Governance and Stewardship

Not yet in effect

The OVERT Stewardship and Continuity Agreement was executed by Glacis Technologies, Inc., the Coalition for Health AI, Inc. (CHAI) and the AIGovOps Foundation Incorporated on 14 September 2026. It takes effect at the date and time stated in a separate commencement certificate signed by all three parties. That certificate has not yet been signed, and the arrangement described on this page is therefore not yet in effect.

Until the Effective Time, Glacis Technologies remains the steward of OVERT under the arrangements published previously. This page is published in advance so that the governance model can be read and questioned before it begins to operate. It will be updated to record the Effective Time when the commencement certificate is signed.

The agreement establishes shared stewardship of OVERT (Observable Verification Evidence for Runtime Trust), an open specification for verifiable operational evidence from AI systems. The Governance Charter summarized on this page forms Schedule A to that agreement.

The stewardship body is a contractual collaboration among the three parties. It is not a committee of any party’s board, and it creates no separate legal entity, partnership or joint venture.

The Co‑Stewards govern the specification. The editor takes part in the work of the Co‑Stewards but does not vote. The Co‑Stewards may replace the editor or the registry operator by joint written decision, without any requirement to purchase a product and without the consent of Glacis.

Each party discloses relevant financial, employment and governance affiliations on appointment. The initial representatives, the editor, the public contact and the Effective Time are recorded in the commencement certificate and will be published here.

Both Co‑Stewards constitute a quorum, and both must vote in favor to approve a release, a normative proposal, an appointment, a budget for the collaboration, or an amendment to the Charter. Decisions require at least seven calendar days’ notice with supporting materials unless both Co‑Stewards waive notice in writing.

Decisions may be taken electronically and must record the proposal, the votes, the reasons and any recusal. There is no tie‑break. If the Co‑Stewards disagree, the existing rule stands and the matter is referred within 15 days to an independent facilitator chosen jointly, who publishes a nonbinding recommendation.

The Co‑Stewards will maintain open channels for submitting issues, commenting on drafts and contributing implementations without payment or membership. Within 60 days after the Effective Time they will invite patient and public‑interest representatives, health systems, researchers and competing implementers to an advisory forum, and will publish its remit and selection criteria. Advisory members do not vote.

Adding a voting member requires a published amendment to the Charter and an accession agreement signed by the incoming organization.

Technical releases follow Section 22.11 of the OVERT specification. Each normative proposal includes a change log, a compatibility analysis, the versions and profiles affected, verification impact and migration guidance. It is open for public comment for at least 30 calendar days, and the Co‑Stewards publish their disposition of material comments before approving it. A materially changed proposal receives a fresh comment period of at least 30 days.

Changes to registry governance additionally require at least 60 calendar days’ advance public notice under Section 22.6.4 of the specification, and take effect for registry decisions only after that period. The existing published registry rules apply during the notice period. Where both the 30‑day and the 60‑day period apply, both must run.

Editorial errata may follow a documented expedited process but may not change normative obligations. Urgent security advisories may be issued without notice but may not change conformance requirements or grant exceptions.

Current baseline

OVERT 1.1 remains the technical baseline until a later release completes the process above. The proposed 1.2 amendment remains a draft until it has satisfied the comment and publication requirements. Neither this Charter nor the stewardship agreement approves or publishes version 1.2.

Registry acceptance remains a mechanical test under Section 22.6 of the specification, and qualification follows the published provisions, including Section 22.8. No vote, sponsorship or commercial relationship can waive a failed criterion. Membership, sponsorship, fees or purchases from any party confer no advantage in any conformance decision.

A reviewer must disclose and recuse from any matter involving its own organization, an affiliated implementation, a material financial interest, or a decision in which it previously took part. This applies equally to Glacis, CHAI and AIGovOps. General participation in the field is disclosed but is not by itself disqualifying.

Before administering any submission in which a Co‑Steward has a conflict, the Co‑Stewards will appoint a standing pool of at least five qualified reviewers with no affiliation to any party, and will publish the qualification and conflict criteria. An unconflicted reviewer applies the published tests and publishes reasons. If both Co‑Stewards are conflicted on a conformance or registry matter, two pool members decide it under standing delegated authority. No technical criterion may be amended through this delegation.

An applicant or a materially affected participant may appeal a published decision within 30 days, identifying the criterion or process error in question. Two qualified, unconflicted reviewers who did not take the original decision issue a reasoned determination within 30 days after receiving a complete appeal. If they disagree, a third such reviewer decides. Relief is limited to applying the existing criteria, correcting a process error, or remand.

