DEV Community

Arun KT
Arun KT

Posted on

Every era creates its file format. AI doesn't have one yet.

Print gave us PDF. Photography gave us JPEG. Music gave us MP3.

The AI era generates more content than any previous era — but has no format to carry
trust, provenance, or verification with that content.

Today I'm releasing AKF — Agent Knowledge Format. Open source. Open spec.

What is it?

AKF is EXIF for AI. ~15 tokens of JSON that embed directly into any file:

  • Trust scores — how reliable is this content? (0-1)
  • Source provenance — where did it come from? (SEC filing → analyst → AI summary)
  • Security classification — who can see it? (public, internal, confidential)
  • AI attribution — which model generated it?
  • Compliance metadata — does it meet EU AI Act, SOX, NIST requirements?

Install

pip install akf          # Python
npm install akf-format   # TypeScript
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

30-Second Demo

# Stamp a file
akf stamp report.md --agent claude --evidence "generated from quarterly data"

# See what's inside
akf inspect report.md

# Check compliance
akf audit report.md --regulation eu_ai_act

# Embed into Word
akf embed report.docx
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Zero Touch

eval "$(akf shell-hook)"
# Now every file Claude, ChatGPT, OpenClaw, Aider, Ollama creates is auto-stamped
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Why Now

The EU AI Act Article 50 takes effect August 2, 2026. AI-generated content
published for public interest must carry transparency metadata. Penalties: up to
€35M or 7% of global turnover.

Colorado's SB 205 follows on June 30, 2026. DORA is already enforced.

AKF maps directly to these requirements. One command gives you a compliance report.

Integrations

Ships with integrations for LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, MCP (Model Context
Protocol), VS Code, and GitHub Actions.

Links

Open source. MIT licensed. Feedback welcome.

Top comments (0)