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What is AIOSchema?

AIOSchema is an open, technology-agnostic standard for cryptographic content provenance. It provides a minimal metadata layer that proves when something was created, by whom, and that it hasn’t been tampered with. Think of it as a universal digital notary.

How is AIOSchema different from C2PA?

AIOSchema and C2PA are complementary, not competing. C2PA is a comprehensive content authenticity framework with a focus on media pipelines and hardware-rooted trust. AIOSchema is a lightweight provenance layer that can embed inside a C2PA manifest as a custom assertion, or operate independently where C2PA is not available.

Key differences:

  • AIOSchema’s Core Block has zero key dependency: Level 1 verification requires no keys, no certificates, no infrastructure
  • AIOSchema is designed for implementation in a day, not weeks
  • AIOSchema works for any asset type, including physical-to-digital scans and documents
  • AIOSchema uses sidecar manifests that survive metadata stripping

What does “implement in one day” mean?

A developer familiar with JSON, SHA-256, and basic cryptography can read the specification in under an hour and produce a working Level 1 implementation (hash verification, canonical JSON, core fingerprint) in a single day. The reference implementations demonstrate this: the standard deliberately uses only widely-available cryptographic primitives.

What are the compliance levels?

  • Level 1 · Core: Hash-based integrity verification. No keys required. Valid indefinitely.
  • Level 2 · Signed: Level 1 plus Ed25519 digital signatures and creator identity.
  • Level 3 · Anchored: Level 2 plus cryptographic timestamping via Bitcoin (OpenTimestamps) or RFC 3161.

Is AIOSchema free to use?

Yes. The specification is licensed under CC-BY 4.0 (attribution required). Reference implementations are Apache 2.0. There are no licensing fees, no royalties, and no vendor lock-in.

What about privacy?

AIOSchema is privacy-preserving by design. The creator_id field is a one-way derivation from a public key: it does not contain or reveal any personal information. No personal data is required in the Core Block. Pseudonymous use is fully supported.

What regulatory requirements does AIOSchema address?

AIOSchema is designed to support compliance with:

  • EU AI Act Article 50 (content labeling, effective August 2, 2026)
  • California SB 942 (AI-generated content disclosure)
  • UK Online Safety Act (content authenticity)
  • Australian content labeling frameworks

What is a Creator ID and how do I get one?

Your Creator ID is the Ed25519 public key fingerprint that serves as your permanent attributed identity in AIOSchema manifests. It is derived from your keypair: deterministic, not chosen, and stays with you across every build and site.

To generate a keypair and derive your Creator ID, use the Creator ID Generator on AIOSchemaHub. The generator runs client-side in your browser: your private key never leaves your machine during generation.

For implementation in CI/CD or scripted environments, generate a keypair with OpenSSL:

# Generate Ed25519 private key
openssl genpkey -algorithm ED25519 -out /tmp/aioschema_key.pem

# Derive Creator ID from public key
openssl pkey -in /tmp/aioschema_key.pem -pubout -pubpem | \
  openssl dgst -sha256 | awk '{print "ed25519-fp-" substr($2, 1, 32)}'

# Export for the plugin (base64, one line)
cat /tmp/aioschema_key.pem | base64 | tr -d '\n'

What happens if my private key is compromised?

Generate a new keypair. Your new keypair produces a new Creator ID. Sign new manifests going forward with the new key. Your old manifests remain valid: they were signed with the old key and their provenance is intact. You cannot migrate or link the old Creator ID to the new one.

AIOSchema does not provide a key rotation protocol. Creator ID is permanent per keypair. Compromised keys are abandoned, not migrated. This is a deliberate design choice: key rotation services create complexity, dependencies, and attack surfaces that outweigh the convenience.

How do I verify an AIOSchema manifest?

Level 1 verification requires only:

  1. Read the manifest JSON
  2. Recompute the hash of the original file
  3. Compare against hash_original in the manifest
  4. Recompute core_fingerprint from the Core Block fields
  5. Compare against the stored fingerprint

No keys, no network calls, no specialized tools. A client-side verifier is available at aioschemahub.com. A client-side universal verifier is also available at /verify/.

Where are the reference implementations?

Reference implementations are available in Python, TypeScript, Node.js, Go, Rust, and .NET. Source code is available at github.com/aioschema/aioschema.

How do I get involved?

AIOSchema is currently in technical preview. To stay informed:

Read the specification → Get started →