Verification & Certification
Certification marks and trust registries
A registry entry exposes both a rendered trust badge and a machine-readable code in the product interface, so a user reads the badge and an agent queries the code.
The badge is for the user reading a product page; the mark is for their agent, which checks the registry before relying on a tool. Both resolve to the same record, so neither can drift from the other.
Nutrition labels for AI tools and datasets
A fixed label component carries five required fields, with a sector-specific extension for higher-risk domains, so a tool that processes public data or advises users discloses a minimum field set.
A higher-risk decision-support tool, such as a debt calculator, carries the same five fields plus a sector extension: the tested error rate against reference cases, known failure modes, the population the test data covers, and the date of the last independent check. That is the standard’s documentation, not this low-risk label’s — so the label links out rather than carrying it.
‘Accuracy claim’ and ‘last updated’ are the two fields most often left vague. The label makes both explicit and checkable.
Software bills of materials for user-facing tools
A live status badge is driven by continuous SBOM evaluation rather than a static certificate, so the trust signal reflects current supply-chain risk instead of approval-day state.
The signal covers the supply chain only: the components and their known vulnerabilities. Whether the tool’s method is sound is a separate question, answered by accuracy testing.
Risk-proportionate review of civic tools
A submission pipeline routes informational tools through automated checks and decision-support tools through additional human review, so review burden scales with consequence.
- Automated checks
Disclosure label complete · no undeclared data collection · passed in 4 minutes
- Human reviewNot required
Not required for informational tools
- Listed
Live in the registry with its label and mark
Every check above links to the published criterion it applies. You can read exactly what will be reviewed before you submit, and if your tool is rejected, you’ll be told which criterion it failed.
Review checks behavior against the stated policies. It does not test whether the outputs are true. That is accuracy testing, a separate duty for decision-support tools.
Lifecycle certification for tools that advise users
An intake step classifies a tool by its intended purpose and the consequence of its outputs, setting its certification obligations from what the tool claims to do rather than whether it contains AI.
What is the tool’s intended purpose?
Your answer sets the certification tier. Whether the tool uses AI does not matter.
Select the tool’s role to see its tier.
Higher tiers keep their obligations after approval. Monitoring on live use continues after launch.
From voluntary framework to certifiable standard
A tiered self-assessment converts a tool's coverage of a regulator-referenced risk-management framework into a certification level, supplying the pass/fail tiers the framework itself leaves undefined.
The framework names the discipline; the tiers make it enforceable. A readiness check that maps to a public pass/fail line is auditable. One that maps to nothing cannot be checked.
Grounding and source attribution in AI outputs
Each factual claim in the answer carries an inline citation backed by a typed read-only function call, so a substantive answer about government data is retrieved from the source rather than generated.
The figures are retrieved from the record, never generated. If a claim can’t be cited, it isn’t stated. The same source information travels with the answer as machine-readable data.
Lightweight certification for the long tail
A single-screen self-declaration flow emits a standardized nutrition label and registry entry with no third-party gate, so the lowest tier is achievable by a solo developer in a weekend.
Certify your tool
Two questions about consequence set your tier. Most community tools finish at Tier 1.
Answer both questions to see the tier your tool routes to.
A scheme only the well-funded can complete certifies the largest vendors and shuts out everyone else. Tier 1 keeps the community tools people rely on inside the system, visible and labeled.
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