Confirmation that a method, model, process, or requirement is suitable for intended use.

20.6 `ASSURANCE.VERIFICATION`

Confirmation that specified requirements have been fulfilled.

20.7 `ASSURANCE.ATTESTATION`

Issue of a statement, after review and decision, that specified requirements have been demonstrated.

20.8 `ASSURANCE.CONFORMITY_ASSESSMENT`

Demonstration that specified requirements are fulfilled.

20.9 Conformity-Assessment Party

First-party
second-party
third-party

20.10 `ASSURANCE.CERTIFICATION`

Third-party attestation under a defined certification scheme.

Certification Object

Product
process
service
management system
person
system configuration
evaluation process

20.11 `ASSURANCE.CERTIFICATE`

A formal record of certification.

20.12 `ASSURANCE.CERTIFICATION_SCHEME`

The rules, procedures, requirements, assessment, surveillance, claims, and governance for certification.

20.13 `ASSURANCE.ACCREDITATION`

Independent recognition that a conformity-assessment body is competent and impartial for specified activities.

20.14 `ASSURANCE.ACCREDITATION_SCOPE`

The exact activities, methods, domains, systems, locations, and limits of recognition.

20.15 `ASSURANCE.RECOGNITION`

Acceptance of evidence, competence, process, status, or decision for a defined purpose.

20.16 Recognition Type

Evidence recognition
competence recognition
certificate recognition
process recognition
legal recognition
unilateral recognition
mutual recognition
conditional recognition

20.17 Assurance Status

Applicant
under assessment
active
conditional
suspended
expired
withdrawn
reduced scope
superseded

20.18 Assurance Relationship Rules

Auditor audits subject.
Audit uses_criteria requirement set.
Certification body certifies object.
Certificate attests_conformity_to scheme.
Accreditation body accredits conformity-assessment body.
Accreditation limited_to scope.
Recognition authority recognizes evidence or competence.
Surveillance maintains_or_changes status.

21. Standards and Requirements Taxonomy

21.1 `STANDARD.DOCUMENT`

A governed document providing rules, requirements, guidelines, characteristics, or common practices.

21.2 Standards Stage

Research concept
draft
committee draft
public review draft
proposed standard
approved standard
active standard
amended
superseded
withdrawn
retired

21.3 Standards Type

`STANDARD.TECHNICAL`

Defines technical methods, interfaces, measurements, or performance.

`STANDARD.PROCESS`

Defines procedures, records, and workflows.

`STANDARD.MANAGEMENT_SYSTEM`

Defines organizational management requirements.

`STANDARD.PERFORMANCE`

Defines required outcomes.

`STANDARD.INTERFACE`

Defines interactions and data exchange.

`STANDARD.REPORTING`

Defines disclosure and reporting.

`STANDARD.TERMINOLOGY`

Defines terms and classifications.

`STANDARD.TEST_METHOD`

Defines testing or evaluation procedures.

21.4 `STANDARD.SPECIFICATION`

A detailed technical or procedural description.

21.5 `STANDARD.GUIDANCE`

Advisory material explaining interpretation or implementation.

21.6 `STANDARD.FRAMEWORK`

A structured set of concepts, functions, outcomes, or practices.

21.7 `STANDARD.CODE_OF_CONDUCT`

A set of expected behaviors or voluntary commitments.

21.8 `STANDARD.CODE_OF_PRACTICE`

Operational guidance describing accepted implementation practices.

21.9 `STANDARD.REQUIREMENT`

A condition that must be fulfilled within a defined context.

Requirement Force

Advisory
voluntary
contractual
procurement
professional
scheme-mandatory
legally mandatory
regulatory

Requirement Form

Performance-based
prescriptive
process-based
risk-based
capability-based
deployment-based
outcome-based
reporting-based

Requirement Level

Baseline
minimum
progressive
tiered
advanced
emergency

21.10 `STANDARD.CONFORMITY_CRITERION`

A criterion used to determine whether a requirement is fulfilled.

21.11 `STANDARD.SAFE_HARBOR`

A provision providing defined protection when specified conditions are met.

21.12 `STANDARD.PRESUMPTION_OF_CONFORMITY`

A presumption that following a recognized standard supports fulfillment of a requirement.

21.13 `STANDARD.SUNSET`

A provision causing expiration unless renewed.

21.14 `STANDARD.REVIEW_CLAUSE`

A requirement for reassessment.

21.15 Standards Relationship Rules

Standard defines requirement.
Requirement applies_to object.
Protocol tests requirement.
Evidence supports_conformity_with requirement.
Certificate attests_conformity_to scheme.
Law incorporates_by_reference standard.
Standard supersedes prior standard.

22. Governance and Decision Taxonomy

22.1 `GOV.GOVERNANCE_SYSTEM`

A system of authority, roles, decisions, accountability, oversight, and control.

22.2 Governance Body

Governing body
board
secretariat
committee
technical committee
advisory group
working group
appeals body
ethics body
security body
public-interest council

22.3 Governance Function

Strategy
oversight
standard setting
protocol approval
task custody
evaluation administration
assurance
incident response
appeals
registry
transparency
enforcement

22.4 `GOV.DECISION`

A formal determination by an authorized actor.

Decision Type

Technical
methodological
deployment
access
risk acceptance
safeguard
publication
certification
accreditation
recognition
standards progression
legal
funding
correction
retirement

22.5 Decision Outcome

Approve
approve with conditions
pilot
defer
reject
suspend
withdraw
recognize
conditionally recognize
decline recognition
retire

22.6 `GOV.DECISION_RIGHT`

Authority to make a defined decision.

22.7 `GOV.MANDATE`

A documented assignment of purpose, authority, responsibility, scope, and limits.

22.8 `GOV.ACCOUNTABILITY`

Obligation to explain, justify, and accept responsibility.

22.9 `GOV.OVERSIGHT`

Supervisory or independent observation and review.

22.10 `GOV.APPEAL`

A formal request for review of a decision.

22.11 `GOV.COMPLAINT`

A documented expression of dissatisfaction or allegation.

22.12 `GOV.RECUSAL`

Withdrawal because of conflict or disqualification.

22.13 `GOV.CONSENSUS`

Broad agreement after addressing substantial objections.

22.14 `GOV.DISSENT`

A reasoned unresolved disagreement.

22.15 Governance Risk

Capture
conflict
concentration
opacity
inconsistent decision
authority inflation
participation failure
accountability failure
emergency-power abuse

22.16 Governance Relationship Rules

Body has_decision_right decision type.
Actor responsible_for function.
Decision based_on evidence package.
Decision subject_to appeal.
Conflict requires mitigation or recusal.
Governance system oversees process.

