Open at SynOI · built for builders who don't want lock-in
Building agents and don't want lock-in on your governance layer?
The protocol is open and free forever. SRAID, GAP, the OID Resolver, and the receipt verifier are CC0 or Apache-2.0: implement them yourself, fork them, or ship against SynOI's reference libraries on npm today. What we charge for is the hosted service underneath, not the format your receipts are written in.
What's open
SRAID
OpenSelf-Routing Addressable Identity Data - L0 object layer
CC0 spec + MIT reference library (@synoi/sraid@0.2.0)
The L0 substrate: content-addressed signed objects (CDRO, MRO, OID), canonical hashing, supersession + provenance. The @synoi/sraid library verifies hybrid Ed25519 + ML-DSA-65 signatures (signing itself happens in the gateway). Same tier as GAP (L3, below): both are open protocols, SRAID is the identity layer underneath it.
OID Resolver
OpenDNS-shaped lookup for content-addressed objects
CC0 spec + AGPL-3.0-or-later reference implementation (@synoi/oid-resolver@0.2.0)
Given an OID, returns canonical locations, revocation status, supersession chain. The reference library ships today. Anyone can run a Resolver against it; SynOI's own hosted Resolver (oid.synoi.systems) is not yet deployed and will compete on uptime + reach once it is.
GAP
OpenGoverned Action Protocol
CC0 spec + Apache-2.0 reference library (@synoi/gap@1.2.0)
Capability declarations, grants, workflows, multi-stage HITL (human-in-the-loop) choreography, channel adapters, L1/L2/L3 revocation, Decision Receipts. The protocol governing the actions an AI agent takes through it.
Receipt Verifier
OpenVerify any Decision Receipt against a published key
CC0 spec + Apache-2.0 libraries (@synoi/verify@0.2.0, @synoi/verify-core@0.1.0)
Verifies the hybrid Ed25519 + ML-DSA-65 signature on any receipt, no SynOI account required. Verify an exported bundle or a key you hold and there is no network call to SynOI; the quick npx @synoi/verify against a receipt ID fetches the receipt and key from the gateway (internally consistent).
On the roadmap (not yet shipped)
The following will be open once built. They are not yet available as libraries or APIs.
Inference Broker API
RoadmapGoverned ML dispatch surface
CC0 spec (in development)
Capability-gated NPU/GPU/CPU/cloud dispatch with power policy, per-inference Decision Receipts, and SCG-signed model registry. @synoi/broker is an early-stage package with a wrap() API; it is not one of SynOI's published npm packages, and automatic cloud-LLM cost-arbitrage is an idea it targets, not a capability it reliably delivers today. The full device-dispatch + power-policy spec is a paper design that has not yet been built. No @synoi/inference-client library exists yet.
What stays proprietary
Three things are SynOI's actual competitive moat. Opening these would commoditize the company.
Resonance
ProprietaryThe proprietary similarity-retrieval engine: provenance weighting, multi-signal ranking, multi-modal indexing. Algorithms never published. The named differentiator from day one.
Hosted services
Proprietaryoid.synoi.systems (planned, not yet deployed), Vault canonical tier with OpenTimestamps + Sigstore Rekor anchoring (planned, Q4 2026), synoi-control subscription management, synoi-portal customer dashboard.
Curated content
ProprietaryPremium GAP workflow templates (incident response, equipment-control, voice-approval), compliance pack mappings (NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, HIPAA Safe Harbor), the SynOI-signed skill library.
The layer picture
L4 Apps ── Vault Browser, Identity, Quest
L3 GAP ★ OPEN ★ Governed Action Protocol (CC0 spec / Apache-2.0 lib)
L2 Inference Broker ◷ ROADMAP Governed ML dispatch (spec in development)
Resonance ✕ CLOSED Similarity retrieval (the moat)
L1 Vault ★ OPEN spec / ✕ HOSTED proprietary
OID Resolver ★ OPEN spec / ✕ HOSTED proprietary
L0 SRAID ★ OPEN ★ Self-Routing Addressable Identity Data (CC0 spec / MIT lib)Every layer that's open can be implemented independently. Every layer that's closed delivers value that's hard to replicate without years of investment.
Why open?
Enterprise procurement increasingly demands open standards. "Is this an open protocol or vendor lock-in?" comes up in every serious RFP for AI governance tooling. Closed protocols lose those RFPs. Open standards with the best reference implementation win them.
Standards adherence creates the ecosystem. When third-party apps integrate against open GAP, every new integration increases the value of being on SynOI's reference implementation, because ours has the most-tested dispatcher, the curated content library, and the proprietary Resonance retrieval underneath.
Resonance is the moat, not the protocols. Opening SRAID + GAP + Resolver costs us little - those are data shapes and state machines. Resonance is proprietary similarity-ranking that's hard to clone without re-doing the tuning work. Keeping the moat where the work is.
The precedent
PostgreSQL+Supabase / Neon
Open database, paid hosted service. Same database, different value.
Terraform+Terraform Cloud
Open IaC, paid orchestration + collaboration layer.
OAuth2 / OIDC+Okta / Auth0
Open identity protocols, commercial implementations win on integrations + reliability.
MQTT / HomeKit / Matter+Vendor implementations
Open IoT protocols. Vendors compete on hardware quality, not protocol lock-in.
ActivityPub+Mastodon hosting providers
Open federated social protocol, paid hosting layer.
HTTP / HTML+AWS / Cloudflare
Open web protocols, hosting + edge services win on operational excellence.
Build with us
The specs live in our published specs. Read them. Implement them. Fork them. The license is CC0 (public domain, no attribution required).
The reference TypeScript libraries (@synoi/sraid@0.2.0 MIT, @synoi/oid-resolver@0.2.0 AGPL-3.0-or-later, @synoi/gap@1.2.0 Apache-2.0, @synoi/verify@0.2.0 + @synoi/verify-core@0.1.0 Apache-2.0) are all available on npm today. The GAP spec itself is CC0; the @synoi/gap reference library is Apache-2.0.
The reference SynOI Gateway implementation is dual-licensed: AGPL-3.0-or-later for open-source deployments; a commercial license is available for proprietary use. Contact us for commercial licensing.
For substantive protocol changes, follow the RFC process in get in touch.
Trademark notice
Open protocols don't mean open brand. The names SynOI, SynOI Vault, SynOI Resonance, SynOI Gateway, SynOI Identity are trademarks of Foundation X, LLC. The CC0 dedication on the specs does notgrant trademark rights. If you implement GAP, you can say "this is a GAP implementation." You cannot say "this is SynOI" or "this is SynOI-compatible" without a separate trademark agreement.