Machine-Native Complexity Standard

The Machine-Native Complexity Standard (MNCS) is an open, experimental, community-developed, tool-neutral engineering standard for accepting generated or machine-optimized implementations that may exceed ordinary human-maintainability limits.

Human readability is relocated, not eliminated.

Humans retain readable specifications, contracts, limits, reference behavior, validation policy, provenance, regeneration instructions, and acceptance evidence. Machines may own internal execution complexity only when it purchases a declared, measurable benefit inside an auditable correctness, safety, resource, provenance, and regeneration envelope. Complexity is never a benefit by itself.

MNCS is not an accredited ISO, ANSI, IEEE, IETF, or similar standard. Version 0.2 is intended for experimentation and public review, not as a blanket assurance claim. Validator release 0.2.0 adds portable canonical identities, offline attestations, explicit trust, reproducible packages, and independent implementation agreement.

Attested interoperability in 0.2

Evidence-derived results now have RFC 8785 canonical bytes, Ed25519 DSSE-compatible envelopes, deterministic local trust policies, reproducible .mncs archives, and a versioned corpus shared with an independent Rust validator. Provider Protocol 0.1 makes analyzers interoperable without letting normal validation launch them.

FAIL dominates UNKNOWN, which dominates PASS. Missing required evidence never passes. Signature validity and trust are reported separately: a signature proves only that a key signed bytes, not correctness, safety, performance, or truth.

Install

python -m venv .venv
. .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install .
mncs version

For development:

python -m pip install -e '.[dev]'
make check

Five-minute example

mncs validate-bundle examples/minimal
mncs certify-bundle examples/minimal
mncs summarize examples/minimal/manifest.json
mncs hash examples/minimal/machine/generated.py
mncs compare examples/minimal/manifest.json \
  examples/rejected-candidate/manifest.json
mncs pack examples/minimal --output minimal.mncs
mncs verify-package minimal.mncs
mncs key generate ./release-key.pem

Start a bundle with mncs init my-component. The resulting template is intentionally incomplete: replace it with real evidence and hashes before making a claim. Validation is offline and never launches, imports, or executes an evidence binary.

Cumulative conformance levels

Level	Adds
MNCS-L1	Behavioral conformance, readable contract/reference, edge cases, strict tools
MNCS-L2	Runtime and memory safety, malformed inputs, fuzz/property tests, resource limits
MNCS-L3	Tool-neutral structural invariants with explicit PASS/FAIL/UNKNOWN
MNCS-L4	Valid repeated measurements and a predeclared useful-benefit threshold
MNCS-L5	Locked regeneration, immutable evidence, holdout reevaluation, rollback, audit

UNKNOWN never silently counts as PASS. Levels are cumulative; claiming L4 means satisfying L1 through L4.

CLI

mncs init PATH
mncs validate MANIFEST
mncs validate-bundle DIRECTORY
mncs certify MANIFEST
mncs certify-bundle DIRECTORY
mncs key generate PRIVATE_PATH
mncs key inspect KEY
mncs attest STATEMENT --key PRIVATE --output ENVELOPE
mncs verify-attestation ENVELOPE --key PUBLIC_KEY
mncs trust validate-policy POLICY
mncs trust evaluate ENVELOPE POLICY
mncs pack BUNDLE --output FILE.mncs
mncs inspect-package FILE.mncs
mncs verify-package FILE.mncs
mncs unpack FILE.mncs --output DIRECTORY
mncs certify-package FILE.mncs
mncs provider inspect COMMAND
mncs provider run DESCRIPTOR REQUEST
mncs provider verify-result RESULT
mncs summarize MANIFEST
mncs compare MANIFEST_A MANIFEST_B
mncs hash PATH
mncs schema NAME
mncs version

Commands support --json. A structurally valid bundle can truthfully declare a candidate FAIL; validation success means its evidence is internally consistent, not that the candidate passed.

Use --require-pass with either validation command when a non-PASS result must return exit 3. Exit 1 means invalid evidence, exit 2 means an operational error, and exit 3 means valid but non-certifiable under the requested policy.

Frozen schema 0.1 resources remain supported. Legacy reports set legacy_self_asserted_acceptance: true; certification refuses them unless --allow-legacy is explicit, and an override remains reduced-assurance.

Structural tools

MNCS standardizes evidence semantics, not product names. Compiler CFG analysis, LLVM passes, abstract interpretation, model checking, symbolic execution, proof assistants, custom analyzers, runtime instrumentation, language-specific verification, and independent combinations are all possible providers. Joern is one optional provider and is not a normative dependency.

Repository map

• spec/ — normative MNCS 0.2 text
• schemas/ — machine-readable contracts
• src/mncs_validator/ — offline validator
• examples/ — accepted, rejected, and repair bundles
• docs/ — documentation site
• rfcs/ — change process
• conformance-corpus/ — deterministic validator corpus
• interoperability/ — cross-language golden vectors
• research/ — preliminary motivation

Participate

Read CONTRIBUTING.md, the governance model, and the RFC process. Standard changes need public review, evidence, and consensus-seeking; no vendor receives a permanent seat or veto.

License and citation

Code, schemas, and documentation are licensed under the Apache License 2.0. Cite the exact MNCS version using CITATION.cff; a conformance claim should also identify its manifest hash.

A validator PASS is scoped to the declared contract and environment. MNCS 0.2 is experimental and does not constitute accredited certification.