23. Incident, Failure, and Correction Taxonomy

23.1 `INCIDENT.INCIDENT`

An event or condition that caused, could have caused, or revealed material harm, failure, compromise, misuse, or loss of control.

23.2 Incident Type

Safety incident
security incident
misuse incident
privacy incident
evaluation incident
research incident
governance incident
standards incident
assurance incident
interoperability incident
near miss

23.3 Incident Role of AI

Initiated
enabled
accelerated
amplified
failed to prevent
detected
mitigated
incidental
unknown

23.4 Incident Severity

Minor
limited
material
serious
critical
catastrophic

23.5 Incident Status

Reported
triaged
under investigation
confirmed
disputed
contained
remediated
closed
reopened
archived

23.6 `INCIDENT.FAILURE`

Inability of a system, process, safeguard, evaluator, or institution to fulfill an intended function or requirement.

23.7 Failure Layer

Model
system
data
tool
human
organizational
governance
evaluator
standard
incentive
interoperability

23.8 Failure Mode

Incorrect output
refusal failure
safeguard bypass
hallucination
loss of control
unauthorized action
monitoring failure
access-control failure
evidence contamination
scoring failure
conflict failure
process nonconformity
correction failure
recognition drift

23.9 `INCIDENT.ROOT_CAUSE`

An underlying cause whose correction would materially reduce recurrence.

23.10 `INCIDENT.CONTRIBUTING_FACTOR`

A condition increasing likelihood or severity.

23.11 `INCIDENT.CORRECTIVE_ACTION`

Action addressing a detected failure.

23.12 `INCIDENT.PREVENTIVE_ACTION`

Action reducing the likelihood of a potential failure.

23.13 `INCIDENT.CORRECTION`

A visible change addressing error in a record, claim, method, or result.

23.14 Correction Type

Editorial
factual
methodological
statistical
legal-status
security
evidence-level
confidence
withdrawal
supersession

23.15 Incident Relationship Rules

Incident involves system.
Incident realizes risk.
Failure contributes_to incident.
Root cause explains failure.
Corrective action addresses root cause.
Incident triggers protocol or standards review.
Correction updates claim or record.

24. Incentive and Recognition Taxonomy

24.1 `INCENTIVE.INCENTIVE`

A condition changing expected benefit, cost, status, opportunity, or consequence.

24.2 Incentive Mechanism

Financial reward
financial penalty
access
procurement preference
insurance
liability
professional credit
publication
recognition
prestige
grant
prize
bounty
enforcement
membership
data access

24.3 Incentive Target

Developer
deployer
evaluator
reviewer
researcher
maintainer
whistleblower
standard setter
purchaser
public institution

24.4 Desired Behavior

Evaluation
disclosure
correction
maintenance
replication
safeguard adoption
standards adoption
incident reporting
public-goods contribution
capacity building

24.5 Unintended Incentive Effect

Goodhart effect
gaming
metric fixation
prestige capture
client capture
crowding out
adverse selection
moral hazard
free riding
incumbent entrenchment
underreporting
overclassification

24.6 `INCENTIVE.RECOGNITION`

Formal or informal acknowledgment of contribution, competence, or achievement.

Recognition Type

Contribution credit
professional recognition
public award
evaluator recognition
corrective credit
institutional recognition
mutual recognition

24.7 `INCENTIVE.PRESTIGE`

Durable esteem or status granted by a community or institution.

24.8 Recognition Status

Nominated
reviewed
granted
conditional
suspended
withdrawn
expired

24.9 Incentive Relationship Rules

Incentive targets actor.
Incentive rewards behavior.
Incentive may_create gaming risk.
Recognition based_on evidence.
Prestige does_not_imply competence or authority.

25. Interoperability and International Coordination Taxonomy

25.1 `INTEROP.INTEROPERABILITY`

The ability of distinct systems, protocols, organizations, or jurisdictions to exchange, interpret, and use information or evidence.

25.2 Interoperability Layer

Semantic
syntactic
technical
measurement
protocol
assurance
institutional
legal
security
operational

25.3 `INTEROP.CROSSWALK`

A structured mapping among classes, requirements, controls, protocols, or standards.

25.4 `INTEROP.BRIDGE_STUDY`

An empirical or analytical study connecting results across protocols, versions, languages, or systems.

25.5 `INTEROP.COMMON_CORE`

Shared elements preserved across implementations.

25.6 `INTEROP.LOCAL_EXTENSION`

A documented jurisdictional, sectoral, linguistic, or institutional addition.

25.7 `INTEROP.EQUIVALENCE`

A determination that different methods or requirements achieve sufficiently comparable outcomes for a stated purpose.

25.8 `INTEROP.COMPARABILITY`

The degree to which results can be meaningfully compared.

25.9 `INTEROP.MUTUAL_RECOGNITION`

Reciprocal acceptance of defined results, status, or competence.

25.10 `INTEROP.FEDERATED_REGISTRY`

A registry model in which multiple authorities maintain interoperable records.

25.11 `INTEROP.TRANSLATION_VALIDATION`

Assessment of whether a translation preserves intended meaning and construct.

25.12 `INTEROP.CAPACITY_BUILDING`

Development of local expertise, infrastructure, governance, and participation.

25.13 Interoperability Status

Compatible
partially compatible
conditionally recognized
not comparable
conflicting
superseded
mapping incomplete

25.14 Interoperability Relationship Rules

Crosswalk maps class or requirement.
Bridge study supports comparability.
Recognition accepts_for_purpose external result.
Local extension extends common core.
Translation version_of source vocabulary.
Registry exchanges_with registry.

26. Research Taxonomy

26.1 `RESEARCH.PROJECT`

A structured activity intended to generate, test, synthesize, or apply knowledge.

26.2 Research Purpose

Descriptive
exploratory
confirmatory
evaluative
causal
predictive
comparative
synthesis
institutional design
metaresearch

26.3 Research Method

Experiment
observational study
simulation
literature review
systematic review
scoping review
rapid review
narrative review
living review
case study
interview
survey
focus group
Delphi
structured expert judgment
forecast
replication
reproducibility study
methodological audit

26.4 Research Object

Model
system
capability
safeguard
evaluator
institution
standard
incident
policy
legal regime
research method

26.5 Research Stage

Question
protocol
registered
collecting
analyzing
under review
published
monitoring
corrected
withdrawn
retired

26.6 Research Consequence

Minimal
limited
material
high
critical

26.7 Research Sensitivity

Public
controlled
confidential
restricted
highly restricted

26.8 Research Output

Note
brief
working paper
white paper
protocol
dataset
code
task bank
review
standard proposal
case study
pilot report
replication report
registry record

26.9 Research Relationship Rules

Project investigates question.
Protocol governs project.
Artifact produced_by project.
Evidence generated_by project.
Review evaluates project.
Publication reports result.
Correction updates publication.

