spector

Projects that follow the best practices below can voluntarily self-certify and show that they've achieved an Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) best practices badge.

There is no set of practices that can guarantee that software will never have defects or vulnerabilities; even formal methods can fail if the specifications or assumptions are wrong. Nor is there any set of practices that can guarantee that a project will sustain a healthy and well-functioning development community. However, following best practices can help improve the results of projects. For example, some practices enable multi-person review before release, which can both help find otherwise hard-to-find technical vulnerabilities and help build trust and a desire for repeated interaction among developers from different companies. To earn a badge, all MUST and MUST NOT criteria must be met, all SHOULD criteria must be met OR be unmet with justification, and all SUGGESTED criteria must be met OR unmet (we want them considered at least). If you want to enter justification text as a generic comment, instead of being a rationale that the situation is acceptable, start the text block with '//' followed by a space. Feedback is welcome via the GitHub site as issues or pull requests There is also a mailing list for general discussion.

We gladly provide the information in several locales, however, if there is any conflict or inconsistency between the translations, the English version is the authoritative version.
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These are the Gold level criteria. You can also view the Passing or Silver level criteria.

Baseline Series: Baseline Level 1 Baseline Level 2 Baseline Level 3

        

 Basics 5/5 ●

  • General

    Note that other projects may use the same name.

    Memory backbone for AI agents. Four-tier store — working, episodic, semantic, procedural — with decay, consolidation, and association graphs. Fused semantic + SIMD-accelerated hybrid recall, in-process MCP, REST/gRPC, and language SDKs.

    Please use SPDX license expression format; examples include "Apache-2.0", "BSD-2-Clause", "BSD-3-Clause", "GPL-2.0+", "LGPL-3.0+", "MIT", and "(BSD-2-Clause OR Ruby)". Do not include single quotes or double quotes.
    If there is more than one language, list them as comma-separated values (spaces optional) and sort them from most to least used. If there is a long list, please list at least the first three most common ones. If there is no language (e.g., this is a documentation-only or test-only project), use the single character "-". Please use a conventional capitalization for each language, e.g., "JavaScript".
    The Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) is a structured naming scheme for information technology systems, software, and packages. It is used in a number of systems and databases when reporting vulnerabilities.
  • Prerequisites


    The project MUST achieve a silver level badge. [achieve_silver]

  • Project oversight


    The project MUST have a "bus factor" of 2 or more. (URL required) [bus_factor]
    A "bus factor" (aka "truck factor") is the minimum number of project members that have to suddenly disappear from a project ("hit by a bus") before the project stalls due to lack of knowledgeable or competent personnel. The truck-factor tool can estimate this for projects on GitHub. For more information, see Assessing the Bus Factor of Git Repositories by Cosentino et al.

    The project maintains a bus factor of 2 or more across its core codebase and governance hierarchy, as documented in ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md#open-source-contributors) and GOVERNANCE.md (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md#3-the-4-tier-contributor-ladder). Technical knowledge, code review authority, and codebase maintenance are shared between Project Lead Bharat Joshi (@sbharatjoshi) and active committer Timothy Kim (@timothytkim), who has authored merged contributions across kernel documentation, provider architecture, index diagnostics, and observability, alongside functional team aliases in .github/CODEOWNERS (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/.github/CODEOWNERS).



    The project MUST have at least two unassociated significant contributors. (URL required) [contributors_unassociated]
    Contributors are associated if they are paid to work by the same organization (as an employee or contractor) and the organization stands to benefit from the project's results. Financial grants do not count as being from the same organization if they pass through other organizations (e.g., science grants paid to different organizations from a common government or NGO source do not cause contributors to be associated). Someone is a significant contributor if they have made non-trivial contributions to the project in the past year. Examples of good indicators of a significant contributor are: written at least 1,000 lines of code, contributed 50 commits, or contributed at least 20 pages of documentation.

    The project has multiple independent, unassociated significant contributors from the open-source community who are not employed by or affiliated with Spectrayan Inc., documented in ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md under Open Source Contributors (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md#open-source-contributors) and in the Git repository history. Notable unassociated contributors include Timothy Kim (@timothytkim), who has authored five merged pull requests spanning vector index diagnostics (#936), kernel documentation (#939), provider architecture (#878), and Prometheus metrics observability (#920); Kaustubh Abhinand (@KaustAbhinand), who contributed SQL agent tools (#278) and Gemini provider validation (#354); and Essosolim Joël PAKA (@paka-ops), who contributed Spring Boot starter enhancements (#420).


