Conformance Program¶

This directory defines the conformance certification program for plain text accounting implementations.

Overview¶

The conformance program provides a standardized way to assess and communicate implementation compatibility. Implementations can achieve different conformance levels based on their feature support.

Conformance Levels¶

Level	Name	Description
1	Parse	Correctly parse valid syntax
2	Validate	Parse + semantic validation
3	Query	Parse + validate + query execution
4	Full	Complete feature support

See levels/overview.md for detailed requirements.

Directory Structure¶

conformance/
├── README.md           # This file
├── registry.json       # Certified implementations
├── levels/
│   ├── overview.md     # Level comparison
│   ├── level-1-parse.md
│   ├── level-2-validate.md
│   ├── level-3-query.md
│   └── level-4-full.md
├── process/
│   ├── self-certification.md
│   ├── test-requirements.md
│   └── badge-usage.md
└── benchmarks/
    ├── spec.md
    └── methodology.md

Certification Process¶

Self-Assessment: Run conformance test suite
Documentation: Record test results and any known limitations
Registration: Submit to registry via pull request
Maintenance: Re-certify with new spec versions

Test Suite¶

The conformance test suite is located in /tests/. Each level has specific test requirements:

Level	Test Suites Required
1	syntax/valid, syntax/invalid
2	Level 1 + validation
3	Level 2 + bql
4	Level 3 + booking + all features

Badges¶

Implementations may display conformance badges:

![Beancount v3 Level 2](https://pta-spec.org/badges/beancount-v3-level2.svg)

Registry¶

The registry.json file tracks certified implementations:

{
  "implementations": [
    {
      "name": "beancount",
      "version": "3.0.0",
      "format": "beancount",
      "format_version": "v3",
      "level": 4,
      "certified_date": "2024-01-15",
      "test_results_url": "https://..."
    }
  ]
}

Benefits¶

Users: Know what features to expect
Implementers: Clear specification targets
Ecosystem: Interoperability confidence
Quality: Standardized testing