Phase 5: Specification + standards

[hyperpolymath]

Tracking issue for Phase 5 of the production path. See docs/PRODUCTION-PATH.adoc §Phase 5.

Theme

Work that moves typed-wasm from "good open-source project" to "thing that lasts".

Deliverables

• Freeze a 1.0 specification — normative document covering: the 10 levels, the verifier semantics, the producer obligations, the surface syntax, the bytecode encoding (if any), the runtime hooks from Phase 3. Versioning + deprecation policy attached.
• Conformance test suite at the level of the wasm spec interpreter. Hundreds to thousands of tests covering every spec clause. Producers and runtimes both run against this.
• Multiple independent verifier implementations:
  • Idris2 reference (proves correctness) — already exists
  • Rust production crate (typed-wasm-verify) — already exists
  • At least one third-party port (Go? OCaml? Coq?) — needed to demonstrate the spec is implementable by someone who didn't write it
• Academic publication:
  • Soundness-proofs paper (publishable today; POPL/ICFP/OOPSLA/PLDI)
  • Engineering-story paper (publishable once Phase 3 lands; same venues)
• W3C CG engagement — publish typed-wasm as a community spec under the WebAssembly CG; explore whether the runtime hooks (not the levels themselves) could become a standardization candidate
• Security review — hire a firm to audit the verifier. Critical for credibility.

Gate to Phase 6

1. A working group exists beyond the founding author (≥2 committers with release authority)
2. The 1.0 spec has been stable for 6 months without breaking changes

Depends on

• Phase 4 complete — issue Phase 4: Tooling + developer experience #52

Status when this issue closes

typed-wasm is a settled spec with multiple implementations and academic credibility. Comparable to wasm itself at the CG-published-spec level (not W3C Rec yet — that's beyond this plan's scope).

Next phase

• Phase 6 — Production hardening: issue Phase 6: Production hardening #54