iamf-sentinel — the free IAMF conformance check the ecosystem doesn't have

Code comments throughout cite an internal numbered design docset (doc NN), ADRs, and pre-registered expectation labels — DESIGN-NOTES.md explains the notation and indexes every cited document.

One line for CI: iamf-sentinel tells your pipeline whether an IAMF file is correct — structurally, semantically, and against a platform profile — and returns a stable exit code and a citable list of check IDs. Pure standard-library Python; drops into any CI job with no procurement, no native build, no toolchain.

Scope. Checks are written against the AOM IAMF v1.1.0 specification and ISO/IEC 14496-12, and cross-checked against the AOM reference tools. The tool is spec- and reference-validated, not platform-certified: a --profile name (e.g. youtube) applies the publicly-known shape constraints for that target, not a guarantee of acceptance by that platform's private ingest pipeline. A clean report means "conformant to the spec and the references" — necessary, but not by itself sufficient for any given platform.

Why this exists

A syntactically valid, fully decodable IAMF file can ship with two height channels silently missing and C/LFE duplicated into the surrounds — produced by plausible CLI usage, and passed clean by the encoder, the muxer, and both AOM reference decoders. Nothing in the ecosystem flags it. This tool does (check S-201). The encode side self-certifies and the content-QC burden falls entirely on publishers who have had no tooling — this is that tooling, and it is free to run and free to cite.

Install

pip install iamf-sentinel          # pure stdlib, Python ≥ 3.11 — no third-party runtime deps

Run

sentinel validate path/to/file.iamf                       # raw .iamf or IAMF-in-MP4
sentinel validate movie.mp4 --profile generic --format html -o report.html
sentinel validate file.iamf --format json                 # CI: machine-readable findings
sentinel batch ./deliverables                             # directory roll-up, worst-exit for CI
sentinel diff a.iamf b.mp4                                 # descriptor-structure diff (remux proof)
sentinel checks -v                                        # list the stable check registry

Exit codes (the CI contract): 0 pass · 1 findings at/above threshold · 2 execution error. --strict promotes WARN to failing. batch returns the worst exit across the tree.

Validate in a browser — zero install

The same core also runs client-side as a WASM inspector: a single self-contained HTML page that validates and inspects an IAMF file in a browser tab. The file is parsed in-tab and never leaves your machine. Build it with python3 wasm/make_inspector.py (produces iamf-inspector.html); a native-vs-browser differential gate keeps the embedded core finding-identical to this package.

What the free core checks

• L1 — structural (clean-room OBU parser, written from the AOM IAMF v1.1.0 spec). Every read is bounds-checked; truncated or fuzzed input yields a structured finding, never a crash (a 63k-call bounded-fuzz acceptance pass: no hangs, no uncaught exceptions).
• L2 — channel semantics (the corruption killer). Substream topology vs declared layout (coupled-pairs-first invariant), coupled/mono sanity, ambisonics (N+1)²/ACN completeness, dropped/duplicated/spurious substreams, annotation-presence.
• Descriptor-level loudness & container checks that need no decoder. Unmeasured 0.0 loudness, stereo-only loudness on multichannel programs, declared clipping, RFC 6381 codec-string casing, IAMF brand / fast-start / sample-entry, ISO-BMFF iacb extraction so L1/L2 run on IAMF-in-MP4 exactly as on raw .iamf.
• The CI contract. Stable check-ID taxonomy (S-1xx structural / S-2xx semantic / S-3xx loudness / S-4xx container), FAIL/WARN/INFO severities, json | text | html reports, and a declarative generic profile. This is the surface you cite: "passes iamf-sentinel S-1xx…S-4xx at v0.3.0."

What's in the Pro plugin (iamf-sentinel-pro) — also free, Apache-2.0

The core reads the file. The L3 rendered QC plugin decodes it and measures the truth (it is a separate package for architecture, not licensing: the core stays stdlib-pure and CI-frictionless; the decoder oracles, DSP, and their dependencies live behind the seam):

• Decode each mix presentation × declared layout through the reference decoders (as subprocess oracles) and measure BS.1770-4 integrated loudness and true peak with an independent, calibrated implementation — catching declared-vs-measured loudness lies that descriptor checks can't see.
• Channel-identity on decoded PCM — catches the pure essence-misroute corruption (descriptor-clean, PCM-scrambled) that even L2 cannot see from the bitstream alone.
• Platform profile packs (e.g. YouTube ingest) and the loudness-measurement calibration that keeps correct files from being flagged at tight tolerances.

sentinel validate --l3, diff --render, and batch --l3 activate automatically when the plugin is installed; without it they print a one-line "requires iamf-sentinel-pro" notice and the free checks still run. See the pro repo's PLUGIN_SEAM.md for the exact boundary.

Fixtures

fixtures/ ships the clean-room IAMF serializer, the mutation suite (topology / drop / dup / ambisonics / truncation), and the corpus generator — so you can reproduce every check and build your own regression corpus. These are part of the free core on purpose: they make the checks auditable and the check IDs trustworthy.

Traceability

F_TO_CHECK.md maps the executed WP1/WP3 failure catalogue to the checks that catch each one — the requirements trail and the acceptance test in one table.

Related projects

• iamf-sentinel-pro — L3 rendered-QC plugin: decoder oracles, BS.1770-4 measurement, ADM fidelity, platform profile packs
• iamf-loom — manifest-driven IAMF packager; every output is gated by this validator
• iamf-adm-corpus — synthetic ADM corpus + harness (the input-side instrument; this validator is the output-side one)
• iamf-sentinel-mcp — MCP server exposing the validator and packager to agent runtimes

License & support

Apache-2.0 (see LICENSE / NOTICE) — and not just this core: the whole stack is free software under Apache-2.0 — this package, the iamf-sentinel-pro plugin (L3 rendered QC, ADM fidelity, profile packs), the sentinel-dsp measurement kernel, and the Loom manifest-driven packager. The parser and all checks are original clean-room works written from the AOM IAMF v1.1.0 spec and ISO/IEC 14496-12; no reference-decoder or encoder source is used or derived. Reference decoders are invoked only as subprocess oracles, and only by the separate -pro plugin.

This is an independent project, not an AOM deliverable; "IAMF" appears throughout as descriptive nominative use of the format name, not as a product name.

Maintained best-effort; commercial support and consulting are available — see SUPPORT.md.