Amendments
This constitution may be amended as the AEGIS architecture develops and operational experience reveals new governance requirements.
Amendment Process
Section titled “Amendment Process”Constitutional amendments must follow the AEGIS RFC process:
- Proposal — RFC submitted with proposed change and detailed rationale
- Community Review — Public comment period (minimum 30 days for substantive changes; 14 days for clarifications)
- Impact Analysis — Assessment of effects on existing implementations, citations, and backward compatibility
- Approval — Consensus of AEGIS Initiative maintainers and community contributors
- Effective Date — Transition period for implementation updates (minimum 6 months for breaking changes)
Versioning
Section titled “Versioning”The constitution follows semantic versioning:
| Version | Meaning |
|---|---|
| X.0.0 | Breaking changes to constitutional principles |
| 0.X.0 | New articles or non-breaking clarifications |
| 0.0.X | Editorial corrections |
Version History
Section titled “Version History”| Version | Status | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| v0.1.0 | Active — superseded by v0.2.0 for new citations | 2026-03-05 | Initial eight-article constitution |
| v0.2.0 | Current | 2026-03-15 | Eleven articles; four renamed (II, IV, V, VIII); three added (IX, X, XI); constitutional register adopted |
Backward Compatibility
Section titled “Backward Compatibility”v0.1.0 remains the version of record for documents citing it prior to 2026-03-15, including the NIST AI RMF position statement submitted March 7, 2026. Those citations are valid and unaffected by this revision. v0.2.0 is the canonical version for all new citations from this date forward.
The eight articles established in v0.1.0 are carried forward in v0.2.0. Four articles have been renamed to better reflect their constitutional commitments; each renamed article notes its prior title. Three articles have been added. No article has been removed. No constitutional commitment established in v0.1.0 has been weakened or eliminated.
Documents citing v0.1.0 article names and numbers remain valid. The commitments those citations reference are present in v0.2.0, either under the same name or under the noted renamed title.