The Integrity Framework · v1.0
A trust framework for sub-enterprise AI tools.
Built around five recurring failure modes that have destroyed compliance and trust-adjacent categories before: trust-arbitrage failure, theater versus substance, conflict-of-interest, black-box AI, and velocity-over-rigor. The framework names them so they can be defended against by name.
Three operational layers. Six pre-build vetoes. Seven architectural constraints. Seven operational guardrails. Plus an eight-layer moat model used as decision criteria for product portfolio fit.
Where the spec lives
The canonical v1.0 text lives at /framework/v1. That is the frozen citation URL — wording stable, future revisions ship under /v2, /v3, and so on, with v1 left intact for everything operating against it.
v1.0 was first published at claritylift.ai/framework while this site was being built. The canonical home moved here on 2026-04-28; the prior URL remains valid via redirect, and the v1.0 wording is unchanged.
This site is the directory, not the spec
The Integrity Framework Directory ( theintegrityframework.org) is the adoption surface: a public list of products evaluated against the framework, with a tier badge per listing. The framework is the spec; the directory is what makes adoption legible.
See methodology for how the directory evaluates listings, listings for the products currently in the directory, and submit to propose a listing for your own product.
Forkable
The framework is published under CC BY 4.0. Fork it. Adapt it. Run a different directory under it. The framework's value is in adoption; locking it down would defeat the purpose. The only request: keep the version-and-changelog discipline. A framework that drifts silently is the failure mode the framework defends against.
How the framework evolves
The framework is run, not just published. Its base manifest carries a public revision history at /framework/audit-log — every revision is driven by a real product audit, never speculation. Nine revisions across two days during the first portfolio audit cycle (v1.2.0 → v1.10.0).
Six case studies live at /framework/cases. One external (Delve, walking a publicly-reported failure through the framework — teaching material, citing public reporting only) and five internal portfolio audits: FieldLedger, ClarityLift, IdeaLift, Hireposture, and marketing-agent. Each case publishes the headline finding, layer summary, framework revisions triggered, and links to the in-repo INTEGRITY.md and full compliance matrix.
Why does the framework look like this?
The reasoning behind v1.0 — the five failure modes it's reverse-engineered from, why three operational layers, why these specific six pre-build vetoes, and why the whole thing is published openly — lives at /framework/why. Read that if you're considering forking the framework or evaluating it for your segment.
Source
The directory's source, the listing schema, the integrity-cli, and the deploy pipeline all live in a public repo: github.com/Startvest-LLC/theintegrityframework. The directory is itself a product evaluated against the framework — see this site's INTEGRITY.md for that self-mapping.