Everything in this directory is non-normative — the authoritative documents are the RFCs in rfcs/ (run make docs at the repo root for the canonical reading order). These documents explain, position, and guide.
| Document | Read it when you want |
|---|
| overview.md | The one-page picture: the problem, the publish/discover/verify shape, what each RFC adds. |
| why-acdp.md | The motivation: why databases, APIs, tokens, and ledgers don't solve agent-to-agent knowledge handoff. |
| acdp-vs-the-field.md | Positioning against MCP, A2A, C2PA, AT Protocol, and DIDComm. |
| Document | Read it when you want |
|---|
| architecture.md | The implementer's map: roles, flows, the 0.2.0–0.4.0 trust arc, where state lives. |
| integration-guide.md | Working producer/consumer code: hash, sign, publish, verify, walk lineage, verify trust artifacts. |
| discovery.md | How agents first find a registry (bootstrap patterns; deliberately out of protocol scope). |
| version-matrix.md | Which spec version each known implementation tracks. |
| Document | Read it when you want |
|---|
| threat-model.md | Quick-reference threat table and attack scenarios (full model: RFC-ACDP-0008). |
| non-goals.md | What ACDP deliberately does not do, and why each exclusion holds. |
| data-protection.md | Permanence vs. erasure rights (GDPR and similar): carry personal data by reference, not by value. |