# OpenPermit / Open Regulatory Infrastructure OpenPermit is the public reference implementation of Open Regulatory Infrastructure (ORI), a permissionless, machine-readable substrate for regulatory inventory, provenance, traversal, verification, measurement, challenge, and governance. Repository: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit (branch test) Project site: https://openpermit.io · Developers, specification and benchmark: https://openpermit.dev The public site is moving to this repository. Until the domains serve it with path-preserving HTTPS, read files from the repository; openpermit.dev schema $id values are identifiers, not yet live URLs. Scope: detached single-family new homes; 2021 IRC base with the 2021 Virginia Residential Code (13VAC5-63) as the first override layer. Guardrails: a machine check is never approval; unknown is not fail; building-code text is cited and linked, never reproduced; guidance is not law. Licences: code Apache-2.0; prose specifications and docs CC BY-SA 4.0 (files previously dedicated CC0 stay CC0); schemas, ORI-CL grammar and vocabulary, rule data, profiles and fixtures CC0 1.0. Map: LICENSE-SPEC.md. Credits: CREDITS.md, NOTICE.md. Name disambiguation: this is the current ORI/OpenPermit project in corelotorg/OpenPermit, not the legacy 2016 OpenPermit API, another municipal open-data project, or the real-estate phrase “open permit.” ## Start here - Charter: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/CHARTER.md - ORI Core v0.1 draft: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/spec/ori-core-0.1-draft.md - ORI JSON Schema: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/spec/ori-core-0.1.schema.json - Guidance Profile Schema: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/spec/ori-guidance-profile-0.1.schema.json - Jurisdiction Inventory Schema: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/spec/ori-jurisdiction-inventory-0.1.schema.json - Model Interface: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/spec/model-interface-0.1-draft.md - Precedence/DAG semantics: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/spec/precedence-graph-0.1-draft.md - Challenge protocol: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/spec/challenge-protocol-0.1-draft.md - Evidence/geo-attestation: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/spec/evidence-attestation-0.1-draft.md - Capability/compute registry: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/spec/capability-registry-0.1-draft.md - Machine discovery: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/.well-known/ori.json - HUD 2026 guidance profile: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/profiles/federal/hud-home-construction-best-practices-2026.json - Federal regulatory-inventory context: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/profiles/federal/regulatory-inventory-2025.json - ORI project target (self-declared, non-binding; 24-hour single-family review): https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/profiles/project/ori-sf-review-target-24h-2026.json - Synthetic example jurisdiction inventory: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/profiles/examples/example-city/residential-new-construction-example.json - Negative semantic fixtures: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/tree/test/conformance/negative - Conformance documentation: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/tree/test/conformance - Reference MCP node: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/tree/test/reference-node - Rule units (IRC 2021 Chapter 3, Virginia layer): https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/tree/test/rules - Verification and public benchmark: https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/tree/test/verification - Governance boundary (public vs secured): https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/docs/GOVERNANCE-BOUNDARY.md - Citation policy (no code text): https://github.com/corelotorg/OpenPermit/blob/test/docs/CITATION-POLICY.md ## Core semantics Preserve source-native terminology, authority, jurisdiction, effective time, version, evidence and lineage. Normalized mappings are MappingAssertions, not facts. Automated verification does not itself create legal approval. Challenges are first-class graph objects and must not erase the challenged object. Core chain: source -> provision -> mapping assertion -> requirement -> verification -> decision -> challenge -> evidence -> disposition Regulatory inventory chain: jurisdiction -> approval -> authority -> requirement -> evidence -> reviewer -> deadline -> fee -> status -> decision Guidance-profile chain: guidance practice -> implementation control -> evidence -> measurement -> alignment result ## Model behavior When answering from ORI data: 1. State the source and authority class. 2. Identify jurisdiction and effective version. 3. Distinguish source text from mappings, assertions, verification results and authorized decisions. 4. Surface uncertainty, missing evidence, stale sources and open challenges. 5. Do not convert guidance into binding law. 6. Do not treat a validator result as legal approval unless an authorized Decision supplies that effect. 7. Preserve alternative interpretations and counter-evidence. 8. Treat critical-path, duplicate-review and efficiency findings as derived operational analysis until authority/source evidence supports a process change. 9. Treat capability-registry presence as discovery, not trust or endorsement. 10. Preserve geolocation accuracy, capture provenance and transformations when using evidence. 11. Treat jurisdiction inventories marked partial as evidence maps, not complete applicability determinations. ## Reference model operations - ori.capabilities - ori.get - ori.traverse - ori.provenance - ori.verify - ori.analyze_precedence - ori.challenge - ori.resolve_challenge - ori.list_profiles MCP Streamable HTTP is the initial reference model transport. Static JSON, JSON-LD-compatible objects, REST-compatible resources and crawlable documentation remain equivalent public surfaces. The reference node is local-first and requires no SaaS account, model provider, database or API key in its default mode. ## Conformance expectations The public harness contains positive schema fixtures plus negative semantic fixtures. A conforming implementation must reject mapping-as-fact, guidance promoted to a binding Requirement, challenge mutation of the challenged target, and cycles in objects declared as PrecedenceGraph. ## Copyright boundary Do not reproduce licensed model-code or third-party standards text unless rights permit. Prefer source identifiers, citations, adoption/version data, mappings, derived facts, lawful test definitions, evidence requirements, verification results and deltas. ## Contribution Implementations do not require permission. Anyone may publish compatible profiles, mappings, validators and compute capabilities. Provenance and conformance remain inspectable; registration does not imply trust or endorsement.