Standards
SAIHM is an open specification for Sovereign AI Horizontal Memory — a memory-layer protocol intended as a peer of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool layer. It is published for community review through several open standards forums in parallel. No SDO has yet adopted it; the page below records each track and its current state honestly.
Position: protocol layer, not implementation. SAIHM specifies the cell shape, identity binding, encryption envelope, audit anchor, sharing contract, and cryptographic erasure semantics that an interoperable AI-agent memory implementation would satisfy. Reference implementation is Apache-2.0 at @saihm/mcp-server; operators are free to build their own.
Status disclaimer. SAIHM is a candidate specification under independent review. It is not an Internet Standard, an ISO Standard, an OASIS Standard, an IEEE Standard, or a W3C Recommendation. The IETF instance is published through the Independent Submission Stream (RFC 4846); per RFC 8730 the document has not been reviewed for, and does not necessarily reflect, the rough consensus of the IETF community. No claim of adopted-standard status is asserted on this page.
Active SDO tracks
| Forum | Track | Cost | Output | Status (2026-05-28) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) | Project contribution — Linux Foundation directed fund | Contribution does not require LF membership | Sandbox → Incubation → Graduated | Not yet submitted. Initial proposal (v1) drafted 2026-05-18; internal review identified three adoption-floor gaps (≥2 production-org deployments, ≥2 cross-organisation maintainers, ≥10 contributors). v2 revision drafted 2026-05-19, pending blocker clearance. AAIF founded 2025-12-09 with MCP, goose, AGENTS.md. |
| IETF Independent Submission Stream | RFC 4846 path — Internet-Draft → ISE review → RFC | Open submission | RFC (Informational or Experimental track) | draft-saihm-memory-protocol-01 posted 2026-05-27, superseding -00 (submitted 2026-05-18). Initial ISE review (fifteen points) received from the ISE editor 2026-05-25; cover-letter response sent 2026-05-26. -02 planned within seven days of any follow-up feedback. |
| W3C Community Group | AI Agent Memory Interoperability CG — convene participants; ratify v1.0 charter | Launched 2026-06-03 | CG Report → transition to Working Group → Recommendation | CG proposed 2026-05-18; launched 2026-06-03 with five founding supporters. Group home: w3.org/community/ai-agent-memory-interop. Next: convene participants and ratify a v1.0 charter. |
| NIST AI RMF | Crosswalk + use-case submission to AI Resource Center | Open submission | Citation as RMF-aligned reference implementation | Crosswalk live; use-case email sent to AIframework@nist.gov 2026-05-18; courteous follow-up ping sent 2026-05-24 (six-day silence). |
| AI Alliance | Community working-group engagement (memory/agent topics) | Open community participation; organisational membership invitation-only | Cross-pollination + reference adoption | Not yet submitted. HubSpot working-group form-fill text drafted 2026-05-18; awaiting manual submission. Targeted working groups: AI Trust and Safety, Application and Tools, Policy. |
| ISO/IEC JTC1 SC42 | Crosswalk to ISO/IEC 42001 (AI management) and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | Crosswalk: open submission; formal SC42 work requires national-body sponsorship | Mapping document; potential New Work Item Proposal via INCITS in future | Crosswalks live: ISO/IEC 42001 + ISO/IEC 27001. |
| IRTF CFRG | Crypto Forum Research Group mailing-list post (HKDF-SHA-256 per-record DEK derivation, operational data point) | Open (mailman subscription) | Mailing-list discussion; potential research-group document referenced by future SAIHM I-D | Post submitted 2026-05-29 to cfrg@ietf.org (subscription confirmed via mailman3.irtf.org). Single technical question on whether RFC 5869 (HKDF) remains the recommended construction for per-record DEK derivation given that NIST SP 800-133 Rev. 3 names neither HKDF nor RFC 5869. Archive: mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/cfrg/. |
| NIST SP 800-133 Rev. 3 | Initial Public Draft — public comment period (Apr 17 — Jun 16, 2026) | Open submission | Comment on public record (FOIA-releasable); possible influence on R3 final | Comment submitted 2026-05-29 (18 days ahead of close) to sp800-133-comments@nist.gov. Seven comments (4 Technical, 1 General, 2 Editorial); highest-value: HKDF / RFC 5869 cross-reference for §5.2 category-2. FOIA-disclosable. |
