AXL™ Certification
Certification process.
Conditions under which the AXL™ certification mark is licensed to a vendor. L3 review is conducted by axlspec.org against the published specification.
- Programme status
- Verified L3 review opens at v1.0 Final
- Reviewer panel
- axlspec.org editorial board, plus rotating external reviewer
- Mark owner
- axlspec.org
- Policy
- axlspec.org/trademark
§ 1Eligibility
Any vendor with a production-deployed implementation that claims L1 and L2 conformance against the AXL Reference v1.0 may apply for L3 verified certification. Applicants must:
- Maintain a published L1 + L2 Conformance Statement at the time of application.
- Provide reproducible Appendix A benchmark artifacts.
- Operate a §7-conformant agentic interface surface against which the reviewer panel can execute the conformance test suite.
- Accept the AXL trademark license and abide by the published trademark policy.
§ 2Process
2.1 Application
File a certification application at certification@axlspec.org containing the Conformance Statement, contact information for the engineering lead, and a target review window.
2.2 Reviewer assignment
The editorial board assigns a reviewer panel of two axlspec.org reviewers and one rotating external reviewer drawn from the working-group pool. Reviewer identity is published at the conclusion of the review.
2.3 Verification
The panel verifies, against the published specification:
- Clause-by-clause conformance to §5 Required and Recommended capabilities.
- Reproducible execution of the Appendix A conformance test suite.
- Semantic conformance of the §7 agentic interface surface.
- Continuing validity of the L1 and L2 self-attestations.
2.4 Report
A reviewer report is published at axlspec.org/certified/[vendor], accessible publicly, containing the panel's findings, any conditional remediations, and the issued certification.
2.5 Issuance
On clean verification, axlspec.org issues a time-bounded license to use the AXL™ certification mark on the certified product, for the certified specification version, under the trademark policy.
§ 3Fees
A fee schedule is forthcoming. Fees are intended to cover reviewer-panel time and to be tiered by vendor revenue, with reductions for working-group contributors and an exemption for open-source implementers operating under a non-commercial license through v1.x.
§ 4Mark use after certification
Once certified, licensees may use the AXL™ mark in product UI, marketing collateral, and analyst materials in conformance with the trademark policy at /trademark. The mark may not be transferred, sublicensed, or applied to non-certified products. Misuse triggers the cure period described in §4 of the trademark policy.
§ 5Revocation and re-certification
axlspec.org may revoke certification where:
- The implementation materially diverges from the attested state.
- Appendix A benchmarks can no longer be reproduced on the current product version.
- The licensee operates outside the trademark policy after cure.
Revocations are published on the public record. Re-certification follows the same process as initial certification.
§ 6Open transparency
The reviewer roster, reviewer reports, and revocations are public. axlspec.org publishes an annual transparency report including certifications issued, revocations, and aggregate working-group contribution metrics.
L1 and L2 self-attestations may be filed against the current Working Draft. L3 review is conducted against published versions of the specification.