  • Other


    The project MUST include a license statement in each source file. This MAY be done by including the following inside a comment near the beginning of each file: SPDX-License-Identifier: [SPDX license expression for project]. [license_per_file]
    This MAY also be done by including a statement in natural language identifying the license. The project MAY also include a stable URL pointing to the license text, or the full license text. Note that the criterion license_location requires the project license be in a standard location. See this SPDX tutorial for more information about SPDX license expressions. Note the relationship with copyright_per_file, whose content would typically precede the license information.

    The project includes the official Apache License 2.0 statement at the beginning of each source file (.java, .ts, .js, .py), documented in CONTRIBUTING.md under License Headers (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#license-headers) and codified in the template src/license/apache2-header.txt (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/src/license/apache2-header.txt). The header explicitly cites the Apache License 2.0 and its canonical license URL (http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0). Automated verification runs on every build via the license-maven-plugin (mvn license:check), causing compilation to fail if any source file lacks a valid license header.


 Change Control 4/4 ●

  • Public version-controlled source repository


    The project's source repository MUST use a common distributed version control software (e.g., git or mercurial). [repo_distributed]
    Git is not specifically required and projects can use centralized version control software (such as subversion) with justification.

    Repository on GitHub, which uses git. git is distributed.



    The project MUST clearly identify small tasks that can be performed by new or casual contributors. (URL required) [small_tasks]
    This identification is typically done by marking selected issues in an issue tracker with one or more tags the project uses for the purpose, e.g., up-for-grabs, first-timers-only, "Small fix", microtask, or IdealFirstBug. These new tasks need not involve adding functionality; they can be improving documentation, adding test cases, or anything else that aids the project and helps the contributor understand more about the project.

    The project explicitly identifies small, accessible tasks for new and casual contributors in CONTRIBUTING.md under Good First Areas (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#good-first-areas) and in the GitHub issue tracker via the standard good first issue label (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22). Documented beginner-friendly tasks include documentation and tutorial improvements, edge-case test coverage in spector-core, implementing isolated EmbeddingProvider SPI templates, CLI output ergonomics in spector-cli, and building UI widgets for spector-cortex, backed by first-time onboarding guidance in the 4-tier Contributor Ladder (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md#3-the-4-tier-contributor-ladder).



    The project MUST require two-factor authentication (2FA) for developers for changing a central repository or accessing sensitive data (such as private vulnerability reports). This 2FA mechanism MAY use mechanisms without cryptographic mechanisms such as SMS, though that is not recommended. [require_2FA]

    GitHub requires 2FA as of March 2023. [osps_ac_01_01]



    The project's two-factor authentication (2FA) SHOULD use cryptographic mechanisms to prevent impersonation. Short Message Service (SMS) based 2FA, by itself, does NOT meet this criterion, since it is not encrypted. [secure_2FA]
    A 2FA mechanism that meets this criterion would be a Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP) application that automatically generates an authentication code that changes after a certain period of time. Note that GitHub supports TOTP.

    The project enforces cryptographically secure two-factor authentication (2FA) across its code repository, package registries, and administrative accounts, documented in GOVERNANCE.md under Project Continuity & Redundancy (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md#32-project-continuity--redundancy) and SECURITY.md (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/SECURITY.md). Maintainers and repository administrators authenticate using FIDO2/WebAuthn cryptographic hardware security keys and TOTP authenticator applications (RFC 6238), with SMS-based 2FA prohibited. Automated distribution pipelines (GHCR, PyPI, and npm) utilize cryptographic OpenID Connect (OIDC) token exchanges and scoped publisher tokens to eliminate static credentials and prevent impersonation attacks.


 Quality 7/7 ●

  • Coding standards


    The project MUST document its code review requirements, including how code review is conducted, what must be checked, and what is required to be acceptable. (URL required) [code_review_standards]
    See also two_person_review and contribution_requirements.

    The project formally documents its code review requirements in CONTRIBUTING.md under Code Review Requirements (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#code-review-requirements) and GOVERNANCE.md (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md#2-governance-structure--roles). Code review is conducted publicly on GitHub Pull Requests by authorized Committers and Maintainers designated in .github/CODEOWNERS (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/.github/CODEOWNERS). Reviewers must verify: (1) automated test coverage and regression tests; (2) security and memory safety (no hardcoded secrets, input allowlisting, Panama FFM bounded arena safety); (3) architectural invariants (zero-dependency rule in engine core); (4) performance criteria (zero allocations on SIMD hot paths, JMH benchmarks); and (5) licensing compliance (DCO 1.1 sign-off, Apache 2.0 headers). Acceptance requires passing all automated CI matrix and CodeQL checks, resolving all reviewer threads, and receiving formal approval from the assigned CODEOWNER.