| EU AI Act Art. 50 consultation | Draft Guidelines on transparency obligations (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 Article 50) | Open (EU Survey) | Response published in DG CONNECT consultation record | Response submitted 2026-05-29 (EU Survey contribution ID c83d1d83-36dd-486a-aca6-2c232ba12641); public-disclosure consent given. Consultation closes 2026-06-03. |
| EU AI Act Art. 6 consultation | Targeted consultation — high-risk classification draft guidelines (Article 6 + Annex III) | Open (EU Survey) | Response published in DG CONNECT consultation record | Response submitted 2026-05-29 (EU Survey contribution ID e555551a-27be-4859-8717-c74997ccd1d5); responses are anonymous per the consultation framing. Consultation closes 2026-06-23, 22:00 CET. |
| OWASP Agentic Security Initiative | Community engagement (Slack #team-genai-agentic-security-initiative); alignment with ASI Top 10 v2026 (ASI03 Identity & Privilege Abuse; ASI09 Memory & Context Compromise) |
Open community participation | Cross-reference in ASI guidance; reference adoption | Engagement plan drafted 2026-05-24; ASI Top 10 v2026 released 2025-12-09. |
| OASIS Open | Technical Committee chartering (Contributor tier required) | $5,300/yr (Contributor <10 employees) to charter TC | OASIS Standard | Deferred pending AAIF traction. |
| IEEE-SA | Project Authorization Request (PAR) + working group sponsorship | Paid (PAR + sponsor dues) | IEEE Standard | Deferred. |
Tracks proceed in parallel. The OASIS Contributor and IEEE-SA PAR tracks are deferred until momentum warrants. Track attributes verified against canonical SDO pages on 2026-05-18 with refreshes for active tracks on 2026-05-24 and 2026-05-28.
Why SAIHM is in the candidate set
The AI-memory landscape has several useful implementations (AgentMemory, mcp-memory-service, Hindsight, Mem0, Letta, Zep, Memori, vector databases). None of them satisfies the full requirements drawn from current regulatory and protocol frameworks (GDPR Art. 17, EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, MCP). SAIHM is designed to. Four hard differentiators set its floor:
- Post-quantum identity binding. Every operation is signed with ML-DSA-65 (NIST FIPS-204). Vector DBs and memory libraries use API keys or session bearers; SAIHM is signature-bound to a holder identity that survives session reset and vendor change.
- Public-chain audit anchor. Every receipt (remember, recall, forget, share, revoke) is anchored on COTI V2 mainnet (chain ID 2632500), block explorer mainnet.cotiscan.io. Independent auditors can reproduce the chain without trusting the operator.
- GDPR Article 17 cryptographic erasure.
saihm_forgetdestroys the DEK and publishes a tombstone with a CID blacklist entry. There is no operator-side toggle that can revive the data; erasure is mathematically final. - Wallet-bound sovereignty. Cell encryption keys derive from the holder's wallet via canonical HKDF (
MPS-PQC-KEY-GEN-v1→MPS-AGENT-IDENTITY-v1). The key never leaves the holder's machine. Operators cannot read cell contents.
Apache 2.0 license. Linux Foundation IP-transfer ready. Already MCP-native (eight MCP tools at the protocol invariant).
Crosswalks (regulatory + protocol alignment)
SAIHM maps cleanly to the leading regulatory and protocol frameworks. Crosswalks below; each is a paste-into-RFP artefact.
- NIST AI Risk Management Framework 1.0 (January 2023; GenAI Profile NIST AI 600-1, July 2024).
- ISO/IEC 42001:2023 (AI management systems).
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022 (information security management).
- ISO/IEC 27018:2025 (PII protection in public clouds acting as PII processors; Third edition, published 2025-08-26).
- EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689).
- GDPR Article 17 (right to erasure).
- NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 (Guidelines for Media Sanitization — Cryptographic Erase) (September 2025).
- NIST SP 800-66 Rev. 2 (Implementing the HIPAA Security Rule) (February 14, 2024; for HIPAA-regulated entities handling ePHI in AI-agent memory).
- Model Context Protocol (Anthropic; donated to AAIF, December 2025).
Crosswalks are operator-friendly: each maps a regulatory clause or protocol requirement to the SAIHM MCP tool, GC layer, or on-chain receipt that satisfies it. They cite the source clause and the verifiable on-chain or repository evidence.
