frontmattering 0.4.2

Governed frontmatter, freshness tethers, and validate-only runtime gates for agent-facing Markdown

Frontmattering

Frontmattering makes Markdown safer for agents.

It adds governed frontmatter, task routing, body/frontmatter freshness tethers, and a vendorable validate-only runtime gate so an agent can consume a compact brief without silently relying on stale documentation.

Install from a local distribution

python -m pip install frontmattering-0.4.2-py3-none-any.whl
frontmattering --version
frontmattering doctor

First-hour path

frontmattering init docs --set-id MYDOCS --title "My docs"
frontmattering promote docs/INDEX.md --profile router --in-place
frontmattering promote docs/*.md --profile guide --in-place
frontmattering tether update --add docs
frontmattering validate docs
frontmattering brief docs

For strict freshness enforcement, set validation_profile: trust in .frontmattering/project.yaml, then run:

frontmattering validate docs
frontmattering brief docs

Runtime gate

frontmattering runtime pack --out frontmattering-runtime.pyz
python frontmattering-runtime.pyz validate docs --format json

The runtime artifact is validate-only. It does not expose init, promote, new, index, tether update, or authoring surfaces.

License

Frontmattering is source-available. It is free for individual natural persons within the scope of LICENSE.md. Professional, organizational, commercial, client, employer, CI/CD, hosted, managed-service, platform, consulting, or revenue-connected use requires a paid commercial license.

Frontmattering is not open-source software under the Open Source Definition because professional and organizational use is restricted without a commercial license.

Runtime dependency status is recorded in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md; project notices are recorded in NOTICE.

Claim boundary

A FRESH brief means the current body bytes and canonical trust-bearing frontmatter fields match their mechanical tether. It does not prove semantic summary correctness, human approval, external adoption, or production suitability.

A STALE or UNTETHERED summary must not be relied on without reading the body.

Publication status

This v0.4.2 package is a PyPI-clear technical candidate after license/notice cleanup. Custom license text should still receive legal review before paid commercial sales.