    The project MUST have at least 50% of all proposed modifications reviewed before release by a person other than the author, to determine if it is a worthwhile modification and free of known issues which would argue against its inclusion [two_person_review]

    The project enforces mandatory independent peer review on all proposed modifications prior to release, exceeding the 50% requirement. Documented in CONTRIBUTING.md under Code Review Requirements (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#code-review-requirements) and GOVERNANCE.md (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md#4-decision-making--voting-mechanics), every pull request targeting main must be evaluated and approved by an independent committer or maintainer other than the author (governed by .github/CODEOWNERS: https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/.github/CODEOWNERS). The full history of peer reviews, approvals, and maintainer feedback is publicly verifiable across merged pull requests in the repository (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Amerged).


  • Working build system


    The project MUST have a reproducible build. If no building occurs (e.g., scripting languages where the source code is used directly instead of being compiled), select "not applicable" (N/A). (URL required) [build_reproducible]
    A reproducible build means that multiple parties can independently redo the process of generating information from source files and get exactly the same bit-for-bit result. In some cases, this can be resolved by forcing some sort order. JavaScript developers may consider using npm shrinkwrap and webpack OccurrenceOrderPlugin. GCC and clang users may find the -frandom-seed option useful. The build environment (including the toolset) can often be defined for external parties by specifying the cryptographic hash of a specific container or virtual machine that they can use for rebuilding. The reproducible builds project has documentation on how to do this.

    The project implements reproducible builds in accordance with reproducible-builds.org specifications via Apache Maven's build configuration in pom.xml (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/pom.xml#L189-L191). By declaring a fixed timestamp (<project.build.outputTimestamp>2024-01-01T00:00:00Z</project.build.outputTimestamp>), the build system normalizes file ordering, permissions, and archive entry timestamps across all generated JAR and ZIP artifacts (via maven-jar-plugin, maven-shade-plugin, and flatten-maven-plugin). Repeated compilation of the source tree in the same OpenJDK 25 environment yields bit-for-bit identical binary distributions without non-deterministic drift.


  • Automated test suite


    A test suite MUST be invocable in a standard way for that language. (URL required) [test_invocation]
    For example, "make check", "mvn test", or "rake test" (Ruby).

    The test suite is invoked using standard language conventions: mvn test for the Java Maven reactor, npm test for TypeScript modules, and pytest for the Python SDK. https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#running-the-test-suites



    The project MUST implement continuous integration, where new or changed code is frequently integrated into a central code repository and automated tests are run on the result. (URL required) [test_continuous_integration]
    In most cases this means that each developer who works full-time on the project integrates at least daily.

    Continuous integration is implemented using GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/ci.yml). Automated builds, multi-architecture matrix tests (x86_64 and aarch64), license checks, and property tests run on every pull request and commit to main. https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/actions



    The project MUST have FLOSS automated test suite(s) that provide at least 90% statement coverage if there is at least one FLOSS tool that can measure this criterion in the selected language. [test_statement_coverage90]

    The project uses the open-source JaCoCo tool (jacoco-maven-plugin: https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/pom.xml#L1046-L1048) in its automated CI pipeline in .github/workflows/ci.yml (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L134-L142) to measure statement and branch coverage. Automated test suites—comprising JUnit 5 unit tests, jqwik property-based generative invariant tests, and integration pathways—exercise the codebase on every check-in, achieving and maintaining over 90% statement coverage across core memory layout, decay math, SIMD vector scoring, and kernel persistence modules.



    The project MUST have FLOSS automated test suite(s) that provide at least 80% branch coverage if there is at least one FLOSS tool that can measure this criterion in the selected language. [test_branch_coverage80]

    The project measures and validates branch coverage using the open-source JaCoCo framework (jacoco-maven-plugin: https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/pom.xml#L1046-L1048), executed automatically in CI via .github/workflows/ci.yml (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L134-L142). The automated test suite combines traditional unit tests with comprehensive jqwik property-based generative testing hat systematically explores boundary inputs, bit-flip conditions, and error-handling paths, maintaining at least 80% branch coverage across the core engine and indexing modules.


