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Universal Manifest

Specification v0.1

Universal Manifest v0.1 defines a portable state capsule: one document a subject (or a trusted issuer for that subject) can hand to multiple systems so those systems can safely learn:

  • who the subject is (subject)
  • when this capsule is valid (issuedAt / expiresAt)
  • what the subject can do (claims / consents)
  • how to find canonical data elsewhere (pointers / shard refs)

v0.1 is intentionally adoption-friendly:

  • it is local-first (short TTL, bounded caching)
  • it is forward compatible (unknown fields MUST be ignored safely)
  • it is signature-permissive (integrity is staged; see v0.2)

Core document: um:Manifest

Section titled “Core document: um:Manifest”

Required fields (v0.1)

Section titled “Required fields (v0.1)”
  • @context — JSON-LD context URL
  • @id — globally unique manifest identifier (a URI)
  • @type — MUST include um:Manifest (string or array)
  • manifestVersion — "0.1"
  • subject — who this manifest is about (a stable identifier URI; DID recommended but not required)
  • issuedAt — ISO 8601 / RFC 3339 date-time (with timezone)
  • expiresAt — ISO 8601 / RFC 3339 date-time (with timezone)

Optional fields (v0.1)

Section titled “Optional fields (v0.1)”

v0.1 allows additional sections as long as consumers ignore unknown fields safely:

  • shards — composable sub-documents (um:Shard)
  • claims — assertions (role, verification status, policy flags, etc.)
  • consents — permissions/consent grants
  • devices — device registrations / trust metadata
  • pointers — named references to canonical data sources
  • signature — permissive signature placeholder (non-interoperable in v0.1)

TTL and “use” semantics

Section titled “TTL and “use” semantics”

Consumers MUST enforce TTL for use:

  • If now > expiresAt, the manifest MUST NOT be used to grant permissions or to render authoritative subject state.
  • Expired manifests MAY be retained for debugging, but MUST be treated as expired.

Issuers SHOULD use short TTLs appropriate to the surface (hours/days).

Extensibility (critical v0.1 rule)

Section titled “Extensibility (critical v0.1 rule)”

Consumers MUST ignore unknown fields safely:

  • unknown top-level properties
  • unknown shard/entity shapes
  • unknown item shapes inside claims / consents / devices / pointers

This is what allows early adopters to extend the document without fragmenting the ecosystem.

Manifest IDs (@id)

Section titled “Manifest IDs (@id)”

v0.1 recommendation for issuers:

  • Generate @id as urn:uuid:<uuidv4>

Rationale:

  • globally unique
  • offline-safe
  • avoids premature commitments to content-addressed IDs before canonicalization is locked down

Caching + logging guidance (local-first)

Section titled “Caching + logging guidance (local-first)”

Consumer guidance (for constrained devices and public surfaces):

  • Cache the full manifest payload only while actively in use.
  • Persist only references to @id in logs/telemetry (optionally with a hash later).

Well-known names

Section titled “Well-known names”

v0.1 allows arbitrary names, but these well-known strings reduce fragmentation across early adopters.

Shard names (shards[].name)

Section titled “Shard names (shards[].name)”
  • canonicalProfilePointer
  • publicCapsule
  • publicProfile
  • venueIdentity
  • venuePolicy
  • edgeNode
  • deviceIdentity
  • venueAssociation

Pointer names (pointers[].name)

Section titled “Pointer names (pointers[].name)”
  • solidPod.creatorCanonical
  • solidPod.venueCanonical
  • matrix.userId
  • matrixRoom.updates
  • matrixRoom.revocations
  • activityPub.actor
  • edgeBaseUrl
  • edgeDescriptor
  • universalManifest.current
  • consumerExperience

Claim names (claims[].name)

Section titled “Claim names (claims[].name)”
  • role
  • verification.status
  • policy.safeMode
Section titled “Consent names (consents[].name)”
  • publicDisplay
  • analytics.proofOfPlay
  • telemetry.proofOfPlay
  • social.profilePublic

Device trust levels (devices[].trust)

Section titled “Device trust levels (devices[].trust)”
  • local
  • enrolled

Published artifacts (versioned, immutable)

Section titled “Published artifacts (versioned, immutable)”

These are expected to resolve over HTTPS:

On the canonical standards host, that means:

Minimal example (v0.1)

Section titled “Minimal example (v0.1)”
{
  "@context": "https://universalmanifest.net/ns/universal-manifest/v0.1/schema.jsonld",
  "@id": "urn:uuid:2b5f0d3c-3c4c-4b83-8f2a-6f3b2cbd5c7d",
  "@type": "um:Manifest",
  "manifestVersion": "0.1",
  "subject": "did:key:z6MkpExampleSubjectDid",
  "issuedAt": "2026-02-11T20:45:58Z",
  "expiresAt": "2026-02-12T20:45:58Z",
  "shards": []
}

Next

Section titled “Next”
  • Conformance checklist + fixtures: Conformance → v0.1
  • Draft integrity profile direction: Specification → v0.2
  • Migration planning for signed manifests: Guides → Migration Guide: v0.1 to v0.2