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SIGNET Standard — Wiki

The open standard for governed procurement networks.

SIGNET — Secure Intelligent Governed Network for Exchange and Trade — is the open specification for procurement networks in which human and synthetic agents operate under shared governance, decentralised identity, and cryptographic trust. It is stewarded by Concert Foundation and dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0.

This wiki explains what SIGNET is, the model it defines, how it bridges the standards you already use, and how to validate and contribute. It complements — and never overrides — the normative artifacts in the repository.

The schema is the source of truth. Where this wiki, the prose specification, and the JSON Schema disagree, the JSON Schema takes precedence, then the prose specification, then this wiki.

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Start here

If you want to…	Read
Understand why SIGNET exists and what it is	Introduction & Concepts
See how the model is structured	Architecture Overview
Look up a specific object or field	Foundation · Process · Agent · Trust Layers
Map SIGNET to OCDS / EN 16931 / UBL / Peppol / VC-DID / ePO	Standards Mapping
Understand the e-invoicing / EU ViDA story	EN 16931 & ViDA E-Invoicing
Run validation or check conformance	Validation & Conformance
Understand certification & the test suite	Conformance Harness
Find the controlled vocabularies	Codelists
See complete worked instances	Worked Examples
Contribute, or understand governance	Contributing · Governance & Versioning
Look up a term	Glossary · FAQ

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The model in one glance

SIGNET defines a Canonical Data Model (CDM) organised into four layers:

Layer	Objects	Purpose
Foundation	Identifier · Party · Value · Period · Classification · Item · Credential · Document · Provenance · Score · Unit · InvoiceLine · VatBreakdown	The primitive value types and reference objects used everywhere.
Process	Need · SourcingEvent · Lot · Submission · Evaluation · Award · Contract · Order · Catalogue · Obligation · Invoice · Auction · Bid	The procurement lifecycle, aligned to the OCDS stages. Auction · Bid are a standardised-auction profile of the sourcing flow.
Agent	SyntheticAgent · AgentCapability · Mandate · Decision · Policy	SIGNET's distinctive contribution: agents as first-class, governed participants.
Trust	Event · Provenance · Consent	Cross-cutting auditability, provenance, and data-sovereignty.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Trust layer      Event · Provenance · Consent · Audit   │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Agent layer      SyntheticAgent · Mandate · Capability ·│
│                   Decision · Policy                       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Process layer    Need · SourcingEvent · Lot · Submission│
│                   Evaluation · Award · Contract · Order · │
│                   Catalogue · Invoice · Obligation        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Foundation layer Identifier · Party · Credential ·      │
│                   Value · Period · Classification ·       │
│                   Document · Item · Provenance            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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What makes SIGNET different

• A profile-and-bridge, not a fork. The CDM maps without loss to and from OCDS (lifecycle), EN 16931 (invoicing), UBL / Peppol BIS (documents), W3C VC/DID (identity), and the EU eProcurement Ontology (semantics). See Standards Mapping.
• Agent-native by construction. Synthetic agents are first-class parties with declared capabilities, bounded mandates, and accountable decisions. No existing procurement standard does this. See Agent Layer.
• Provenance and audit are structural. Every material change is an append-only, tamper-evident Event; every assertion carries Provenance.
• Proven, not asserted. The repository ships a runnable transform that projects a canonical Invoice into Peppol BIS Billing UBL and verifies it in CI on every push. See EN 16931 & ViDA E-Invoicing.
• Conformance is machine-runnable. A public test harness decides whether an implementation is SIGNET Certified — and at which level (Core / Full) — through the identical suite for everyone. See Conformance Harness.

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Status & licensing

• Specification version: v0.1 (Working Draft / Request for Comments)
• Repository / artifact version: v0.10.0
• Licence: CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication of the artifacts; the marks are administered separately).
• Marks: "SIGNET", "Concert", and "SIGNET Certified" are marks administered by Concert Foundation. CC0 covers copyright in the artifacts only; it grants no rights in the marks.

Comments are invited at hello@concert.foundation and through the issue templates.