The runtime contract is the durable boundary between an application’s objective and the systems allowed to act on it. It is conceptual and implementation-neutral.
{
"contractVersion": "1.0",
"intent": {
"objective": "Prepare a dependency update",
"riskClass": "reversible-change",
"successCriteria": ["tests-pass", "reviewable-diff"]
},
"context": {
"sources": [],
"memoryScopes": [],
"prohibitedDataClasses": []
},
"authority": {
"allowedTools": [],
"writePolicy": "draft-only",
"requiredApprovals": ["merge", "deploy"]
},
"execution": {
"state": "running",
"checkpointPolicy": "before-side-effect",
"budgets": { "steps": 24, "elapsedSeconds": 900 }
},
"evidence": {
"events": [],
"artifacts": [],
"unresolvedUncertainty": []
}
}Lifecycle and transitions
- created
- provisioning
- running
- awaiting approval
- recovering
- completed
- failed
- terminated
Transitions should require an expected prior state, actor identity, policy version, timestamp, and evidence event. This prevents a stale worker from completing or mutating a run after it has been paused or terminated.
Validation rules
- The objective and success criteria are explicit.
- All context sources have provenance and scopes.
- Allowed tools and write policy are enumerated.
- Approval requirements are resolved before side effects.
- Budgets and stopping conditions are finite.
- Each terminal state includes artifacts and unresolved uncertainty.
Versioning and portability
Version the envelope, nested schemas, policy identifiers, tool contracts, and evidence events independently. Preserve unknown fields where safe, reject incompatible authority changes, and provide migrations for durable state. Portability depends on semantic compatibility, not merely JSON syntax.
Download the reference schemas
Use the runtime contract and policy-decision schemas as implementation-neutral starting points for design reviews, validation experiments, and typed boundaries.
Status: MiRuntime editorial reference artifacts. These files are not an SDK, certification, or industry standard.
Conceptual runtime contract
JSON Schema for intent, context, authority, execution state, budgets, recovery, and evidence.
Conceptual policy decision
JSON Schema for allow, deny, approval, transformation, and escalation decisions evaluated during execution.
Source record
References
- AI Runtime Infrastructure Primary source
Christopher Cruz. arXiv. Published 2026-03; last reviewed 2026-06-20 UTC. Research paper.
National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST. Published 2023-01-26; last reviewed 2026-06-20 UTC. Government framework.
OpenTelemetry project. Cloud Native Computing Foundation. Published Current specification repository; last reviewed 2026-06-24 UTC. Official specification.