pact-spec

An open specification for machine-evaluable commitments.

Read the spec →

---

What is Pact?

Pact is a minimal primitive for structuring agreements that require judgment to evaluate.

Smart contracts handle deterministic conditions. Legal contracts handle human interpretation. Pact sits in between: structured enough for machines (including AI) to evaluate, flexible enough for real-world agreements where disputes are possible.

{
   "pact": {
      "version": "0.2",
      "parties": [
         { "id": "0xClient...", "role": "client" },
         { "id": "0xProvider...", "role": "provider" }
      ],
      "terms": {
         "description": "Design a logo",
         "acceptance_criteria": [
            "Delivers 3 distinct concepts",
            "Includes source files",
            "One round of revisions"
         ]
      },
      "resolver": {
         "type": "ai",
         "endpoint": "https://resolver.example.com"
      }
   }
}

Why Pact?

System	Handles
Smart Contracts	Deterministic conditions
Cicero/Accord	Computable legal logic
Pact	Judgment-requiring commitments

If your criteria are fully computable, use a smart contract. If they require interpretation, "deliver quality work", "complete the feature", "act in good faith", use Pact.

Spec Contents

• Overview — What Pact is and why
• Specification — Full schema
• Examples — Concrete pacts
• Resolvers — How arbitration works

Run Locally

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/bayological/pact-spec.git
cd pact-spec

# Install
npm install

# Dev server
npm run dev

# Build static site
npm run build

# Preview build
npx serve out

Deploy

The site is a static Next.js export. To deploy to GitHub Pages:

npm run build

Then push the out/ directory to the gh-pages branch, or use the included GitHub Action.

Status

Current version: 0.1.0-draft

This is an early-stage specification. Feedback is welcome.

Contributing

Feedback, issues, and PRs welcome.

1. Open an issue to discuss changes
2. Fork and create a branch
3. Submit a PR with a clear description

Related Work

• Ricardian Contracts — Legal prose + cryptographic hashes
• Accord Project / Cicero — Computable legal contracts

License

MIT