27. Status, Version, Security, and Record Taxonomy

27.1 `STATUS.VERSION`

An identified state of an object.

27.2 Version Change

Major
minor
patch
emergency
editorial

27.3 Lifecycle Status

Draft
proposed
approved
active
current
conditional
expired
suspended
corrected
superseded
withdrawn
deprecated
retired
archived

27.4 `STATUS.RECORD`

A structured representation of an entity.

27.5 Record Type

Model record
system manifest
protocol record
evaluation record
evidence record
claim record
reviewer record
evaluator record
certificate record
accreditation record
incident record
standard record
recognition record
correction record

27.6 Record Integrity

Signed
hashed
witnessed
version controlled
mutable
immutable
unverifiable

27.7 `SECURITY.CLASSIFICATION`

A category governing access, handling, and disclosure.

Classes

Public
controlled
confidential
restricted
highly restricted

27.8 Security Handling

View
edit
export
redistribute
summarize
cite
destroy
archive

27.9 Security Status

Active
under review
compromised
declassified
released
destroyed
archived

27.10 Status Relationship Rules

Version supersedes version.
Record represents entity.
Status applies_to record.
Correction amends record.
Withdrawal invalidates_current_use_of record.
Archive preserves retired record.

28. Jurisdiction and Legal Scope Taxonomy

28.1 `JURIS.JURISDICTION`

A legal, geographic, organizational, or institutional domain of authority.

28.2 Jurisdiction Level

Local
subnational
national
supranational
treaty-based
international institutional
contractual
organizational

28.3 Legal Instrument

Constitution
statute
regulation
order
judicial decision
treaty
guidance
code
contract
procurement rule
license

28.4 Legal Status

Proposed
enacted
effective
transitional
stayed
amended
repealed
expired
superseded

28.5 Applicability

Developer
provider
deployer
user
evaluator
importer
distributor
public body
specific sector
specific system category

28.6 Legal Relationship Rules

Requirement applies_in jurisdiction.
Authority issues instrument.
Standard incorporated_into legal instrument.
Decision binding_in jurisdiction.
Crosswalk does_not_establish legal equivalence without recognition.

29. Core Relationship Vocabulary

The following relationship types are canonical.

29.1 Identity Relationships

is_a
instance_of
version_of
same_as
not_same_as

29.2 Composition Relationships

part_of
contains
uses
implements
depends_on

29.3 Lineage Relationships

derived_from
trained_from
fine_tuned_from
forked_from
supersedes

29.4 Evaluation Relationships

evaluated_by
administered_by
tested_with
scored_by
reviewed_by
replicated_by

29.5 Evidence Relationships

supports
challenges
narrows
contextualizes
invalidates
derived_from_source

29.6 Risk Relationships

creates_hazard
exposes
enables
may_cause
mitigates
detects
contains
realizes

29.7 Standards and Assurance Relationships

defines_requirement
conforms_to
certified_against
accredited_for
recognized_by
incorporated_by_reference

29.8 Governance Relationships

governed_by
owned_by
authorized_by
decided_by
appealable_to
overseen_by

29.9 Temporal Relationships

precedes
follows
effective_from
expires_on
superseded_by
withdrawn_on

29.10 Relationship Confidence

Every inferred relationship may include:

Confirmed
high
moderate
low
disputed
unknown

30. Classification Rules

30.1 Model Versus System Rule

Classify a model separately from the system using it.

30.2 Role Separation Rule

Classify every actor role separately.

30.3 Capability-Risk Rule

Do not classify a capability as a risk.

Link the capability to a risk through context.

30.4 Safeguard Rule

Classify a safeguard by function, layer, and mechanism.

Do not classify it as proof of safety.

30.5 Evaluation-Audit Rule

Do not classify an evaluation as an audit unless defined criteria and audit process exist.

30.6 Certification-Accreditation Rule

Certification applies to conformity under a scheme.

Accreditation applies to competence of a conformity-assessment body within scope.

30.7 External-Independent Rule

External is a location or organizational relationship.

Independent is a multidimensional condition.

30.8 Legal-Technical Rule

Preserve legal and technical categories separately.

30.9 Current-Status Rule

Every consequential record should include current status.

30.10 Multi-Label Rule

Use multiple facets when one label would hide important dimensions.

30.11 Uncertain Classification Rule

Use confidence and alternatives.

Do not force a false category.

30.12 Local-Extension Rule

Local extensions should retain mapping to the common core.

30.13 Public-Claim Rule

Public classification should not imply authority beyond the evidence and project status.

31. Core Entity Profiles

A profile defines the minimum classes, facets, properties, and relationships required for a recurring record type.

31.1 Model Profile

Required fields:

Model record identifier
public or internal name
developer
model family
exact version or checkpoint
release date
modality
function
general-purpose or domain-specific status
weight-access status
training or lineage information where available
applicable licenses
current status
related system records
evidence and source records
classification confidence

Optional fields:

Parameter or scale information
training-compute information
training-data summary
post-training methods
known limitations
frontier classification basis
security restrictions

31.2 System Profile

Required fields:

System identifier
system version
responsible developer or deployer
model components
system prompts or prompt-disclosure status
tools
retrieval
memory
scaffolds
safeguards
interfaces
access tier
deployment context
lifecycle stage
current status
related evaluation records

31.3 Deployment Profile

Required fields:

Deployment identifier
system identifier
deployer
operator
user class
sector
geographic scope
scale
decision authority
human oversight
connected infrastructure
monitoring
safeguards
start date
current status
jurisdiction

31.4 Capability Profile

Required fields:

Capability identifier
domain
task or task family
evaluated object
conditions
tools
elicitation
reliability
autonomy
resource requirements
human reference
demonstrated level
evidence level
confidence
limitations
result status

31.5 Risk Profile

Required fields:

Risk identifier
hazard
threat actor or source
vulnerability
exposure
consequence
likelihood or plausibility
scale
time horizon
reversibility
safeguards
residual risk
uncertainty
decision owner
evidence level
review date

31.6 Safeguard Profile

Required fields:

