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CarbonStream Nexus — Compute Accountability Infrastructure

Protocol

CAPS-Core

Specified

CAPS-Core is the protocol foundation CSN is developing for compute accountability. It defines what an accountability record must carry so that measurement, context and attribution travel together with their provenance.

CAR technical review

CSN-CAR Core v1.1 RC1

Compute Accountability Record Specification

Release Candidate 1 — Technical Review Release

Not ratified.

Technical review OPEN

16 October – 15 November 2026

Open for technical review comments. Closes 15 November 2026.

Read RC1 specification (DOI)Submit review comments

In your email, identify the section/clause, issue, rationale and suggested correction. Comments may address technical, schema, interoperability or editorial issues.

Standards stack

Published documents do not establish implementation, certification or independently verified conformance.

Scope

What the protocol layer is responsible for

CAPS-Core is a record and method protocol, not a measurement product. Its job is to constrain how accountability claims are expressed.

Record structure
Specified
The shape of a Compute Accountability Record: which sections exist, what each carries, and how subject, measurement, context, attribution and governance relate to one another.
Provenance discipline
Specified
The requirement that every value declares its origin — declared, measured, assumed, or drawn from a scenario — so that a reader can separate observation from assumption without external context.
Method declaration
Specified
The requirement that any attributed figure names the method that produced it and exposes the calculation path, rather than presenting a result alone.
Canonical field semantics
In development
Technical field names, units and meanings must be checked against the CAR Technical Specification source text. RC1 is technical review only, not ratified, and has not been incorporated here. This application uses a non-authoritative demonstration schema and claims no RC1 conformance.
Attribution definitions
In development
The authoritative variable semantics and calculation definitions for CSN attribution. Pending. The demonstrator currently runs the CSN Demonstration Calculation Engine, whose arithmetic is fully visible.
Verification and attestation
Research / future
Signing, third-party attestation and registry mechanics are under research. Nothing in this area is specified or implemented.
Interoperability profiles
Research / future
Mapping records onto existing disclosure and reporting frameworks. Research topic only.

Boundaries

What CAPS-Core does not currently do

Stated plainly, so the specification is not read as more than it is.

  • It does not ingest telemetry. No agent, exporter or collector exists.
  • It does not certify anything. There is no conformance programme.
  • It does not verify claims. No attestation or signature process is implemented.
  • It does not publish emissions factors. Scenario values used in the demonstrator are illustrative.
  • It does not define a competing record standard to any body's schema; it defines CSN's own record and defers to its authoritative specification.
  • It makes no claim of adoption, deployment or institutional endorsement.