How to support the standardization campaign
Four ways for the community to help SAIHM build standards-track momentum:
- +1 the AAIF proposal. When the SAIHM project proposal lands at github.com/aaif/project-proposals, comment a thumbs-up or substantive endorsement.
- Join the W3C Community Group. Request a W3C account at w3.org/account/request, then join the AI Agent Memory Interoperability CG at w3.org/community/ai-agent-memory-interop/join to take part in the specification work.
- Cite SAIHM in your RFP or CISO checklist. Reuse the consensus-requirements article directly; the ten requirements drawn from GDPR Art.17, EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, and MCP are paste-ready.
- Run SAIHM in your stack.
npx @saihm/mcp-serveris one command. Real adoption is the strongest signal any standards body weighs. Quickstart.
What "Sovereign AI Horizontal Memory" means
Sovereign — the holder owns the encryption keys; operators cannot read cell contents; cryptographic erasure is final.
AI — the memory layer is consumed by AI agents (human-operated or fully autonomous), not human users typing into a UI.
Horizontal — memory that extends laterally across time. The temporal horizon of recall is bounded by the holder's intent — to keep, or to forget — not by the size of a context window, the lifetime of a session, or the lifecycle of a vendor. Reachability of the same cell across MCP-capable agents follows as a subordinate consequence, not as the defining property.
Memory — persistent state with audit, sharing, and erasure semantics. Not a chat history. Not a vector index. A signed, encrypted, revocably shareable, cryptographically erasable cell whose lifecycle is anchored on a public chain.
The phrase is intentionally protocol-grade: it states the shape of the proposed specification, not a marketing tagline.
Timeline
- 2026-05-18. POLICY + STRATEGY cells minted;
/standardssurface live with the first six crosswalks (NIST AI RMF 1.0, ISO/IEC 42001:2023, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, EU AI Act 2024/1689, GDPR Article 17, MCP); Internet-Draftdraft-saihm-memory-protocol-00submitted to the IETF Independent Submission Stream and accepted by the datatracker; use-case email sent toAIframework@nist.gov; liaison email sent torfc-ise@rfc-editor.org; W3C Community Group proposal submitted; AAIF v1 project proposal and AI Alliance working-group form-fill text drafted (neither submitted — see SDO table notes). - 2026-05-19. AAIF v2 project proposal drafted to address three adoption-floor gaps identified in v1 self-review.
- 2026-05-24. Three crosswalks added (ISO/IEC 27018:2025, NIST SP 800-66 Rev. 2, NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2). Five new engagements drafted: IRTF CFRG mailing-list post; NIST SP 800-133 Rev. 3 public comment; EU AI Act Article 50 transparency-obligations consultation response; EU AI Act Article 6 high-risk-classification consultation response; OWASP Agentic Security Initiative engagement plan. W3C CG supporter recruitment package drafted (six archetypes, target 10–15 invitations). NIST AI RMF courteous follow-up ping sent.
- 2026-05-25. Initial ISE review of
draft-saihm-memory-protocol-00received from the ISE editor (fifteen points). - 2026-05-26. Fifteen-point response cover letter sent to
rfc-ise@rfc-editor.org, with proposed -02 text quoted inline for each point. - 2026-05-27. Internet-Draft
draft-saihm-memory-protocol-01posted to the datatracker, folding in editorial corrections; -02 to follow per ISE feedback on the cover letter. - 2026-06-03. W3C Community Group launched — the AI Agent Memory Interoperability CG activated at w3.org/community/ai-agent-memory-interop with five founding supporters.
- Next 2–4 weeks. Send the EU Art. 50 response (deadline 2026-06-03); send the CFRG mailing-list post; iterate the Internet-Draft to
-02on ISE follow-up feedback; send the NIST SP 800-133 R3 comment (deadline 2026-06-16); send the EU Art. 6 response (deadline 2026-06-23); convene the launched W3C CG and begin v1.0 charter drafting; engage OWASP ASI community; clear AAIF v2 adoption-floor blockers; submit the AI Alliance working-group form. - Beyond. Ratify the W3C CG’s v1.0 charter; pursue Working Group transition where a Recommendation track is warranted; reassess paid tracks (OASIS, ISO via national body) on momentum; track ASI Top 10 v2027 referencing.