Safeguard identifier
function
layer
mechanism
risk addressed
system or organization implementing it
coverage
threat model
evaluation method
effectiveness evidence
bypass evidence
residual risk
owner
monitoring
status
review date

31.7 Evaluation Protocol Profile

Required fields:

Protocol identifier
title
version
owner
purpose
claim or decision
evaluated object
construct
task universe
task families
administration
elicitation
environment
scoring
uncertainty
integrity classification
change control
expiration
security
review status
current status

31.8 Evaluation Result Profile

Required fields:

Result identifier
protocol identifier and version
system identifier and version
evaluator
date
lifecycle stage
task sample
elicitation conditions
environment
score or finding
uncertainty
integrity status
evidence level
confidence
reviewer
limitations
expiration
status

31.9 Evidence Profile

Required fields:

Evidence identifier
source
source type
date
claim relationship
form
directness
quality profile
provenance
security classification
review status
evidence level
current status

31.10 Independent Review Profile

Required fields:

Review identifier
mandate
reviewed object
reviewers
qualifications
independence profile
conflicts
access
method
findings
dissent
right of reply
publication status
date
current status

31.11 Evaluator Organization Profile

Required fields:

Organization identifier
legal identity
governance
ownership
services
competence scopes
personnel
quality system
security
methods
conflicts
client concentration
complaints
proficiency
accreditation or recognition status
current status

31.12 Standard Profile

Required fields:

Standard identifier
issuing body
title
version
type
scope
requirements
applicable objects
development stage
consensus process
assurance relationship
jurisdictional use
effective date
review date
status
superseded version

31.13 Certificate Profile

Required fields:

Certificate identifier
certification body
scheme
certified object
requirements
scope
decision date
effective date
expiration
surveillance
status
registry location
exclusions

31.14 Accreditation Profile

Required fields:

Accreditation identifier
accreditation body
accredited body
criteria
scope
locations
methods
effective date
reassessment
status
suspension or withdrawal record

31.15 Incident Profile

Required fields:

Incident identifier
date
reporting source
system
deployment
incident type
AI role
affected parties
actual and potential harm
severity
evidence
confidence
failure modes
root causes
response
corrective action
status
disclosure level

31.16 Recognition Profile

Required fields:

Recognition identifier
recognizing authority
object recognized
recognition type
purpose
evidence
scope
conditions
effective date
expiration
review
status

32. Machine-Readable Representation

32.1 Design Goal

The taxonomy should support structured data without forcing the Markdown document to function as executable software.

A future machine-readable release may use:

JSON
JSON Schema
JSON-LD
RDF
SKOS
OWL
YAML
CSV for controlled lists

32.2 Human and Machine Labels

Every class should have:

Stable identifier
preferred label
definition
status
parent
related classes
effective version
change history

32.3 Example Class Record

yaml id: CAP.CYBER.AUTONOMOUS_OPERATIONS preferred_label: Autonomous cyber operations capability definition: > The capability of an AI system to plan and execute multiple cyber-operation steps with limited direct human instruction under defined conditions. parent: CAP.CYBER status: preferred facets: - capability_object - autonomy_level - reliability - tool_access - evidence_level related: - CAP.PLANNING - CAP.TOOL_USE - RISK.SECURITY_HARM - EVAL.AGENT_EVALUATION version: 1.0.0

32.4 Example Evaluation Result Record

yaml id: SB-RESULT-2026-0044 type: EVAL.RESULT evaluated_object: SB-SYSTEM-2026-0017 protocol: SB-PROTOCOL-2026-0008 protocol_version: 1.2.0 capability: - CAP.CYBER.AUTONOMOUS_OPERATIONS evaluation_party: ACTOR.THIRD_PARTY_EVALUATOR integrity: EVAL.INTEGRITY.UNEXPOSED evidence_level: EVIDENCE.LEVEL.E3_SUBSTANTIATED confidence: high status: STATUS.CURRENT security: SECURITY.CONFIDENTIAL expires_on: 2027-01-15

32.5 JSON-LD Relationship Example

json { "@id": "SB-RESULT-2026-0044", "@type": "EVAL.RESULT", "evaluatedBy": {"@id": "SB-PROTOCOL-2026-0008"}, "concernsSystem": {"@id": "SB-SYSTEM-2026-0017"}, "supportsClaim": {"@id": "SB-CLAIM-2026-0031"}, "reviewedBy": {"@id": "SB-REVIEW-2026-0009"}, "status": "STATUS.CURRENT" }

32.6 Schema Validation

Machine-readable records should validate:

Required fields
identifier format
allowed classes
version
date format
relationship targets
status
security classification

32.7 Provenance

Structured records should preserve:

Creator
creation date
source
modification
reviewer
approval
supersession

32.8 Digital Signatures

High-consequence records may be digitally signed.

32.9 No Schema-Meaning Substitution

A technically valid JSON record can still be conceptually wrong.

Schema validation does not replace expert classification.

33. External Mapping and Crosswalk Rules

33.1 Mapping Types

A class may map to an external class as:

Exact match
close match
broader match
narrower match
related match
no valid match
disputed match

33.2 Mapping Record

Record:

Standards Body class
external source
external identifier
version
mapping type
rationale
jurisdiction or domain
reviewer
date
limitations

33.3 No Silent Equivalence

Different labels should not be treated as exact equivalents without review.

33.4 Legal Mapping

Legal classifications should retain:

Jurisdiction
authority
effective date
legal consequences

33.5 Standards Mapping

Standards crosswalks should identify:

Requirement meaning
object
evidence
assurance
exceptions
version

33.6 Translation Mapping

Translated classes should record:

Source term
target term
literal meaning
intended concept
non-equivalence
domain validation

33.7 External Vocabulary Preservation

When importing an external term:

Preserve its exact source meaning
identify differences
avoid redefining it silently
classify it as external or mapped

33.8 Interoperability Principle

Mapping should enable understanding.

It should not manufacture consensus or legal effect.

34. Domain Extension Framework

34.1 Purpose

Some capability, risk, safeguard, and evaluation domains require specialized extensions.

Examples:

Cybersecurity
biology
chemical systems
finance
critical infrastructure
healthcare
robotics
public administration

34.2 Extension Requirements

A domain extension should define:

Scope
classes
parent classes
domain-specific relationships
evidence needs
security needs
legal context
subject-matter reviewers
version
mappings

34.3 Extension Identifier

Preferred pattern:

DOMAIN-SPECIFIC-PREFIX.CLASS

Example:

CYBER.TASK.EXPLOIT_CHAIN

34.4 Common-Core Requirement

Every extension should map material classes to the Standards Body common core.

