Conformance levels

Three levels — Minimum, Standard, Strict — declared in every adapter and stack-pack manifest, verified by a harness in @aidokit/core.

Level comparison

Each level is a strict superset of the one below. Capabilities accumulate.

flowchart LR classDef min fill:#fffbeb,stroke:#b45309,color:#78350f; classDef std fill:#eff6ff,stroke:#2563eb,color:#0f172a; classDef str fill:#f0fdf4,stroke:#15803d,color:#14532d; subgraph M ["Minimum — MUST"] direction TB M1[3 verbs emitted] M2[6 roles, capability-scoped] M3[watchdog stops armed] M4[manifest + deterministic emit] end subgraph S ["Standard — MUST + SHOULD"] direction TB S1[+ subagents] S2[+ repair caps] S3[+ monitoring stream] S4[+ 5 output styles] end subgraph X ["Strict — MUST + SHOULD + MAY"] direction TB X1[+ workspace isolation] X2[+ 7th role: Frontend-Browser-Tester] X3[+ structured artifact schemas] end M --> S --> X class M min class S std class X str

Figure 1. Conformance is additive. Declared > verified is a CI failure.

The levels

Level	What it includes	Suitable for
Minimum	All MUST requirements from the contract.	CLIs with basic prompt-driven workflows.
Standard recommended default	Minimum + all SHOULD requirements.	Most teams. Subagents, repair caps, monitoring stream.
Strict	Standard + all MAY requirements promoted to expected.	Teams wanting full discipline. Workspace isolation, output styles, seventh role.

What each level guarantees

Minimum (~24 MUST checks for adapters)

The three verbs (intake, implement-task, orchestrator-next) are emitted.
Six roles are emitted with correct capability profiles (Builder is scope-limited-write; Researcher / Architect / Planner / Tester-Reviewer are read-only).
All required skills are emitted with metadata preserved.
Watchdog stop conditions: test-loop, command-loop, file-edit counter, repair cap, out-of-scope block, version-bump gate, tracked-deletion gate, blocker emitter.
Manifest declares conformance, spec version, capability declarations, CLI target.
Emissions are deterministic (same input → byte-identical output).

Standard (Minimum + ~8 SHOULDs)

MCP install / remove / list fully implemented.
preSync classifies every file (create / update / delete / skip).
doctor implemented and runs all checks (no short-circuit).
Monitoring stream writes events to agent-artifacts/monitoring/events.jsonl.
Doctor verifies CLI installation and required files.

Strict (Standard + MAYs promoted)

Seventh role (frontend-browser-tester) emitted.
Output styles emitted (test report, change summary, maintenance report, blocker, …).
Monitoring stream covers every workflow stage transition.
Doctor runs a conformance subset.

How verification works

Every adapter and stack-pack package ships a conformance.test.ts:

typescript

import { runAdapterConformance } from '@aidokit/core';
import { adapter } from '../src/index.js';

test(`${adapter.manifest.name} conforms to declared level`, async () => {
  const report = await runAdapterConformance(adapter, adapter.manifest.conformance);
  expect(report.overall).toBe('pass');
});

The harness:

Reads the declared level from manifest.conformance.
Resolves the check set for that level (inclusive of lower levels).
Invokes each emit method against synthetic ProjectContext fixtures.
Applies pass / fail criteria; collects evidence.
Reports per-check and overall pass | fail.

CI gate Adapters and stack packs cannot publish if conformance fails. Declared-greater-than-verified is a CI failure, not a footnote.

v1.0 declared levels

Package	Declared	Notes
`@aidokit/adapter-claude-code`	Strict	Seven roles + five output styles.
`@aidokit/adapter-codex`	Minimum	No hook mechanism; gap documented.
`@aidokit/adapter-copilot`	Minimum	No hook mechanism; partial MCP; gap documented.
`@aidokit/stack-pack-node-ts`	Standard
`@aidokit/stack-pack-node-js`	Standard
`@aidokit/stack-pack-python`	Standard
`@aidokit/stack-pack-react`	Standard
`@aidokit/stack-pack-go`	Standard

Project-level conformance

Your project picks its target level in .aido/adapter.md:

yaml

---
adapter: claude-code
conformanceTarget: standard
specVersion: '2.0'
---

The target MUST be ≤ the installed adapter's declared level. A Strict project requires an adapter that declares Strict.

aidokit doctor — drift detection

At install time the CLI writes .aido/conformance-snapshot.json. aidokit doctor re-runs a subset of the harness and compares against the snapshot, reporting drift:

shell

$ npx aidokit doctor
✓ Node.js 20.11.0
✓ Claude Code 2.1.34
✓ Adapter: claude-code@0.1.0 (Strict conformance)
✓ All 18 skills present
✗ MCP scoping mismatch: 'context7' missing from researcher role
   Fix:  aidokit mcp scope context7 --add-role researcher

1 failure, 0 warnings

Exit 0 — all checks pass.
Exit 13 — any MUST check failed (CONFORMANCE_FAILED).
--strict flag — treat warnings as failures.

Recovery from common drift

Failure	Recovery
Adapter version mismatch	`aidokit sync`
Skill file deleted	`aidokit sync --skills`
Hook scripts lost execute permission	`aidokit sync --scripts` or `chmod +x`
MCP scoping divergence	`aidokit mcp scope <id> --set-roles <list>`
Adapter no longer claims declared level	`aidokit doctor --strict`; upgrade or replace adapter