The secretariat publishes decisions, test references, conflicts, recusals and appeal outcomes, with redactions where privacy requires. Standard‑setting discussions will not address prices, customer allocation, or the exclusion of any qualifying implementation. No party’s sales personnel may take part in a conformance decision. There is a published route for submitting and correcting adverse evidence.

Current registry operator: Glacis Technologies, Inc.

Present operating state

OVERT currently consists of the published standard and this website. No separate operational registry with entries, pending submissions or decision history is presently maintained. Any records established before commencement will be inventoried and delivered under the Charter.

Glacis is the initial registry operator and administers the registry under the published rules and the direction of the Co‑Stewards. At the Effective Time it delivers a complete registry export and release history to both Co‑Stewards, and gives each of them independent administrative access to the public standard materials.

The target date for handover of registry operation is 90 calendar days after the Effective Time. By day 30 the Co‑Stewards will designate the receiving legal entity and publish its identity, contact details, planned handover date and any proposed policy change. Handover requires expiry of the applicable notice periods, complete records, a verified backup restoration, tested public access, reviewer arrangements in place, and a signed custody certificate. The receiving operator receives the licenses and administrative authority it needs to continue without the consent of Glacis.

If the handover conditions are not met by the target date, Glacis continues as the disclosed interim operator, and the Co‑Stewards publish the reason, the remedy and the next review date at least every 30 days. Interim operation gives Glacis no technical authority. The cessation and successor‑registry rights in Section 22.6.5 of the specification remain available.

What conformance does not establish

OVERT conformance does not establish clinical adequacy, the accuracy of recorded facts, completeness of observation, legal compliance, admissibility of evidence, insurance coverage, or certification by any other body. Any assurance claim will identify the applicable version, profile, scope and limitations.

OVERT is a voluntary technical specification. It does not establish regulatory or legal requirements, certify the safety or effectiveness of an AI system, or determine whether an organization has complied with applicable law. Organizations remain responsible for defining appropriate controls and for meeting their legal, regulatory and operational obligations.

The stewardship collaboration does not establish a post‑market monitoring network. The Co‑Stewards do not acquire any other organization’s regulatory, accreditation or clinical authority. No party states or implies that the Co‑Stewards endorse its products. The OVERT name and marks do not certify any product.

The original specification text and prose examples of OVERT 1.1 and of the 1.2 draft proposal are designated for public licensing under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Attribution: Glacis Technologies, Inc. Identify the document title and version, link the license, and indicate changes. Code retains its applicable existing license, and third‑party materials retain their own licenses and notices.

The royalty‑free patent covenant published in June 2026 is reaffirmed and unchanged. The stewardship agreement does not narrow, replace, waive or add conditions to it, including its coverage of partial and nonconforming implementations and its defensive termination provision. A successor registry maintainer appointed under the Charter is a successor registry maintainer for the purposes of the covenant.

Title to existing patents, copyrights, trademarks, software and other assets remains with their current owner. The agreement transfers no equity, patent, product, customer contract or customer data, and confers no ownership interest in Glacis or authority over its commercial business. Copyright in a new contribution remains with its contributor unless separately assigned.

Before normative text is accepted, each contributor discloses any patent claims it knows to be potentially essential to that text and states its licensing commitment.

Digests for the published standard artifacts are listed in kit-manifest.json and versions.json. The complete materials manifest and the executed agreement are published with the commencement record.

How to verify a digest. Two conventions are in use, and they answer different questions. The digests in kit-manifest.json are whole‑file SHA‑256 values: running shasum -a 256 against a downloaded PDF reproduces them directly. The sha256 values in versions.json and latest.json cover the document body only, excluding the YAML front matter, so that each versioned Markdown file can carry its own digest without circularity. Hashing one of those files whole will not reproduce the published value; strip the front matter first.

The authoritative artifact of OVERT 1.1, OVERT_v1.1_STANDARD.pdf, is byte‑identical to the copy listed as licensed standard material in the signing‑stage manifest. Its digest is 28cb81e636bf453bd8d26185f5faffabb88547542541bfe95fcc42e767f5d3d3 in both places.

Anyone may submit an issue, comment on a draft, or contribute an implementation. No payment and no membership is required. Comment periods, dispositions and decisions are published.

Correspondence about the standard is directed to the editor above. This page will be updated to record the Effective Time, the appointed representatives of each Co‑Steward, the advisory forum remit and selection criteria, and the identity of the receiving registry operator, as each is determined under the Charter.