Digital Karma Change Ledger
A fuller running ledger of the major release, tooling, and standards changes that shaped the Digital Karma Federation.
Why This Ledger Exists
The standards page now carries a public changelog for major releases. This ledger goes one level deeper: it tracks not only version milestones, but also the smaller shifts in tooling, governance language, packaging patterns, and implementation guidance that matter when maintaining a portfolio of AI-readable sites.
Current Release Line
| Version | Date | Status | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
7.1 | 2026-04-21 | Current | Portable installer release with root discovery tightening and repeatable agent-upgrade workflow. |
7.0 | 2026-04-13 | Baseline | Federation major revision with 6 required artifacts, compliance tiers, and structured topology. |
6.1 | 2026-03-30 | Legacy | Early structured AI endpoint baseline before the dedicated federation layer matured. |
4.21 | 2025-11-23 | Archive | Voice optimization, AI-first sitemap hardening, cleaner catalog validation, and dataset auto-indexing stabilized the pre-v7 federation stack. |
Detailed Ledger Entries
Federation audit application introduced on DigitalKarmaWeb.com
Added a public validator and upgrade planner that can audit remote public sites, generate action plans, and export downloadable upgrade packages.
v7.1 portable installer published
Published v7.1-DigitalKarma.md as the portable installer brief for repo-to-repo upgrades and aligned the authority docs around the new root placement rules.
Root discovery rule tightened
Clarified that robots.txt and sitemap.xml belong at the root and should not be relocated into /ai/.
v7.0 federation baseline shipped
Introduced the 6 required artifacts, formal compliance tiers, federation mapping, and the modern Digital Karma badge naming.
Entity and diagnostics patterns documented
Added /entities/ JSON-LD conventions and /ai/diagnostics.json as part of the higher-tier maturity path.
v6.1 endpoint baseline stabilized
Four core AI endpoints formed the original structured baseline before the dedicated federation layer existed.
Digital Karma v4.21 voice optimization and AI-first federation layer documented
Major upgrades:
- Voice Optimization Dataset Layer: Added optional
voiceHintssupport for spoken titles, summaries, primary intents, and preferred pronunciation so voice assistants and read-aloud systems can interpret content more accurately. - Auto-Clean Catalog Structure: Added catalog consistency checks, normalized naming, and dataset health validation to reduce schema drift and misclassification.
- Enhanced AI-First Sitemap Layer: Hardened
/ai/sitemap.json,/ai/catalog.json, and/ai/llm.jsonas the machine-readable index layer for AI systems. - Dataset Directory Scaffolding & Auto-Indexing: Standardized
/ai/datasets/, auto-detected dataset files, and carried version stamps plus optional checksum validation across updates.
How to Use the Ledger
Use the public Digital Karma Updates & Changelog page when you need the high-level release story. Use this ledger when you are updating older repos, tracing why a rule changed, or trying to understand whether a repo is behind in spec language, endpoint shape, or upgrade workflow.