Each draft is standalone: it defines its own conformance levels and field semantics inline, and refers only to actual external published standards (RFC, ISO, W3C, NIST, Schema.org, Dublin Core, SPDX, and similar) for normative content. None of the drafts below is a ratified standard. Each will evolve through public review and, by community consent, be ratified by The Gathering.
The canonical home for every draft is the public repository at github.com/ddttom/mx-shared-gathering. For the entire corpus in one fetch, see llms-understanding.txt.
Primary note (read first)
MX Field Definition Pattern note
The authoring pattern every sister note follows when defining a frontmatter field, with a recommended reading order across the draft set. Read this first; everything else assumes it.
Status: Draft (v1.0). Source: draft-field-pattern.md.
Drafts extending the pattern
MX Core Metadata note
The vocabulary floor: Zone 1 and Zone 2 document metadata and pass-through fields. Any text-bearing artefact can adopt it: a markdown file, an HTML page, a YAML sidecar.
Status: Draft (v1.0). Source: draft-core-metadata.md.
MX Cogs note
The .cog.md file format as an optional layer on top of MX, for documents that want to be navigable, composable, and runnable by agents. Most MX-aware documents will not be cogs.
Status: Draft (v1.0). Source: draft-cogs.md.
MX Extensions note
Namespace policy and context-specific naming, distinguishing standard, vendor public, and vendor private prefixes so vendors can extend MX without polluting the core vocabulary.
Status: Draft (v1.0). Source: draft-extensions.md.
MX Provenance note
Attribution, trust, maintenance, and decision-record references: the metadata that makes a document's origin and stewardship verifiable.
Status: Draft (v1.0). Source: draft-provenance.md.
MX Carrier Formats note
Carrier mechanisms for MX metadata across formats (markdown, HTML, JSDoc, CSS, shell, XMP, sidecar, SQL), plus a small code-specific provenance vocabulary. What code does (signatures, APIs, tests) defers to JSDoc, docstrings, OpenAPI, and similar.
Status: Draft (v1.0). Source: draft-carrier-formats.md.
MX Workflow Contracts note
A small set of optional top-level fields for cogs that declare an executable approval, review, or procedural workflow: thresholds, approvers, procedures, and target environment.
Status: Draft (v1.0). Source: draft-workflow-contracts.md.
MX Agent Directory Discovery note
The three-layer discoverability standard for llms.txt and any agent-directory file: HTML transport, sitemap inclusion, and an in-page <link> reference.
Status: Draft (v1.0). Source: draft-agent-directory-discovery.md.
MX Document Accessibility note
The three-layer accessibility standard for non-HTML document carriers: tagged structure, declared conformance, independent verification. PDF normative; DOCX and EPUB informative. Defers to ISO 14289 PDF/UA, ISO 32000, WCAG 2.1, BCP 47, Schema.org accessibility properties, and Directive (EU) 2019/882.
Status: Draft (v1.0). Source: draft-document-accessibility.md.
MX Contract Fingerprinting and Signing note
Signing is optional. This note specifies the contract a cog must satisfy when it elects to be signed. The fingerprint format is open.
Status: Draft (v1.0). Source: draft-contract-fingerprinting.md.
How the drafts fit together
The Field Definition Pattern is the primary note: every sister note follows its template when defining a frontmatter field, and adopts its discipline (machines need more fields, tightly constrained, to understand intent). Core Metadata is the vocabulary floor; Cogs adds an optional layer for documents that want to be navigable and runnable by agents; Extensions governs namespace policy. Provenance covers origin and stewardship. Carrier Formats specifies how MX is carried in each file format. Workflow Contracts gives cogs that declare workflows the fields they need. Agent Directory Discovery and Document Accessibility extend the pattern into discoverability and document conformance. Contract Fingerprinting specifies the format a cog uses when it elects to be signed.
How to comment on a draft
Read the draft, file an issue or pull request against github.com/ddttom/mx-shared-gathering, or join the public review on Stream. Practitioner experience trying to use a draft in production is the most useful kind of feedback. The full participation guide is on the Join in page; the cycle from draft to ratification is described on How it works.