34.5 Domain Authority

Domain experts should review extensions.

34.6 Security

A public taxonomy may omit or generalize sensitive subclasses when detailed classification would increase harm.

34.7 Extension Status

Use:

Provisional
pilot
approved
deprecated
retired

35. Taxonomy Governance

35.1 Taxonomy Owner

Standards Body owns and maintains the canonical taxonomy.

35.2 Stewardship Function

A future taxonomy steward or committee should:

Maintain class definitions
review proposals
resolve overlaps
manage identifiers
approve mappings
maintain machine-readable releases
coordinate translations
publish changes
audit use

35.3 Proposal Requirements

A proposed class should include:

Identifier
preferred label
definition
purpose
parent
facets
relationships
examples
nonexamples
source
status
affected records
mapping implications

35.4 Approval Criteria

Approve a new class only when:

The distinction is meaningful
existing classes are insufficient
the class can be applied consistently
it improves evidence, governance, or interoperability
complexity remains proportionate
qualified reviewers agree or dissent is documented

35.5 Duplicate Control

Before adding a class:

Search existing taxonomy
search terminology
inspect external mappings
examine whether a facet is more appropriate

35.6 Change Types

Editorial Change

No intended meaning change.

Clarifying Change

Improves definition without changing classification.

Substantive Change

Changes meaning, parent, relationships, or use.

Deprecation

Replaces a class.

Retirement

Ends active use.

35.7 Change Impact Review

Review affected:

Canonical files
registries
protocols
standards
public claims
data schemas
crosswalks
translations

35.8 Appeals

A contributor may appeal:

Class rejection
classification decision
mapping
deprecation
public use

35.9 Emergency Correction

Correct immediately when a class:

Creates a safety risk
implies false authority
causes systematic misclassification
conflicts with a binding legal definition
creates major interoperability failure

35.10 Public Change Log

Publish material class changes and replacements.

36. Taxonomy Quality Tests

36.1 Identity Test

Does the class describe a type of object rather than an opinion about it?

36.2 Parent Test

Is the parent relationship valid?

36.3 Distinction Test

Can qualified users distinguish the class from related classes?

36.4 Completeness Test

Does the taxonomy cover the material classes needed for the use case?

36.5 Exclusivity Test

Where classes are intended to be exclusive, can one object be assigned consistently?

36.6 Polyhierarchy Test

Where overlap is legitimate, does the structure permit multiple classifications?

36.7 Facet Test

Should the proposed class be an independent facet instead?

36.8 Evidence Test

Can a classification be supported by identifiable evidence?

36.9 Authority Test

Does the label imply unsupported legal or institutional status?

36.10 Temporal Test

Can the classification change over time without losing history?

36.11 Interoperability Test

Can the class be mapped to external systems?

36.12 Translation Test

Can the concept be translated without unacceptable loss?

36.13 Security Test

Could publishing the class or record increase harm?

36.14 Usability Test

Can researchers, evaluators, policymakers, and technical systems apply it?

36.15 Anti-Gaming Test

Correction:

Add a subclass when the distinction changes evidence, governance, or action.

38. Worked Classification Examples

38.1 Hosted General-Purpose Assistant

Possible classification:

AI.GENERAL_PURPOSE_MODEL
SYS.AI_SYSTEM
SYS.TOOL_USING
ACCESS.API_PUBLIC
DEPLOY.CONSUMER
LIFE.GENERAL_DEPLOYMENT
SAFEGUARD.ACCESS_CONTROL
SAFEGUARD.MONITORING

Additional records required:

Exact model version
system prompt status
tools
safeguards
deployment geography
evaluation history

38.2 Open-Weight Research Model

Possible classification:

AI.MODEL
AI.OPEN_WEIGHT
ACCESS.WEIGHTS_PUBLIC
DEPLOY.RESEARCH
LIFE.RELEASE

Do not infer:

Full open-source status
low risk
reproducibility
unrestricted legal use

38.3 Held-Out Cyber Evaluation

Possible classification:

EVAL.EVALUATION
EVAL.HELD_OUT
EVAL.AGENT_EVALUATION
CAP.CYBER
SECURITY.RESTRICTED
ACTOR.THIRD_PARTY_EVALUATOR
REVIEW.INDEPENDENT

Required relationships:

Evaluates system
uses protocol
samples task universe
produces result
supports capability claim
expires on date

38.4 Independent Review of Developer Evidence

Possible classification:

REVIEW.INDEPENDENT_EXPERT_REVIEW
subject: evidence package
access: confidential evidence
disciplines: technical and methodological
outcome: approve with conditions
dissent: present

Do not classify as:

Audit
certification
regulatory approval

unless those additional processes exist.

38.5 Evaluator Certification

A certification of an evaluator's management system may be classified as:

ASSURANCE.CERTIFICATION
certified object: management system
scheme: named
body: named
scope: named

It should not be classified automatically as:

Accreditation for AI evaluation
competence in every capability domain
certification of evaluation results

38.6 Post-Deployment Incident

Possible classification:

INCIDENT.AI_INCIDENT
INCIDENT.SECURITY_INCIDENT
lifecycle: post-deployment
AI role: enabled or amplified
severity: material
status: under investigation
evidence confidence: moderate

The record should preserve uncertainty about causation.

38.7 Proposed Procurement Requirement

Possible classification:

STANDARD.REQUIREMENT
force: procurement
form: performance-based
stage: proposed
object: deployed high-stakes system
evidence level: E2 or E3
jurisdiction: purchasing institution

Do not classify as legally mandatory unless law creates that effect.

39. Taxonomy Implementation Pathway

Phase 1: Canonical Adoption

Use this taxonomy in new canonical files and registries.

Phase 2: Existing-File Audit

Review existing foundation and institutional files for:

Misclassified objects
inconsistent role labels
status omissions
model-system confusion
audit-certification-accreditation confusion

Phase 3: Core Registry Schema

Create schemas for:

Models
systems
protocols
results
evaluators
incidents
standards
recognition

Phase 4: Identifier Service

Establish controlled identifier assignment.

Phase 5: Machine-Readable Release

Publish the common core in a structured format.

Phase 6: Domain Extensions

Develop controlled extensions for:

Cyber
biological
critical infrastructure
persuasion
AI research and development

Phase 7: External Crosswalks

Map relevant external vocabularies and standards.

Phase 8: Classification Pilot

Classify a representative set of:

Frontier systems
evaluations
evaluator organizations
standards
incidents

Measure inter-rater consistency and ambiguity.

