Roadmap

Protocol milestones — from foundation to ecosystem.

Phase 1

Protocol Foundation

Complete

8-stage execution pipeline specification (WS1–WS8)

Cryptographic receipt format with Ed25519 and ECDSA signing

HMAC-SHA256 hash-chained tamper-evident ledger

Fail-closed execution gate with nonce-based replay protection

Independent verifier with 7-check receipt validation

57 core tests, 23 conformance tests — all passing

Phase 2

Reference Implementation

Complete

Merkaba Sovereign Engine v3.0.0 — live gateway on Replit

26 API endpoints including full governance pipeline

Policy engine with risk scoring and approval routing

Real-time ledger with chain integrity verification

5-test diagnostic pipeline (debug-test-full-flow)

Gateway conformance: 7/7 tests passing

Phase 3

Developer Ecosystem

Complete

Python SDK v0.1.0 — RIOClient, IntentBuilder, ReceiptVerifier

Protocol simulator with 4 generation modes

Full-cycle reference examples from live gateway captures

Position paper: EGI category definition and regulatory mapping

Repository restructured into 3 repos (protocol, impl, tools)

Open-source readiness audit completed

Phase 4

Standards and Certification

In Progress

Governance framework with CERTIFICATION.md and submission checklist

Compliance levels defined: L0 (Structural) through L3 (Sovereign)

Release process with semantic versioning and stability guarantees

Conformance test suite for third-party implementations

Certification program for independent gateway operators

EU AI Act Article 12 / Article 14 alignment documentation

Phase 5

Production Hardening

Planned

HSM (Hardware Security Module) integration for key management

Distributed ledger backend option for multi-party deployments

Rate limiting, circuit breakers, and production observability

Multi-language SDK support (TypeScript, Go, Rust)

Docker and Kubernetes deployment templates

Performance benchmarks and load testing suite

Phase 6

Ecosystem Growth

Planned

Protocol v1.0 stable release with backwards compatibility guarantees

Third-party gateway implementations and interoperability testing

Integration guides for major AI platforms (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)

Ledger explorer web application for audit visualization

Community governance model for protocol evolution

Industry working group for execution governance standards

This roadmap reflects the current state of the protocol and planned directions. Timelines and priorities may shift as the project evolves and community feedback is incorporated.