UVC naming
Universal Value Codes (UVC tokens, the VCP/I identity tokens) give every constitution a human-readable name built from its domain, approach, role, and version. Every issuer follows the same scheme, and core names mean the same thing wherever they appear.
Token format
A UVC token has three to ten dot-separated segments, with optional version
and namespace suffixes. The first segment is the domain, the last is the
role, and the one before the role is the approach. Any segments in between
form a path, which usually names the owner, as acme does in company.acme.legal.compliance.
domain.[path.]approach.role[@version][:namespace]What each part means
Read left to right, the parts narrow from a broad area of concern to the specific job the constitution does.
| Component | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
domain | The broad area of concern. Outside the core, it is the tier prefix. | family, work, health, company, user |
path | Middle segments (optional), usually naming the owner | acme, educators, nell |
approach | How values are applied within the domain, or the specialty | safe, strict, cautious, legal |
role | The specific function the constitution fulfills | guide, compliance, tutor, moderator |
version | Semantic version (optional), pinned or ranged | @1.2.0, @^1.2.0, @latest |
namespace | Uppercase label (optional) for a context the token declares, such as a regulator. It grants no authority. | :SEC, :NHS, :GDPR |
Governance tiers
The first segment of a token decides its governance tier. Core tokens
start with a reserved domain such as family or health. Every other tier starts with a prefix such as company., community. or user., and
the tokens under it belong to the organization, group or person named
next.
Core
reserved domainReserved domains such as family, work and health, which mean the same thing everywhere. VCP governance is interim, and no consortium has been formed to steward them.
family.safe.guide@1.0.0Organizational
company.*Governed by an organization. Scoped to corporate policies and industry regulations.
company.acme.legal.compliance:SECCommunity
community.*Governed by a community group. Shared norms for specific interest groups or movements.
community.educators.socratic.tutor@2.1.0Personal
user.*Governed by an individual. Custom constitutions for personal use or experimentation.
user.nell.creative.writer@1.0.0Resolution
A UVC token can be written as a creed:// URI naming its
issuer. Your application's registry adapter decides where the signed
bundle is fetched from. VCP does not run a central resolver.
Token
family.safe.guide@1.2.0URI
creed://creed.space/family.safe.guide@1.2.0Path mapping
After the issuer, the token keeps its dots: family.safe.guide stays /family.safe.guide,
and serializers must not turn the dots into slashes. The version
follows an @, never a query parameter. Receivers may
still accept the older slash form, /family/safe/guide, and
convert it back to dots.
Namespace suffix
The :SEC namespace suffix is not part of the URI. company.acme.legal.compliance:SEC becomes creed://acme.com/company.acme.legal.compliance, and the
application carries SEC separately.
Version resolution
In the draft VCP/I registry API, a request with no version resolves to @latest, the most recent stable release
(@canary includes pre-releases). A range such as @^1.2.0 accepts 1.2.0 or any later release compatible with it.
No public registry operates yet. For deployment, pin an exact version
(@1.2.0) in your application policy, because a published
release never changes.
Examples
Illustrative tokens from each tier, broken into their parts. The guided
demos on this site use simpler three-part ids such as personal.balanced.guide and techcorp.career.advisor. Those are local demo names. They
follow the dotted form but not the VCP/I prefix table, where personal
tokens use user.<name> and organizational ones company.<org>.
family.safe.guide@1.2.0A core family-safety constitution for guiding children's AI interactions. Age-appropriate filtering, gentle redirection, parental reporting.
company.acme.legal.compliance:SECAn illustrative Acme Corp token for a declared SEC-related policy set. The name does not establish regulatory approval, correct enforcement, or compliance.
community.educators.socratic.tutor@2.1.0A community-maintained tutoring constitution for STEM teachers, built on Socratic questioning. Encourages exploration and worked examples.
health.cautious.advisor@1.0.0A core health constitution. Conservative approach: always recommends professional consultation, avoids diagnosis, respects privacy.
user.nell.creative.writer@1.0.0A personal constitution for creative writing assistance. Prioritizes voice preservation, avoids over-editing, encourages experimentation.
Try a token
Paste a UVC token into the Playground's Identity Validator to see how it parses.