 Security 5/5 ●

  • Use basic good cryptographic practices

    Note that some software does not need to use cryptographic mechanisms. If your project produces software that (1) includes, activates, or enables encryption functionality, and (2) might be released from the United States (US) to outside the US or to a non-US-citizen, you may be legally required to take a few extra steps. Typically this just involves sending an email. For more information, see the encryption section of Understanding Open Source Technology & US Export Controls.

    The software produced by the project MUST support secure protocols for all of its network communications, such as SSHv2 or later, TLS1.2 or later (HTTPS), IPsec, SFTP, and SNMPv3. Insecure protocols such as FTP, HTTP, telnet, SSLv3 or earlier, and SSHv1 MUST be disabled by default, and only enabled if the user specifically configures it. If the software produced by the project does not support network communications, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_used_network]

    The software supports secure network communication protocols across all network endpoints, using TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 for HTTPS REST APIs, gRPC services, and inter-node cluster replication, documented in docs/architecture/encryption-at-rest.md (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/docs/architecture/encryption-at-rest.md) and synapse/spector-synapse/src/main/java/com/spectrayan/spector/synapse/replication/ReplicationTlsFactory.java (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/synapse/spector-synapse/src/main/java/com/spectrayan/spector/synapse/replication/ReplicationTlsFactory.java). Insecure and legacy protocols (such as FTP, Telnet, SSLv2, SSLv3, and TLS 1.0/1.1) are unsupported and disabled by default by the OpenJDK 25 security provider and Netty transport layer. For remote cluster and gateway deployments, mutual TLS (mTLS) and HTTPS are enforced, while local agent communications default to secure, memory-isolated stdio process pipes.



    The software produced by the project MUST, if it supports or uses TLS, support at least TLS version 1.2. Note that the predecessor of TLS was called SSL. If the software does not use TLS, select "not applicable" (N/A). [crypto_tls12]

    The software natively supports TLS 1.2 and modern TLS 1.3 for all encrypted network communications, documented in ReplicationTlsFactory.java (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/synapse/spector-synapse/src/main/java/com/spectrayan/spector/synapse/replication/ReplicationTlsFactory.java#L46-L50) and docs/architecture/encryption-at-rest.md (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/docs/architecture/encryption-at-rest.md). Cluster node replication explicitly enforces TLS 1.3 contexts (public static final String TLS_V1_3 = "TLSv1.3"), and gateway REST/gRPC endpoints support both TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 through the OpenJDK 25 and Netty SSL engines. All legacy protocols prior to TLS 1.2 (SSLv2, SSLv3, TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1) are permanently disabled at the runtime platform level.


  • Secured delivery against man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks


    The project website, repository (if accessible via the web), and download site (if separate) MUST include key hardening headers with nonpermissive values. (URL required) [hardened_site]
    Note that GitHub and GitLab are known to meet this. Sites such as https://securityheaders.com/ can quickly check this. The key hardening headers are: Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), X-Content-Type-Options (as "nosniff"), and X-Frame-Options. Fully static web sites with no ability to log in via the web pages could omit some hardening headers with less risk, but there's no reliable way to detect such sites, so we require these headers even if they are fully static sites.

    The project repository, documentation website, and release distribution sites enforce key hardening headers with nonpermissive values. The primary code repository and release download endpoints hosted on GitHub (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector) enforce strict HTTP headers including Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains; preload, X-Frame-Options: deny, X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff, and a restrictive Content-Security-Policy with frame-ancestors 'none'. The documentation website hosted on GitHub Pages (https://spectrayan.github.io/spector/) strictly enforces HTTP Strict Transport Security (Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31556952), and the Synapse server gateway in SecurityConfig.java (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/synapse/spector-synapse/src/main/java/com/spectrayan/spector/synapse/config/SecurityConfig.java) activates Spring Security's default nonpermissive header suite (nosniff, frame denial, and HSTS).


  • Other security issues


    The project MUST have performed a security review within the last 5 years. This review MUST consider the security requirements and security boundary. [security_review]
    This MAY be done by the project members and/or an independent evaluation. This evaluation MAY be supported by static and dynamic analysis tools, but there also must be human review to identify problems (particularly in design) that tools cannot detect.

    The project completed a comprehensive architectural and code security review in September 2026, documented in the formal Security Assurance Case & Threat Model (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/docs/architecture/security-assurance.md) and linked in SECURITY.md (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/SECURITY.md). The review explicitly evaluated the system's security requirements and mapped its five core security trust boundaries (network-to-gateway, agent-to-MCP, tenant-to-tenant, JVM-to-native off-heap, and host storage), verifying mitigations against memory corruption, path traversal, untrusted input injection, and timing attacks. This is augmented by automated continuous security reviews in CI via GitHub CodeQL (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/.github/workflows/codeql.yml) and Aqua Trivy container scanning.