Phase 9: Public Registry Integration

Use taxonomy identifiers in public records.

Phase 10: Continuous Governance

Review classes, mappings, and use annually and after major incidents or standards changes.

40. Taxonomy Scorecard

Dimension	Core question
Object identity	Is the actual object identified?
Correct level	Is classification at model, system, deployment, organization, or legal level correct?
Class validity	Does the class accurately represent the object?
Parent validity	Is the hierarchical relationship defensible?
Facet use	Are independent characteristics represented as facets?
Relationship precision	Are entity relationships named accurately?
Evidence	Is the classification supported?
Confidence	Is uncertainty in classification visible?
Version	Is the relevant version identified?
Status	Is current, expired, superseded, or withdrawn status shown?
Jurisdiction	Is legal or institutional scope preserved?
Security	Is disclosure classification appropriate?
Role separation	Are developer, provider, deployer, evaluator, and authority roles separated?
Capability-risk separation	Are ability and risk kept distinct?
Evaluation-assurance separation	Are test, review, audit, certification, and accreditation distinct?
Interoperability	Can the class map to external vocabularies?
Machine readability	Can the record be represented structurally?
Human readability	Can informed users understand the class?
Temporal stability	Can changes occur without losing history?
Anti-gaming	Does the classification resist prestige or compliance gaming?
Extensibility	Can domains extend the taxonomy without breaking the core?
Governance	Can classes be reviewed, appealed, corrected, and retired?

40.1 Critical Failures

The following normally invalidate a consequential classification:

Unidentified object
model-system collapse
unsupported legal status
unsupported accreditation or certification claim
missing version for a changing object
missing jurisdiction for a legal category
capability classified as risk without context
expired record shown as current
relationship asserted without evidence
public classification exposing restricted information
identifier reused for a different concept

40.2 No Universal Taxonomy Score

Do not average all dimensions into one number.

Critical errors should remain visible.

41. Classification Record Template

Record ID:
Record type:
Preferred label:
Version:
Status:
Classification date:
Classifier:
Reviewer:

Object Identity

Primary Class

Subclasses

Facets

Relationships

Jurisdiction

Security Classification

Supporting Evidence

Classification Confidence

Confirmed
high
moderate
low
disputed
unknown

Alternative Classifications Considered

Limitations

Review Date

Change History

42. Taxonomy Class Proposal Template

Proposed identifier:
Preferred label:
Proposer:
Date:

Definition

Purpose

Parent Class

Subclasses

Applicable Facets

Required Properties

Relationships

Examples

Nonexamples

Existing Classes Considered

External Mappings

Evidence and Sources

Security Considerations

Implementation Impact

Proposed Status

Provisional
preferred
accepted
context-specific

Reviewers

Decision

43. Taxonomy Change Request Template

Change request ID:
Affected class:
Current version:
Proposer:
Date:

Change Type

Editorial
clarification
substantive
deprecation
retirement
emergency correction

Current Definition or Structure

Proposed Definition or Structure

Rationale

Evidence

Affected Records

Affected Canonical Files

Interoperability Impact

Translation Impact

Transition Plan

Effective Version

Review and Decision

44. Crosswalk Record Template

Crosswalk ID:
Standards Body taxonomy version:
External source:
External version:
Jurisdiction or domain:
Reviewer:
Date:

Standards Body class	External class	Mapping type	Rationale	Limitations	Status

Mapping types:

Exact match
close match
broader match
narrower match
related match
no valid match
disputed

Recognition Effect

State explicitly whether the crosswalk has:

Informational effect only
technical recognition effect
assurance effect
contractual effect
legal effect

Do not imply legal effect unless authorized.

45. Registry Record Template

Registry:
Record ID:
Entity type:
Entity identifier:
Preferred label:
Owner:
Version:
Status:
Effective date:
Expiration or review date:

Classification

Scope

Relationships

Evidence

Confidence

Security and Access

Recognition

Corrections

Superseded Records

Digital Signature or Integrity Record

46. Taxonomic Decision Rules

46.1 New-Class Decision

Create a new class when the distinction:

Changes evidence requirements
changes governance
changes risk or safeguards
changes standards applicability
changes interoperability
cannot be represented adequately through an existing facet or property

46.2 Facet Decision

Create a facet when the characteristic:

Applies across several primary classes
does not change the entity's essential identity
can vary independently
supports filtering or comparison

46.3 Relationship Decision

Create or use a relationship when meaning depends on the connection among entities.

46.4 Provisional Classification Decision

Use provisional status when:

Evidence is incomplete
external definitions are changing
class boundaries are not stable
implementation has not been tested

46.5 Deprecation Decision

Deprecate a class when:

A clearer replacement exists
the term creates systematic ambiguity
external use has shifted
the class combines incompatible concepts

46.6 Retirement Decision

Retire a class when it no longer serves current work and transition is complete.

46.7 Public Disclosure Decision

Do not publish detailed classification when it would reveal:

Active held-out content
exploitable vulnerabilities
protected personal data
restricted capability information
security architecture whose disclosure increases risk

Publish the highest safe parent class and a reason for restriction where appropriate.

46.8 Legal Classification Decision

Seek qualified legal review when a classification affects:

Regulatory status
compliance
legal obligation
liability
protected legal category
cross-border applicability

47. Canonical Standards Body Taxonomy Positions

Standards Body adopts the following working positions.

