8. Governance

8.1. Stewardship Authority

The Trust-State Standard is stewarded by VTI Foundation, Inc. Stewardship preserves deterministic integrity, version continuity, and normative consistency.

VTI Foundation, Inc. is the authoritative publisher of:

• Normative text of the Trust-State Standard;
• Annexes designated as normative;
• Version identifiers and publication records; and
• Official conformance terminology.

No other entity may publish modifications as an official Trust-State release.

8.2. Publication and Versioning

Each release SHALL include:

• A version identifier (e.g., v0.1, v1.0);
• A publication date;
• A stable canonical URL; and
• A description of normative changes.

Published versions are immutable. Corrections or amendments SHALL be issued as a new version. Prior versions SHALL NOT be modified retroactively.

8.3. Normative and Informative Material

The standard MAY contain both normative and informative content.

• Normative content defines mandatory requirements and uses SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, and MAY as defined in RFC 2119.
• Informative content provides explanation or context and is non-binding.

Annexes SHALL explicitly state their designation. If not stated, an annex is informative by default.

8.4. Change Control

Amendments SHALL preserve deterministic conformance guarantees.

• Canonicalization and hashing requirements SHALL remain reproducible;
• Replay-equivalent evaluation constraints SHALL NOT be weakened;
• No amendment may introduce discretionary artifact variance.

Any modification that permits multiple valid conformity artifacts from identical canonical inputs is non-conformant and SHALL NOT be adopted.

8.5. Conformance Claims

Conformance claims SHALL reference a specific published version of the standard.

A conformance claim is valid only if the implementation produces replay-equivalent conformity artifacts under the referenced version.

Conformance SHALL NOT be claimed against unpublished or draft text unless explicitly designated as Draft Conformance.

8.6. Interpretation

In the event of interpretive conflict, the order of precedence is:

1. Normative text in the Standard;
2. Normative annexes;
3. Informative material.

Interpretations SHALL favor determinism, reproducibility, and independent verifiability.