Open Contributions Descriptor (OCD)

The Open Contributions Descriptor (OCD) is an open, machine-readable JSON format that allows an organization to publish a structured description of its participation in the open ecosystem.

It provides a single discovery endpoint describing:

• Open source software projects
• Open data publications
• Open standards contributions
• Governance and participation information
• Machine-consumable interfaces (e.g., OpenAPI)

The goal of OCD is to make organizational openness discoverable, interoperable, and automatable.

The format is described at format.md and described in the JSON schema at ocd-schema.json

Why OCD?

Organizations contribute to openness in many ways, but this information is usually scattered across websites, repositories, documentation portals, and standards bodies.

OCD solves this by defining a single canonical document that tools and humans can rely on.

Inspired by existing well-known metadata standards such as:

• security.txt
• OpenAPI specifications
• SBOM formats
• Mozilla’s historical contribute.json

OCD extends the concept beyond open source code to include the broader open ecosystem.

Discovery Location

An OCD file SHOULD be published at:

https://<organization-domain>/.well-known/open-contributions.json

An example with the MISP Project: https://www.misp-project.org/.well-known/open-contributions.json.

This enables automatic discovery by tools, catalogs, and ecosystem services.

What OCD Describes

Organization Metadata

Basic information about the publishing organization:

• name and domain
• description
• country
• public links

Open Source Projects

Each project can include:

• repository location and license
• lifecycle status (active, archived, disabled)
• documentation and community links
• contribution entry points
• governance metadata
• release and security policy links
• machine-readable interfaces (e.g., OpenAPI)

This enables automated project inventories and ecosystem indexing.

Open Data

Organizations can publish datasets with:

• licensing information
• download and API endpoints
• update frequency
• schemas and formats

Supporting open data discovery and reuse.

Open Standards Participation

OCD allows organizations to describe contributions to:

• standards bodies (IETF, W3C, etc.)
• working groups
• drafts, specifications, and implementations

Making standards participation transparent and discoverable.

Extensions

The format is intentionally extensible:

• unknown fields MUST be ignored by consumers
• organizations MAY add custom namespaces under extensions

This allows experimentation without breaking compatibility.