A taxonomy is operational infrastructure, not decorative organization.
The object should be identified before the label is selected.
Models, systems, deployments, organizations, and jurisdictions are distinct levels of analysis.
A marketed product name is not a sufficient technical identifier.
Model family, model version, system version, and deployment should have separate records.
A system may inherit model capability evidence only through documented analysis.
A capability is an ability under specified conditions.
A capability is not itself a risk.
Risk classification requires context, actor, access, exposure, vulnerability, safeguard, likelihood, and consequence.
A safeguard should be classified by function, layer, mechanism, scope, and effectiveness evidence.
A safeguard does not constitute a guarantee.
A test is not the same as an evaluation.
A benchmark is not the same as a complete protocol.
A review is not automatically an audit.
An external reviewer is not automatically independent.
An audit is criteria-based, systematic, independent, and documented.
Certification is third-party attestation under a defined scheme.
Accreditation recognizes conformity-assessment competence within scope.
A certificate does not establish properties outside its scheme and scope.
Legal approval, certification, accreditation, recognition, and endorsement are distinct.
Every consequential classification should include version and status.
Frontier status is time-dependent and dimension-dependent.
Open-weight, open-source, open-data, and public-access classifications should remain separate.
Public, controlled, confidential, restricted, and highly restricted are distinct access classes.
Evaluation integrity status should travel with a result.
A contaminated or compromised result should not remain classified as current without review.
Evidence level and confidence are distinct facets.
Evidence may support, challenge, narrow, contextualize, or fail to resolve a claim.
A negative evaluation result should not automatically classify a capability as absent.
Actor roles should be represented separately even when one organization performs several roles.
Sponsor, developer, provider, deployer, operator, evaluator, reviewer, and authority are distinct roles.
Institutional authority should be classified by source and scope.
A research project should not be classified as a regulator, certification body, or accreditation body without actual mandate and function.
Standards may be technical, process-based, performance-based, management-system, interface, reporting, terminology, or test-method standards.
A standard may be voluntary while requirements adopted through contract or law may be binding.
Standards stage and legal force should remain separate.
An incident may have several classifications simultaneously.
AI involvement in an incident should be classified by causal or contributory role rather than assumed.
Failure, root cause, contributing factor, correction, and preventive action are distinct.
Incentive mechanisms should be classified together with intended and unintended effects.
Prestige and recognition do not establish competence or authority.
Interoperability does not require identical classification systems.
A crosswalk does not establish equivalence automatically.
Legal equivalence requires recognition by the relevant authority.
Local extensions should preserve mapping to a common core.
Noncomparability is a valid taxonomic result.
Uncertain classifications should remain uncertain rather than forced.
Machine-readable validity does not guarantee conceptual validity.
Taxonomic classes should be corrected, deprecated, and retired visibly.
Standards Body should evaluate the consistency, usability, and real-world effects of its own taxonomy.

48. Relationship to Other Canonical Files

`PROJECT_IDENTITY.md`

Defines the identity, present role, authority boundaries, audiences, and public positioning of Standards Body.

The taxonomy must not classify the project in a way that exceeds those boundaries.

`TERMINOLOGY.md`

Defines the preferred terms and meanings.

This taxonomy organizes those terms into classes, facets, properties, and relationships.

`FOUNDATIONS_APPENDIX.md`

Defines the integrated eight-foundation system.

This taxonomy provides the entity architecture required to represent that system.

`EVIDENCE_STANDARDS.md`

Defines evidence levels, source quality, claims, confidence, and correction.

This taxonomy provides corresponding evidence and claim classes.

`RESEARCH_METHODOLOGY.md`

Defines how research is planned, conducted, reviewed, published, and corrected.

This taxonomy classifies research projects, methods, artifacts, review levels, and outputs.

`EVALUATION_PHILOSOPHY.md`

Will define the deeper conceptual approach to constructs, validity, capability, risk, thresholds, and interpretation.

This taxonomy provides the formal categories used by that philosophy.

`INSTITUTION_DESIGN.md`

Will define the institutional system.

This taxonomy provides classes for organizations, roles, authority, schemes, registries, and governance bodies.

`GOVERNANCE_FRAMEWORK.md`

Will define decision rights, committees, oversight, recusal, appeals, and accountability.

This taxonomy provides the corresponding governance entities and relationships.

`STANDARDS_DEVELOPMENT_PROCESS.md`

Will define the standards lifecycle.

This taxonomy provides standards types, stages, requirement forms, and statuses.

`EVALUATOR_ACCREDITATION_FRAMEWORK.md`

Will define evaluator competence and recognition.

This taxonomy distinguishes evaluators, audit, certification, accreditation, scopes, and statuses.

`TRANSPARENCY_FRAMEWORK.md`

Will define public, controlled, confidential, restricted, and highly restricted information handling.

`WEBSITE_SOURCE_OF_TRUTH.md`

Will apply approved classifications and public descriptions to website content.

`SOURCES.md`

Will maintain source records linked to evidence and classification decisions.

`FAILURE_DATABASE.md`

Will use the incident, failure, root-cause, and correction taxonomy.

`VERSION_HISTORY.md`

Will preserve the version and status history of taxonomy classes and classified records.

49. Taxonomy Maturity Model

Level 0: Uncontrolled Vocabulary

Characteristics:

Inconsistent labels
no stable identifiers
model and system conflation
no status records
no change control

Level 1: Controlled Terms

Characteristics:

Preferred vocabulary
top-level classes
basic definitions
human-readable guidance

Level 2: Faceted Classification

Characteristics:

Multiple classification axes
version and status
confidence
actor-role separation
evidence and security facets

Level 3: Relationship and Registry Model

Characteristics:

Typed relationships
entity profiles
identifiers
registry records
cross-file consistency
domain extensions

Level 4: Machine-Readable and Interoperable

Characteristics:

Structured schema
external mappings
validation
persistent identifiers
federated exchange
translation support

Level 5: Adaptive Taxonomic Infrastructure

Characteristics:

Continuous audit
classification-quality metrics
automated status propagation
public change history
domain-governance network
measured interoperability
retirement of obsolete concepts

Maturity Rule

Taxonomic maturity depends on use and governance, not document length.

A complete vocabulary that is not applied consistently remains low maturity.

50. Taxonomy Audit Program

50.1 Audit Purpose

Determine whether Standards Body records and publications use the taxonomy correctly.

50.2 Audit Sample

Sample:

Foundation papers
website pages
evaluation results
system profiles
incident records
standards proposals
evaluator records
public claims

50.3 Audit Questions

Is the object correctly identified?
Is the level of analysis correct?
Are roles separated?
Are capability and risk distinct?
Are evaluation and assurance distinct?
Are version and status present?
Is jurisdiction present?
Is confidence visible?
Are relationships supported?
Are deprecated classes still used?
Is security classification appropriate?

50.4 Error Categories

Critical
material
minor
editorial

50.5 Corrective Action

A taxonomic error may require:

Record correction
public correction
schema update
contributor guidance
class revision
crosswalk revision
affected-file review

50.6 Audit Metrics

Possible metrics:

Correct-classification rate
inter-rater agreement
missing-version rate
missing-status rate
role-conflation rate
deprecated-class rate
unresolved ambiguity
correction time
mapping coverage

51. Final Taxonomy Position

A frontier AI standards project cannot build credible evaluation, assurance, or governance on top of unstable categories.

The system fails when:

A model name stands in for a full system
a system result stands in for every deployment
a capability stands in for risk
a safeguard stands in for safety
a review stands in for audit
certification stands in for approval
accreditation stands in for universal competence
a national rule stands in for a global category
an expired result stands in for current evidence
a famous institution stands in for a defined role
a score stands in for a multidimensional profile

Taxonomy is the discipline that prevents these substitutions.