    Hardening mechanisms MUST be used in the software produced by the project so that software defects are less likely to result in security vulnerabilities. (URL required) [hardening]
    Hardening mechanisms may include HTTP headers like Content Security Policy (CSP), compiler flags to mitigate attacks (such as -fstack-protector), or compiler flags to eliminate undefined behavior. For our purposes least privilege is not considered a hardening mechanism (least privilege is important, but separate).

    The project applies runtime, memory, and architectural hardening mechanisms to prevent defects from translating into security vulnerabilities, documented in SECURITY.md under Security Guarantees & Non-Guarantees (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/SECURITY.md#security-guarantees--non-guarantees-security-requirements) and docs/architecture/overview.md (https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/docs/architecture/overview.md). Off-heap native memory accesses are hardened using OpenJDK 25 Project Panama bounded Arena lifecycles that enforce spatial and temporal boundary checks at the JVM level, preventing memory corruption, use-after-free, and buffer overflows. Authentication endpoints enforce constant-time string comparisons to eliminate timing side-channels, binary headers enforce hardware CRC32C integrity checksums and strict format-version gates, and container images run under restricted non-root users with pinned base image digests.


 Analysis 2/2 ●

  • Dynamic code analysis


    The project MUST apply at least one dynamic analysis tool to any proposed major production release of the software produced by the project before its release. [dynamic_analysis]
    A dynamic analysis tool examines the software by executing it with specific inputs. For example, the project MAY use a fuzzing tool (e.g., American Fuzzy Lop) or a web application scanner (e.g., OWASP ZAP or w3af). In some cases the OSS-Fuzz project may be willing to apply fuzz testing to your project. For purposes of this criterion the dynamic analysis tool needs to vary the inputs in some way to look for various kinds of problems or be an automated test suite with at least 80% branch coverage. The Wikipedia page on dynamic analysis and the OWASP page on fuzzing identify some dynamic analysis tools. The analysis tool(s) MAY be focused on looking for security vulnerabilities, but this is not required.

    The project applies dynamic analysis prior to release using multiple FLOSS tools: jqwik for dynamic randomized property-based testing and fuzzing of algorithmic invariants, PanamaMemoryDetector for dynamic off-heap memory leak tracking, JaCoCo for runtime bytecode coverage analysis, and automated live container smoke testing prior to release publication.



    The project SHOULD include many run-time assertions in the software it produces and check those assertions during dynamic analysis. [dynamic_analysis_enable_assertions]
    This criterion does not suggest enabling assertions during production; that is entirely up to the project and its users to decide. This criterion's focus is instead to improve fault detection during dynamic analysis before deployment. Enabling assertions in production use is completely different from enabling assertions during dynamic analysis (such as testing). In some cases enabling assertions in production use is extremely unwise (especially in high-integrity components). There are many arguments against enabling assertions in production, e.g., libraries should not crash callers, their presence may cause rejection by app stores, and/or activating an assertion in production may expose private data such as private keys. Beware that in many Linux distributions NDEBUG is not defined, so C/C++ assert() will by default be enabled for production in those environments. It may be important to use a different assertion mechanism or defining NDEBUG for production in those environments.

    Dynamic analysis and testing runs with JVM assertions enabled by default via the Maven Surefire test runner (-ea), executing internal invariant checks and jqwik property assertions. In production builds and container deployments, assertions are disabled by default to maintain zero-overhead performance on SIMD hot paths. https://github.com/spectrayan/spector/blob/main/pom.xml#L748-L758



You can use tools and AI systems to propose changes via a simple URL, such as https://www.bestpractices.dev/en/projects/14829/choose/edit?osps_ac_01_01_status=Met&osps_ac_01_01_justification=GitHub+enforced. See our automation proposals system for how to do that. This data is available under the Community Data License Agreement – Permissive, Version 2.0 (CDLA-Permissive-2.0). This means that a Data Recipient may share the Data, with or without modifications, so long as the Data Recipient makes available the text of this agreement with the shared Data. Please credit Bharat Joshi and the OpenSSF Best Practices badge contributors.

Project badge entry owned by: Bharat Joshi.
Entry created on 2026-09-25 00:58:39 UTC, last updated on 2026-09-25 04:20:39 UTC. Last achieved passing badge on 2026-09-25 01:54:45 UTC.