waveframe-stamp 0.1.1
Schema-agnostic structural diagnostics engine for governed research artifacts.
License: Apache-2.0
Requires Python: >=3.10
Keywords: metadata, validation, governance, reproducibility, research, schema

---
title: "Stamp"
filetype: "documentation"
type: "specification"
domain: "methodology"
version: "0.1.0"
doi: "10.5281/zenodo.18436622"
status: "Active"
created: "2026-01-16"
updated: "2026-01-31"

author:
  name: "Shawn C. Wright"
  email: "swright@waveframelabs.org"
  orcid: "https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6043-9295"

maintainer:
  name: "Waveframe Labs"
  url: "https://waveframelabs.org"

license: "Apache-2.0"

copyright:
  holder: "Waveframe Labs"
  year: "2026"

ai_assisted: "partial"
ai_assistance_details: "AI-assisted drafting and structural refinement under direct human authorship, review, and final approval."

dependencies: []

anchors: []
---

<p align="center">
  <img src="/figures/STAMP_BANNER.png" alt="Waveframe Stamp Banner" width="650">
</p> 

# Stamp

<p align="center">
  <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18436622">
    <img src="https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.18436622.svg" />
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  <a href="https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6043-9295">
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</p>

**Stamp** is a deterministic metadata validation and remediation tool for governed research artifacts.

It validates artifact metadata against a formal schema, emits **structured diagnostics**, proposes **safe mechanical fixes**, and produces **human-action remediation summaries** when automation ends.

Stamp is designed to be:

* schema-agnostic
* policy-neutral
* reproducible
* machine- and human-readable

It is a **front door** to governed research workflows — not an enforcement engine.

Stamp does not embed or assume any specific governance policy. All schemas are supplied explicitly at runtime.

---

## Getting Started

If you’re new to Stamp and want to understand **how to install it, run it, and interpret its output**, start here:

**[Getting Started with Waveframe-Stamp](GETTING_STARTED.md)**

This guide walks through installation, common workflows, and understanding the JSON output. It is written for users with **no prior knowledge** of Waveframe Labs or ARI.

### Installation

**Standard Install (Recommended)**
```bash
pip install waveframe-stamp
```

**Local Development**

```bash
git clone [https://github.com/Waveframe-Labs/Waveframe-Stamp.git](https://github.com/Waveframe-Labs/Waveframe-Stamp.git)
cd Waveframe-Stamp
pip install -e .
```

### Quick Usage

Stamp commands emit **explicit JSON** to stdout for deterministic tooling and automation.

**Validate a single artifact:**

```bash
stamp validate run artifact.md --schema ari-metadata.schema.v3.0.2.json
```

**Validate an entire repository (or directory):**

```bash
stamp validate repo . --schema ari-metadata.schema.v3.0.2.json
```

*Note: Only artifacts that explicitly declare metadata are governed and validated. Execution traces generated via `--trace-out` are immutable and excluded from validation.*

---

## Shell Compatibility

Stamp is shell-agnostic. All CLI commands emit explicit JSON and do not rely on shell-specific behavior.

* **Linux / macOS:** Pipe output to tools like `jq` if desired.
* **Windows (PowerShell):** Use `ConvertFrom-Json | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 10`.
* **CI systems:** Consume raw JSON directly.

No external shell tooling is required to run Stamp itself.

---

## What Stamp Is (and Is Not)

### Stamp **is**

* A metadata extractor
* A schema validator
* A diagnostic normalizer (Canonical Diagnostic Objects / CDOs)
* A safe auto-fix engine (conservative by design)
* A human-action explainer (remediation summaries)

### Stamp **is not**

* A policy engine
* A governance authority
* A content validator
* An opinionated formatter
* An enforcement mechanism (that’s CRI-CORE)

Stamp explains **what is wrong**, **what can be fixed automatically**, and **what requires human judgment** — nothing more, nothing less.

---

## High-Level Architecture

```
Artifact
  ↓
[ Extraction ]
  ↓
[ Schema Resolution ]
  ↓
[ Validation ]
  ↓
[ Diagnostics (CDOs) ]
  ↓
┌───────────────┬───────────────────┐
│ Auto Fix      │ Human Remediation │
│ (safe only)   │ Summary           │
└───────────────┴───────────────────┘
```

Each layer is deterministic and independently testable.

---

## Design Principles

* **Determinism over convenience**
* **Traceability over magic**
* **No self-approval**
* **Separation of validation, fixing, and judgment**
* **Format-agnostic governance**

Stamp should always be boring, predictable, and explainable.

---

## Status

> Architecture stable
> Core contracts frozen
> UX and packaging hardening in progress

---  

## Governance Semantics

Stamp distinguishes between **discovered artifacts** and **governed artifacts**.

An artifact is considered *governed* if and only if it explicitly declares a metadata block
(YAML frontmatter or HTML-comment metadata).

During repository validation:

- files without metadata are discovered
- but are intentionally ignored
- and are not treated as failures

This is a deliberate governance boundary.

Stamp never guesses intent and never infers governance.

---

## Execution Traces

Stamp can emit an immutable execution trace artifact using:

```bash
--trace-out traces/stamp-validation-trace.json
```  
Trace artifacts record:

- tool identity and version
- command executed
- schema used
- timestamps
- per-artifact validation results

Execution traces are:

- machine-validated
- immutable audit records
- intentionally excluded from metadata governance

They exist to support auditability and downstream enforcement tooling.

---  

## License

Stamp is released under the **Apache License, Version 2.0.**  

See the LICENSE file for the full text.

---

## Citation

If you use Stamp in academic work, tooling research, or technical documentation, please cite it as follows.

BibTeX
```  
@software{stamp_2026,
  title        = {Stamp: A Schema-Agnostic Structural Diagnostics Engine},
  author       = {Wright, Shawn C.},
  orcid        = {0009-0006-6043-9295},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {0.1.1},
  publisher    = {Waveframe Labs},
  url          = {https://github.com/Waveframe-Labs/Waveframe-Stamp},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.18436622}
}  
```  

---  

<div align="center">
<sub>© 2026 Waveframe Labs</sub>
</div>