It tells Standards Body what kind of object is being discussed.

It preserves the object's version, scope, context, status, and jurisdiction.

It makes relationships explicit.

It supports structured evidence.

It allows one institution to understand another without pretending that all systems are identical.

It allows the project to evolve without silently rewriting its history.

The defining taxonomic rule of Standards Body is:

Name the object, classify the level, attach the context, state the relationship, and preserve the version.

Revision Record

Version 1.0

Date: July 16, 2026

Change type: Complete foundational edition

Summary: Establishes the canonical Standards Body taxonomy. Defines design principles, class and facet architecture, identifiers, classification status and confidence, twenty-three primary domains, actors, AI artifacts, systems, lifecycle, access, deployment, capabilities, risks, safeguards, evaluations, evidence, review, assurance, standards, governance, incidents, incentives, interoperability, research, status, security, jurisdiction, relationship vocabulary, classification rules, entity profiles, machine-readable representation, external mappings, domain extensions, governance, quality tests, common errors, worked examples, implementation, scorecard, operational templates, canonical positions, maturity, audit, and cross-file interfaces.

Status: Approved foundational source.

Document Purpose

Executive Summary

1. Classes

2. Subclasses

3. Facets

4. Relationships

5. Status and Version

1. Taxonomic Design Principles

1.1 Object Before Label

1.2 Correct Level of Analysis

1.3 Polyhierarchy

1.4 Faceted Classification

1.5 Explicit Relationships

1.6 No Unsupported Inference

1.7 Scope Preservation

1.8 Stable Core, Extensible Edges

1.9 Interoperability

1.10 Public Legibility

1.11 Machine Readability

1.12 No Prestige Classification

1.13 Revision and Retirement

1.14 Bounded Completeness

2. Taxonomic Structure

2.1 Primary Class

2.2 Subclass

2.3 Facet

2.4 Property

2.5 Relationship

2.6 Record

2.7 Profile

2.8 Scheme

2.9 Local Extension

2.10 Crosswalk

3. Identifier Architecture

3.1 Taxonomy Class Identifier

3.2 Entity Record Identifier

3.3 Version Identifier

3.4 Relationship Identifier

3.5 Human-Readable Label

3.6 Persistent Identifier

3.7 Deprecated Identifier

4. Taxonomic Status

4.1 Preferred

4.2 Accepted

4.3 Context-Specific

4.4 Provisional

4.5 Deprecated

4.6 Retired

4.7 External

5. Classification Confidence

5.1 Confirmed

5.2 High

5.3 Moderate

5.4 Low

5.5 Disputed

5.6 Unknown

5.7 Confidence Rule

6. Primary Domain Map

7. Project and Institutional Identity Taxonomy

7.1 ID.PROJECT

Subclasses

7.2 ID.ORGANIZATION

Subclasses

7.3 ID.INSTITUTION

7.4 ID.STANDARDS_BODY

7.5 ID.REGULATOR

7.6 ID.ACCREDITATION_BODY

7.7 ID.CERTIFICATION_BODY

7.8 ID.EVALUATION_ORGANIZATION

7.9 ID.RESEARCH_INSTITUTION

7.10 ID.SCHEME_OWNER

7.11 Institutional Facets

Authority

Geographic Scope

Ownership

Functional Stage

8. Actor and Role Taxonomy

8.1 ACTOR.PERSON

8.2 ACTOR.ORGANIZATION

8.3 ACTOR.DEVELOPER

7.1 `ID.PROJECT`

7.2 `ID.ORGANIZATION`

7.3 `ID.INSTITUTION`

7.4 `ID.STANDARDS_BODY`

7.5 `ID.REGULATOR`

7.6 `ID.ACCREDITATION_BODY`

7.7 `ID.CERTIFICATION_BODY`

7.8 `ID.EVALUATION_ORGANIZATION`

7.9 `ID.RESEARCH_INSTITUTION`

7.10 `ID.SCHEME_OWNER`

8.1 `ACTOR.PERSON`

8.2 `ACTOR.ORGANIZATION`

8.3 `ACTOR.DEVELOPER`

8.4 `ACTOR.PROVIDER`

8.5 `ACTOR.DEPLOYER`

8.6 `ACTOR.OPERATOR`

8.7 `ACTOR.USER`

8.8 `ACTOR.AFFECTED_PARTY`

8.9 `ACTOR.EVALUATOR`

8.10 `ACTOR.REVIEWER`

8.11 `ACTOR.AUDITOR`

8.12 `ACTOR.INSPECTOR`

8.13 `ACTOR.CERTIFIER`

8.14 `ACTOR.ACCREDITOR`

8.15 `ACTOR.STANDARD_SETTER`

8.16 `ACTOR.DECISION_OWNER`

8.17 `ACTOR.SPONSOR`

8.18 `ACTOR.CUSTODIAN`

8.19 `ACTOR.REGISTRY_OPERATOR`

8.20 `ACTOR.WHISTLEBLOWER`

8.21 `ACTOR.THREAT_ACTOR`

9.1 `AI.ARTIFACT`

9.2 `AI.MODEL`

9.3 `AI.MODEL_FAMILY`

9.4 `AI.MODEL_VERSION`

9.5 `AI.CHECKPOINT`

9.6 `AI.WEIGHTS`

9.7 `AI.ADAPTER`

9.8 `AI.TOKENIZER`

9.9 `AI.TRAINING_DATASET`

9.10 `AI.TRAINING_RUN`

9.11 `AI.POST_TRAINING_PROCESS`

9.12 `AI.MODEL_CARD`

9.13 `AI.SYSTEM_CARD`

10.1 `SYS.AI_SYSTEM`

10.2 `SYS.MODEL_COMPONENT`

10.3 `SYS.SYSTEM_PROMPT`

10.4 `SYS.SCAFFOLD`

10.5 `SYS.AGENT`

10.6 `SYS.AGENTIC_SYSTEM`

10.7 `SYS.MULTI_AGENT_SYSTEM`

10.8 `SYS.RETRIEVAL_COMPONENT`

10.9 `SYS.MEMORY_COMPONENT`

10.10 `SYS.TOOL`

10.11 `SYS.ORCHESTRATOR`

10.12 `SYS.INTERFACE`

10.13 `SYS.MONITORING_COMPONENT`

10.14 `SYS.SAFETY_COMPONENT`

10.15 `SYS.HUMAN_COMPONENT`