generated: '2026-08-26'
method: searched
source: >-
  https://www.selenium.dev/llms.txt, https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/webdriver/,
  https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/webdriver/bidi/w3c/,
  https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/grid/advanced_features/graphql_support/,
  https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/legacy/json_wire_protocol/,
  https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/blob/trunk/AGENTS.md, and
  openapi/_original/selenium-openapi.yml — all fetched/read 2026-08-26
provider: Selenium
providerId: selenium
description: >-
  Cross-cutting and domain-standard conformance for Selenium. Selenium is an unusual case: it is
  not a vendor claiming conformance to somebody else's standard, it is one of the parties that
  writes the standard. The project's own llms.txt states it plainly — "Selenium is the browser
  automation project behind the W3C WebDriver and WebDriver BiDi standards" — and the wire protocol
  it implements is the W3C REC itself, implemented independently by the browser vendors.
domain_standard:
  market: Browser automation / end-to-end web testing
  standards:
    - id: w3c-webdriver
      name: W3C WebDriver (WebDriver Level 2)
      url: https://www.w3.org/TR/webdriver2/
      conforms: true
      role: co-author and reference implementation
      evidence:
        - >-
          openapi/_original/selenium-openapi.yml info.description: "Selenium WebDriver implements
          the W3C WebDriver protocol — a platform- and language-neutral HTTP wire protocol used by
          out-of-process programs to remotely instruct browsers."
        - >-
          The captured operation set IS the W3C endpoint vocabulary verbatim: GET /status,
          POST /session, DELETE /session/{sessionId}, POST|GET /session/{sessionId}/url,
          GET /session/{sessionId}/title, POST /session/{sessionId}/back, .../forward,
          POST /session/{sessionId}/element, .../elements,
          POST /session/{sessionId}/element/{elementId}/click,
          POST /session/{sessionId}/execute/sync, GET /session/{sessionId}/cookie.
        - >-
          Request shapes are the W3C ones: createSession takes a `capabilities` object with
          alwaysMatch/firstMatch; findElement takes a {using, value} locator.
        - >-
          Responses use the W3C `{"value": ...}` envelope, visible in getStatus and getCurrentUrl.
      note: >-
        This is the strongest form of domain-standard conformance available: a consumer who already
        speaks W3C WebDriver integrates with Selenium with no bespoke connector, and can swap in any
        other conformant remote end (chromedriver, geckodriver, msedgedriver, safaridriver, or a
        third-party grid such as BrowserStack or Sauce Labs) without changing the wire calls.
    - id: w3c-webdriver-bidi
      name: WebDriver BiDi
      url: https://w3c.github.io/webdriver-bidi/
      conforms: true
      role: co-author and reference implementation
      evidence:
        - >-
          https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/webdriver/bidi/w3c/ documents the W3C BiDi modules
          Selenium implements: Browsing Context, Input, Log, Network, Script.
        - >-
          The monorepo vendors the machine-readable BiDi schema at
          common/bidi/webdriver-bidi-1140.cddl and generates binding types from it — see the
          4.46.0/4.47.0 changelog entries "Add binding-neutral BiDi schema with cddl2ts-gated
          fidelity" and "merge vendor cddl files into shared BiDi schema".
        - >-
          llms.txt: "WebDriver BiDi is the supported route for events, network interception, and
          console log access. The Chrome DevTools Protocol integration is legacy."
      note: See asyncapi/selenium-bidi-events.yml for the event surface this standard defines.
    - id: w3c-webdriver-classic-json-wire
      name: JSON Wire Protocol (pre-W3C)
      url: https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/legacy/json_wire_protocol/
      conforms: false
      status: superseded
      evidence:
        - >-
          Retained only as legacy documentation. Selenium 4 removed the OSS/JSON Wire Protocol
          dialect and Desired Capabilities; llms.txt: "Desired Capabilities were removed in
          Selenium 4; use the per-browser Options classes instead."
conformance:
  - id: openapi
    name: OpenAPI 3.1
    conforms: true
    evidence: >-
      openapi/ carries six OpenAPI 3.1.0 documents (one per WebDriver resource) plus the merged
      source at openapi/_original/selenium-openapi.yml. These are API Evangelist derivations of the
      W3C wire protocol, not a Selenium-published spec — the project itself publishes no OpenAPI.
    published_by_provider: false
  - id: graphql
    name: GraphQL
    conforms: true
    evidence: >-
      Selenium Grid serves a GraphQL query endpoint at /graphql. The SDL is published in the
      monorepo at java/src/org/openqa/selenium/grid/graphql/selenium-grid-schema.graphqls and is
      saved verbatim at graphql/selenium-grid.graphql (schema { query: GridQuery }, 4 root fields,
      enum Status { UP DRAINING DOWN }, scalar Uri). Documented at
      https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/grid/advanced_features/graphql_support/
    published_by_provider: true
  - id: oauth2
    name: OAuth 2.0
    conforms: false
    evidence: >-
      No OAuth anywhere. The W3C WebDriver protocol defines no authentication; Selenium Grid
      offers HTTP Basic (--username/--password) and a shared registration secret header. See
      authentication/selenium-authentication.yml.
  - id: oidc
    name: OpenID Connect
    conforms: false
    evidence: /.well-known/openid-configuration returned 404 on www.selenium.dev (2026-08-26).
  - id: rfc9457
    name: RFC 9457 Problem Details
    conforms: false
    evidence: >-
      WebDriver uses its own error envelope — an HTTP status plus
      {"value":{"error":"<code>","message":"...","stacktrace":"..."}} — defined by the W3C spec, not
      application/problem+json. See errors/selenium-problem-types.yml.
  - id: idempotency
    name: Idempotency keys
    conforms: false
    evidence: >-
      No Idempotency-Key header. Idempotency in WebDriver is a property of the verb, not a header:
      GET/DELETE reads and teardowns are naturally idempotent, POST navigation and clicks are not.
      See conventions/selenium-conventions.yml.
  - id: pagination
    name: Pagination
    conforms: false
    evidence: >-
      Not applicable. Every collection response (findElements, getCookies, GraphQL nodesInfo) is
      returned whole; the collections are bounded by the browser session, not by a page cursor.
  - id: opentelemetry
    name: OpenTelemetry distributed tracing
    conforms: true
    evidence: >-
      https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/grid/advanced_features/observability/ documents Grid 4
      as instrumented for distributed tracing (traces, spans, span attributes, events) and
      structured event logging across its distributed components.
  - id: semver
    name: Semantic versioning
    conforms: false
    evidence: >-
      AGENTS.md states it outright: "This project does not follow semantic versioning (semver);
      before removing public functionality, mark it as deprecated with a message pointing to the
      alternative." What the project DOES guarantee is a compatibility invariant — "users upgrade by
      changing only the version number" — with public functionality removable only after passing
      through the deprecation policy. Version numbers move in lockstep across all five bindings
      (4.47.0 on 2026-08-10), so the number is a coordinated release train, not a SemVer contract.
    source: https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/blob/trunk/AGENTS.md
certifications: []
compliance_programs: []
note: >-
  No certifications, audit reports or compliance programs are published. Selenium is a volunteer
  open-source project under the Software Freedom Conservancy that ships software people run
  themselves; it operates no service that could carry SOC 2, ISO 27001 or similar. No `Compliance`
  pointer is emitted, because there is no compliance program to point at.