specification: API Commons Conventions
specificationVersion: '0.1'
provider: ACORD
providerId: acord
generated: '2026-08-30'
method: searched
source: >-
  https://www.acord.org/standards-architecture/acord-data-standards ,
  https://www.acord.org/standards-architecture/acord-data-standards/next-generation-digital-standards ,
  https://www.acord.org/standards-architecture/reference-architecture ,
  https://www.acordsolutions.com/solutions/adept
description: >-
  Cross-cutting runtime semantics for ACORD. Recorded honestly and mostly as absent: ACORD
  is a standards body, not an API operator, so there is no ACORD-hosted request/response
  surface whose conventions could be observed. Where ACORD does publish governing rules —
  Naming & Design Rules, Data Representation and Interchange, the Reference Architecture —
  those are named. Nothing in this file is derived from the OpenAPI documents in this repo,
  which are API Evangelist scaffolds pointing at example.com hosts.
surface:
  provider_operates_api: false
  note: >-
    The one real API in the ACORD orbit is operated by ACORD Solutions Group, the commercial
    subsidiary: ADEPT is described as "a real-time, cloud-based digital data exchange
    platform ... With a RESTful API architecture", and status.acordsolutions.com lists live
    "API Service (XML/JSON)" and "API Services / Document Retrievals" components. Its
    reference is not public — access to ACORD Solutions Group API documentation is granted to
    GRLC members and licensed integrators at ASG's discretion — so its conventions cannot be
    recorded without fabricating them.
authentication:
  style: not-published
  observed: >-
    OpenID Connect on Microsoft Entra ID for the acord.org member portal and for every
    /file-download/<uuid> standards artifact. This is portal sign-in, not API auth.
  source: https://www.acord.org/account/login
governing_rules:
  - name: Naming & Design Rules (NDR)
    scope: All ACORD standards
    description: >-
      Published under Global Common Services as "Rules and guides relevant across all
      Standards, including Naming & Design, DRI, AMS SOAP, and more."
    source: https://www.acord.org/standards-architecture/acord-data-standards
    gated: true
  - name: Data Representation and Interchange (DRI)
    scope: All ACORD standards
    description: Cross-standard data representation and interchange rules.
    source: https://www.acord.org/standards-architecture/acord-data-standards
    gated: true
  - name: ACORD Reference Architecture
    scope: Insurance technology implementations
    description: >-
      Structural framework aligning NGDS and the wider standards portfolio to insurance
      business capabilities.
    source: https://www.acord.org/standards-architecture/reference-architecture
    gated: false
  - name: NGDS Definition and Design Specification
    scope: Next-Generation Digital Standards
    description: >-
      Definition and design specification, implementation guidelines and guidance, and an
      API Glossary, updated per NGDS release.
    source: https://www.acord.org/standards-architecture/acord-data-standards/next-generation-digital-standards
    gated: true
idempotency:
  supported: na
  reason: >-
    No ACORD-operated write surface. ACORD defines message contracts; idempotency is the
    implementing carrier's or ADEPT's gateway concern and is not published.
pagination:
  style: not-published
  reason: No ACORD-operated endpoint to paginate.
field_expansion:
  supported: not-published
metadata:
  supported: not-published
request_id_tracing:
  supported: not-published
versioning:
  style: standards-release
  detail: >-
    Versioning is applied to the standard, not to a URL. See lifecycle/acord-lifecycle.yml —
    NGDS Final Release v1-13-0 (May 2026), twice-yearly cadence, trading partners negotiate
    accepted versions.
error_envelope:
  shape: not-published
  rfc9457: false
  detail: >-
    No public error reference. See conformance/acord-conformance.yml. No errors/ artifact is
    emitted for this provider because the only 4xx/5xx responses available to derive one from
    live in scaffold specs.
rate_limit_signaling:
  headers: []
  detail: >-
    None published. See rate-limits/acord-rate-limits.yml — limits are the implementing
    gateway's, not ACORD's.
dry_run_mode:
  supported: na
  reason: No ACORD-operated write surface to rehearse against.
reversibility:
  grade: na
  applicable: false
  reason: >-
    ACORD operates no public write surface, so there is nothing for an agent to take back.
    ACORD publishes message standards; the reversal semantics that matter in insurance —
    cancelling a placement, reversing an accounting entry, withdrawing a claim movement —
    belong to the GRLC message families (GPM, CRP, EBOT, ECOT) and to the carrier or
    gateway that processes them, not to an ACORD endpoint. The GRLC specifications that
    would state any such semantics are behind the ACORD member download gate, so no
    reversal operation and no window is asserted here.
    reversibility, dry_run_mode and idempotency are all `na` for this provider by
    measurement, not by omission.
  surfaces: []
cross_links:
  errors: null
  lifecycle: lifecycle/acord-lifecycle.yml
  authentication: authentication/acord-authentication.yml
  rate_limits: rate-limits/acord-rate-limits.yml
  conformance: conformance/acord-conformance.yml
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com